6.30.2014

Another warm day today - we have to make sure to wear lots of sunscreen and drink lots of water on these kinds of days.

Here Jim is taking a height reading as we get started building forms again.

Then we got to move on to the inside forms - now they are really taking shape!

This is a tricky part - this is our first step down.  Jim has to build side panels to contain the concrete there.

Looks amazing!  You can see the first step down better from this angle.

Once we were done with that portion, it was time to compact the rest of the area that we will do in this first pour.  Jim used the excavator to lift up the compactor...

...and set it down into the footer area.

Then it was onto compacting.

As we started measuring and getting string measured and set to mark walls, Jim wasn't real happy with how close things were on the side wall and wanted a little more room for the drains.  Which meant...back to the chain gang!  By this time of the day, we were a little more in the shade which was good but after working all day in the heat, Jim was pretty tapped out. 

After using the spud bar to scrape off the area he wanted, he had to shovel it out.  I took this picture because this is either one of those guy things or I am totally uncoordinated and weak (which are both true but still).  When I was digging yesterday and had to shovel and throw the dirt up and behind, it was such an unnatural motion for me.  Jim just does it without thinking.

At the end of the day, lots of progress was made.

6.29.2014

Well...today was one of those days that Jim and I looked and each other and thought...Gee, this is fun.  It was close to 90 degrees with not a cloud in the sky for shade.  And we were kind of on a chain gang for a good portion of the day. 

We laid out lines with string and Jim decided that in a couple places he wanted a little more room to work outside the footer.  He was able to scrape a little bit of dirt off with the excavator but then we had to dig it all out by hand.  And there are so many rocks that Jim had to take the spud bar (which weighs probably 25 pounds) and lift it up and pound it down over and over again to try and get things straight and loosened up enough that we could dig the dirt out.  That really takes its toll in the heat.  Plus, it was so warm and the lovely combination of dirt, sweat and sunscreen dripping into your eyes was a real treat!

And this was so scary to watch.  If you look closely at this picture, in order to just scrape a few inches on the back side of this area, Jim positioned the excavator over the already-dug footer area.  Which meant that when he drove over it, the excavator tipped up in back - just about made me have a heart attack!  At least when he repositioned the next time, I was more prepared for it.  Sometimes it's hard just watching!

However, once we got all that done we got to move onto some form work which was very exciting.  The first piece of form is the most important - everything else has to build onto that.  So we did lots and lots of measurements with the tape measure, laser level and old fashioned level just to be sure.

Finally got the first piece all level and set in place!

Jim wanted to compact the footer area just to make sure everything is as stable as possible.  Stirred up just a little more dust and dirt!

Turned our first corner of the form!

And another birds-eye view of the site.

As you can imagine, daily clean up takes quite awhile.  There are a lot of tools to gather up, put away, machines to lock down for the night, etc.  Right now it's helpful because we are keeping the truck down near the site and are working out of it, so we don't have to make too many treks up and down the hill.  But clean up is definitely something you have to factor in time-wise. 

 

6.28.2014

We had to redo some of our markings today - between driving over them and them just wearing off, it was getting hard for Jim to figure out lines.  We now have reference stakes outside the main area so that they won't be disturbed.

Then Jim went back to work with the excavator - this time doing the side where the stairwell will be.

This area still just needs a few inches off so Jim ends up doing more crumbing than normal.

A little clean up of the dirt thrown in the middle was required in order to have room for the excavator to dig the top of this side wall.

 

You can see on the left-hand side of this picture that this area was stepped down 18" again.  The footprint really looks good!  It's basically done for the area that Jim wants to do for the first pour.  Which means that after a little crumbing and cleaning up in areas tomorrow, we'll be able to start building concrete forms!

6.27.2014

As always when confronted with an issue, Jim figures out a way and starts again.  So it was with attaching the meter boxes.  He's got them up now but also ordered some brackets to do even a better job.  They look good!

After that was done, Jim dug the trench from the back of the transformer box up to the front of the pedestal.  He has to get wire and this is heavy-duty, expensive cable.  This way, he can put a string in the trench and exactly measure how much cable he'll need.

Then it was back to digging - Jim and I kind of take turns operating the stick to see how accurate the footer levels are.

I did some more crumbing today to clean out the areas that Jim dug.

The birds-eye view of our footers.  The back wall with all its steps is now finished.  It looks even better than this picture now because after I left, Jim stayed and moved the dirt out of the middle of the site.

6.26.2014

Yesterday was an on/off rainy day - the forecast looked terrible and it was really humid so Jim hated to get started digging.  So he did probably the worst thing you can do when it's humid - trim!  He did a big area and it looks really nice now.  The sticks are where baby pine trees are growing so he tries to avoid cutting those down.

 

He ended up coming home mid afternoon and turning it into a schoolwork day.  We did go out for a walk in the evening but ended up doing the last half in the rain.

 

Jim spent probably 1-1/2 hours on the phone with an electric inspector this morning.  He had talked to him briefly yesterday but the guy was headed out the door and told Jim to call him back before 8:00 this morning.  Once again, we are finding out that some things are so different here than in Ohio.  In Ohio, your permit from the county included all these different inspections.  Here, Jim has to do the wiring from the meter pedestal to the back of the transformer and then has to have it inspected by an independent inspector.  Once that passes, National Grid will come out, open up the transformer and connect everything up - and we'll have electricity!

 

But the phone conversation took lots of twists and turns and turned into this guy telling Jim his life story!  Jim just wanted to run through his plan with someone to make sure of the size of wire and his plan for having 2 different services.  That has already been approved by National Grid.  This guy's fee is pretty pricey - we may call one other guy to see if that's a standard fee or if it varies.

 

Jim started mounting the boxes to the pedestal today but ran into some frustrations.  He bought stainless steel anchors to use but they broke off and caused more issues.  He ran up to the little hardware store in town but they didn't really have what he was looking for. 

 

By this time, Jim got a call from Bobcat.  He had talked to him a week or so ago about the next step up skid steer.  The one we have is great but it's not powerful enough to run a stump grinder or snow blower - both things that we will need on this property!  They have a rental that they were going to sell and they talked about the possibility of a trade-in.  Jim sent pictures and they apparently liked what they saw, the salesperson wanted to come look at it and drive it this afternoon.  So he came and was impressed but he has to go work numbers and they have to work for Jim too! 

 

Then it was back to digging.  Jim is now on the back wall - this is the area that will be stepped up - the lower portion contains the frost wall and the footer is stepped up from there in two different elevations.

Here Jim is crumbing out the first stepped area.

The next step only requires Jim to take 3" or so of dirt off.  That sounds really easy, but with a curved bucket it's tough to just skim off the top and not make a big scoop.  But he's getting it - here he is crumbing out the first section.

This picture shows the two steps in elevation.

6.24.2014

It rained this morning so Jim didn't head out to the land until it stopped late morning.  But he still managed to get lots done!

He first dug an area off the footers where he will put the footer drain - just in case any water ever builds up in the footers, it can just drain off into the woods.

Then he went back to digging the footers.  He got to the end of the first side and turned the corner to start part of the front.  The first pour will be just half of the front, the side and the back.  Since we will need to be able to get a concrete truck in the back, so we can't have an open trench all the way across the front.

Once that was done, he moved to the back wall.  The footprint here isn't just straight so there were a few more angles to cut - which always means more hand digging too.

Here's Jim in the trenches...

 

 

While Jim was working on the footers, I dug out the area where the excavator couldn't reach on the footer drain.  I finally got it done and after we made sure it was going downhill, we laid the footer drain pipe.  



 

 

Then we covered all except the ends with sand and dirt.

This area of the footprint will have a buttress wall for support, so another corner to turn and dig.

This is where he stopped for the night.  The buttress wall area is done - the dirt in between he'll reach as he repositions to start the back wall.

This is the view from the top of the hole looking down over our footers!

6.23.2014

Today was a banner day.  We went to see George, the septic designer, this morning at 10:00 - that's when he said he would have everything ready.  He did septic design plans for both the carriage house and the house and we got to pick them both up.

While we were in town, Jim stopped at the plumbing supply store for a quote on the footer drains.  This was a place he had set up an account with over the winter, so it paid off.  They gave him a quote and said they would get it ready and we could pick it up this afternoon.

Then it was off to the Building Department; thankfully, the guy was there and Jim was able to talk to him.  He said he would hopefully have our permit within a day or two!  We were SO excited - it's been a long wait but it's almost official!

After that, it was back to the steel yard for our last load of rebar.  Jim has to haul each piece from the forklift and get them settled into the cradle in the truck - tough work.  This time, I counted them as he was loading - it looks like we are 2 short on this load too.

All fastened down and ready to roll!

 

 

We went back to the plumbing supply store and picked up our footer drains.  There were a few things that were on backorder but all the drain pipe was there.

Then it was unloading time.  First the rebar - it's nice to have it all on the property!  There is 500 pounds of rebar - 6500 feet!  Whew!

The drain pipe was so much easier to unload after doing all that rebar!  There are 40 pieces in total.

So quite the day - we are so excited about the plans and can't wait to get the permit!

 

 

6.22.2014 - First scoops for footers!

Why is it that smoke detector batteries never die on a random Tuesday afternoon but wait until 4:00 in the morning to start beeping like crazy?  That's the way our morning started.  After taking the batteries out of both detectors (because you can never tell where the beeping is coming from) and going back to bed, the beeping started again.  It ended up being the CO2 detector.  Not much sleep to be had after that.

 

When Jim got to the land, he first spent some time moving concrete forms from up at the top of the property down into the carriage house building site.  We're going to be needing those soon!

 

 

Then we started measuring and completing the final layout markings for the carriage house that we will use to beginning digging the footers.

 

 

This is a view from the top of the hole looking down.  If you look closely, you can see all of our orange markings laying out the footprint as well as all the marks where Jim needs to dig for the footers.

Then we got the laser level out to set our elevations for the footings.  This is a crucial step since the footings are going to be stepped to different elevations because parts of the foundation will include a frost wall and parts won't.  I don't know how Jim figures this out - it was confusing just thinking about it!  He has the area really flat but it's obviously not perfect so he has to figure those differences in when he's calculating how deep the footers need to be.

Here's the first scoop of dirt for the footers!

Making good progress down the side...

Jim kept stopping to dig periodically and check depth and elevation.  I ended up holding the stick for the most part so he could stay in the excavator.

Great progress for the first day of digging footers!