8.30.2014

Jim was back working today on finishing the bulkheads on the pilasters.

This is a good picture of all the stirrups and vertical steel inside...

And the same pilaster all buttoned up!

 He's also been doing more shoring on the buttress wall.

This is the last opening that Jim got finished along with the door frame.

Here's a picture showing some of the safety features...flags on all of the posts sticking out so no one trips over them and I put up the safety rails on each of the alignment pieces.

Then Jim got the wood handrails put up on the safety rails.

 

Then Jim turned his attention to getting some vertical pieces of 5/8" rebar cut and placed into the front wall. 

 

 

In this front section, his design calls for a vertical piece every 16" - along the side and the back, it will go to every 12".  That's because there is more dirt in those areas and the rebar in the concrete ensures that the wall will hold back all those forces.

 

Birds eye view - looking very "busy" down there!

 

 

8.29.2014

Jim spent the morning working mostly on the pilaster areas - these are the areas where the beams for the 1st floor will sit on so they have to be really strong because they will carry the weight of the beam down to the footer. 

Jim had to come up with these special stirrups to put inside....

 

...and then tie them into all the webbing and the vertical steel.  I failed to get a good picture of the vertical steel (look for that tomorrow!) but you can see it in this picture inside the pilaster. 

Then he used some of the cold formed steel to attach vertically - again to keep this area strong when we pour concrete.

 

After lunch, Jim wanted to finish making the brick ledges around the back side.  The ladder is better but still looks precarious!  Look at that gorgeous sky - we continue to have beautiful weather.

 

Obviously when you cut the foam like Jim was doing for the brick ledges, all the scrap and the little foam pellets drop inside.  The rep had told stories of contractors letting the scrap build up so much, especially in corners, that it was a huge problem when they started to pour concrete - you don't want your concrete sitting on foam instead of the concrete footer!  So Jim took the leaf blower and blew out all the forms.

It was kind of fun to see all the pellets and scrap come out the openings!

 

Back to shoring up the pilaster areas...here Jim is attaching a plywood bulkhead he made to cover the ends.

Attaching a bulkhead to the buttress wall area.

Fastening everything in place.

 

I had to run a couple errands this morning and went into downtown Saratoga Springs.  Of course, I just had to stop into the wonderful independent bookstore - I liked this stone in front of the door!

 

 

 

 

8.28.2014

Jim had a change in his plans as far as the door frames go.  Although he designed them so that they wouldn't ever be exposed to water at the sill, he decided to go ahead and make them out of treated wood.  We had bought it at Lowe's when we went last night and he was still deciding which way he wanted to proceed.

So today, he took the other ones out and made new ones and got everything all buttoned up again.  Plus look at all that bracing on the new wall section!

 

He has all of the door frames back in place except for the end one where he still needs to do a few things before that one gets installed.

Then....the man door header!  Although this won't be set in concrete until the next pour, it helps to keep everything straight and square.  And it looks so cool too - you can just see the door there!

At the end of the afternoon, Jim switched gears and worked on making his own taper top sections for the brick ledges - cutting out the teeth and tapering the foam inside so the concrete flows to the edges.  He started today in the back - in the squishy section - so he had to work off a totally straight ladder!  As with all jobs back here, it will be easier when he gets to the end where there is more room.

8.27.2014

Now that Jim has the parts he needed, he got busy making the wall section between the man door and the garage door.

It's all done and he's busy doing all the shoring and bracing on this section too.

 

I spent the afternoon cleaning up the foam that Jim had cut out to make the brick ledges and then went around the back and started working on the waterproofing membrane on the rest of the wall - the section that goes on the bottom and the footer.  There were quite a few corners in this section because it's where the wall steps up.  Corners are tough with this membrane and although I felt like I was making a career out of it, I got it basically all finished.

 

We cut the day a little short and had to take the truck into Lowe's to pick up a few more supplies.  Now that we have the safety bars for the alignment system, Jim has to make hand rails too.

Happy birthday, Mom...we love you!!

 

 

8.26.2014

Jim was back at it early this morning - and he had a really successful day!

He started working on the door frame pieces.  Nudura sells a plastic form that you can use to later attach doorframes to, but Jim didn't like it.  He bought wood and then ordered special hot-dipped galvanized lag bolts (if you look closely at the big pieces of wood sticking up you can see them sticking out!).  When concrete is poured inside, these lag bolts will enable the wood to bond to the concrete and the wood will be connected permanently.  Then later, Jim will be able to make door frames and attach to this wood piece.

Then it was back to work on shoring up the forms in anticipation of concrete.  His goal was to get all of the outside done today.

Around lunchtime, Jim's Nudura rep came with the pieces that he ordered wrong to exchange with the ones that we couldn't use.  Jim has been waiting for these speciality pieces so he can build the area between the garage door and the man door.  The rep also brought us another roll of waterproofing as well as handrails that will attach to the alignment system for safety when they are up there working and doing the concrete.

The rep was amazed at the quality of Jim's work - he said he had never seen such precise work on a building before - and this is his job!  He took pictures of all kinds of things to show other people how Jim was doing things.  Since this is Jim's first time using the ICFs, those comments from a professional in the business made him feel good and more confident.

As always, there is lots more to meet the eye - in order to make everything work, some times Jim had to use regular ICFs instead of the brick ledges.  For example, they don't make a taper top corner piece - you have to make it yourself.  So Jim had to carefully cut out keys and then cut tapered pieces of foam out so that the concrete will be able to go into those areas and make a strong ledge for the brick.

Speaking of the brick, we scanned a check to them this morning so our brick is on order and will be on its way!  Whew....glad we don't have to think about that anymore!

At the end of the day, Jim had met his goal - he got the outside done with all the bracing.  So he decided it was a good time to redo the way the windows are stored.  He put two pallets on the ground, put a tarp over the top of them, and then moved the windows to sit on the tarp. 
 

Then he brought up all the edges of the tarp and fastened it to the windows.  That way, it will keep any ground moisture from seeping through.

Then, we covered everything back up with the giant tarp and fastened it.  Now they should be really safe until we can move them inside.

8.25.2014

It was a warm day today and Jim was back working on all the shoring that needs to be done in preparation for this next concrete pour.  There's a lot to do - first, figuring out which sections need shoring, and then figuring out what to do to make those sections strong.

The saw and punch got lots of use in making steel pieces to fasten onto the forms for strength.

This side needed a lot of attention...

Mid afternoon we took another waterproofing break.  This front section had all the thimbles to go around which made it harder, but after yesterday working in the little back section, this area felt huge!

This picture shows the membrane all done in the front as well as the shoring Jim did in this wall section.

 

After we were done with the waterproofing, I came home to let Jim just get some good work time in with no interruptions.  He worked on the backside - I'll have to get more pictures of his work when I go tomorrow.

 

Yesterday evening, Jim cut a little grass before he came home.  This is the upper section where the house will eventually go - sure looks good!

 

8.24.2014

Jim spent most of the afternoon working on shoring up this corner piece.  If you compare this picture with yesterday's, you can see he actually took off the outside alignment channel and put plywood underneath, then put the alignment channel back up.  These plywood pieces extend past the forms - he's going to use them as part of the way he has to do the frames for the garage doors.

Then more steel on the inside - if you look closely on these pieces, he actually bent down the corners so they aren't as razor sharp in case someone accidentally falls into them.  Safety first - always!

Mid-afternoon he took a break and we went back to work on the waterproofing membrane.  He had to come up with a system to go around the pipe so that worked well and we were able to finish this side wall completely.

This it was time for some fun.  The back wall is where the room to work is tiny - and you have to be careful to not create more mess and dirt while you're working.  This was the area that I worked on last week getting the bottom piece done.  Today it was time to do the top pieces.

But good teamwork - we got it all done!  There's still a few more spots we have to do but we are getting close to having the freeze wall all done - then we can put the dimple board on, get it inspected and backfill!

 

8.23.2014

Back to building forms....this is exciting because Jim worked today building up this corner area - so now you can really picture where the garage doors will go!

This was a tough corner with lots of size transitions but as always, Jim persevered!

Putting the last piece in...

Then the alignment system to keep things straight and secure when concrete goes inside.

I did a little site clean up work today - clearing out some of the foam scraps from inside the building as well as trying to get the foam that will be used for the last courses all covered up and organized a bit.

Jim also did a lot of steel, planking and started working on putting plywood up to shore things up for the concrete pour.

8.22.2014

It rained again overnight (just like Camelot!) and today was kind of a misty, cloudy day.  Jim went this morning to the electric supply shop - he wants to make an extension cord to go from the temporary pole down into the site.

Despite the weather, this afternoon Jim managed to get some good work done - besides the openings for the garage/man doors, the entire fourth course is now finished!

While Jim was working, he got a call from the brick rep who brought out the gray sample last week.  This is probably our first choice but it is way more pricey than the black diamond brick from the brick company in Ohio, which is through a different rep.  Jim had emailed this guy this morning and explained the situation.  Well, the rep called back this afternoon and he talked to the main salesman from the brick plant (who happened to be in Las Vegas gambling at the moment!).  They must have a rivalry with the Ohio company - when this salesman found out that we were going with them, he came down on his per brick price considerably - even to put us in the ballpark with the black diamond.  Transportation prices are higher because the gray brick is coming from Iowa as opposed to Ohio, but we have to buy more gray and may have enough to do the foundation of the house with this truckload, which would save us money over having to transport the black diamond from Ohio twice.  The offer is only good until Tuesday so we will make our final decision over the weekend.  Very exciting that they came down like that - our rep said it's unheard of.

On my way home today, I just had to stop right up the street from the apartment and take this picture of the mountains enveloped in clouds.  Such a cool sight.

When Jim came home from the site, he worked here at home making his 100' extension cord.  This will enable him to connect from the temporary pole into the site without using all the different extension cords like we currently are.  When we were pouring concrete, one of them kept coming unplugged while we were using the vibrator, so this will avoid that situation.