Thankfully, only the pumper truck was there setting up - not the concrete, so we had time to get everything organized.
The happy, clean crew before!
The first concrete truck arrives!
We had the same boom truck driver that we worked with last time, Kevin, so that was great. Here he's putting the boom into place to start pouring.
Jim started in the back corner - once you got up the ladder here, the ladder didn't have to be moved much.
Just like last time, Kyle was in charge of vibrating with Julia as his faithful helper holding the motor and keeping the cord under control - great teamwork!
Jim gave me the rubber mallet and for this first go around, on each of the bulkhead areas, I pounded on the plywood areas to make sure that the concrete got down into all the corners and around all the steel.
Working on the concrete beam over the garage door.
And continuing around the building.
Kyle and Julia followed along, although their job goes much slower than Jim's since Kyle has to put the vibrator into each little cavity. We joked that it was Brown Team (Jim & Kevin) vs the Green Team (Kyle & Julia) - check out the matching clothes!
Unlike last pour, there wasn't any down time between concrete trucks. Kyle and Julia were still working on vibrating.
And Jim had to do the finish work on all of the brick ledges.
Here he is finishing the brick ledges in the back of the building.
Before you knew it, while the first concrete truck was still getting cleaned up, the second truck arrived.
So it was back to work filling up the forms...
...and vibrating the concrete!
Jim had his own rubber hammer and stopped the concrete at all of the beam pockets and did some hammering on the outside to make sure that the concrete settled in all the steel.
On the last go around, Jim filled up the forms to the very top with some to spare - unlike last time, the tops need to be finished and made flat.
No more concrete needed so Kevin emptied what was still in his boom back into the concrete truck.
Then Jim really had to press - the day was warming up and the concrete starts stiffening up pretty quickly. Jim had to flatten the tops of the forms with his trowel...
...paying special attention to all of the beam pockets, making sure they were very clean and flat.
Then I handed him up all of the steel dowels we cut last night and he started placing them.
All of this takes time, so Jim had to move quickly to make sure the concrete stayed workable.
As soon as Kyle was done vibrating, he started helping to trowel the tops of the forms.
Can't forget the brick ledges all around the top either!
Final finishing work - looks amazing! Thanks to all that tedious shoring that Jim spent weeks working on, everything held perfectly and there were absolutely no issues!
By the time the "after" picture was taken, everybody but Jim had had a chance to wash the concrete off our faces so we all look clean compared to Jim!
Once the finishing work was done and the tools all cleaned up, it was time for a well-deserved lunch break. It appears that a new family tradition after concrete is a picture of Julia with some crazy food - today it was maple bacon donuts for dessert - and they were incredible!
Time to autograph the concrete! Jim signs our names...
...and then it's Kyle & Julia's turn.
What great teamwork once again! This was such a great day - we were blessed with fabulous weather and had fun all working together to accomplish this last form pour. We are so grateful to Kyle & Julia for spending the day with us - and on their anniversary as well - Happy 5 Years together!
WOW!!! What an amazing building - looks fabulous!
Of course, Jim still had lots of cleanup work to do. Kevin dumped over half a yard of concrete near the garage doors in case we needed any extra - which we didn't but it's still important to have some just in case. In the picture below, Jim is using the Bobcat to clean up the cement from where the concrete trucks cleaned off - you have to keep going over and over it, waiting for it to harden in between, and turn it back into gravel.
Kyle and Julia had to head back to the city and their bus left at 5:00, so I took them back while Jim stayed and worked on cleaning everything up. You'd never know all that cement was here - Jim got it all turned into gravel and spread out so that this area looks great too!
We are so relieved that this pour went so well. We can't wait to head back tomorrow and start taking some of the shoring off. But meanwhile...everyone will sleep well tonight!
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