6.26.2015 - First Wall!

Still hard to believe that we have concrete when we get to the land - pretty amazing!  One of the best parts is, even though we had a little rain overnight, everything down below was dry!  It's been wet down there for so long because water dripped through, especially over the beams.

Jim built the first wall section this morning!  Because it's just the two of us, he has to do things a little different than if he had another man to help him.  So he just put every other stud in right now and no sheathing on the outside so that it wouldn't be too heavy for us to lift.



I had to run an errand this morning so I missed him building this first section but I was there for the next.  He had to cut a section of track for the remainder of the wall.



He marks where all the studs will go and then starts placing them.  This is different from working with wood where you would attach the bottom plate to the studs through the bottom.  With the metal studs, you have to screw each side to the track. 

Unfortunately, this means that you have to flip the wall over to put the screws in the other side.  With this short wall, Jim was able to do that.  With the first section he built, he will have to attach them once the wall is up.

We struck a chalk line to mark where the inside edge of the wall needs to go.

He then attached a temporary brace to keep everything square.  You can see he clamped his square to the bottom to make sure.

Using metal requires lots of clamps....good thing Kyle and Julia have kept Jim in stock!

Attaching the brace to the top.

Then he had to go around to the front on a ladder and attach a brace to the wall.

He then walked the wall up into place and clamped everything together.

Once everything was aligned, he used the hammer drill to drill into the concrete through the track.  He had to be careful though - the Pex tubing is underneath all that concrete so you can't get to close to that!  He measured the right depth on his drill bit and painted it orange so he would know where to stop.

 

 

More modifications were in order since Jim basically has to do this by himself.  He set up scaffolding on the deck that we will use to help hold the wall in place.



He went down to the back of the building and attached the end of the brace for this wall.

 

Then he lifted the wall...

...clamped the brace to the wall and then rolled the scaffolding over and tied it to the top of the wall to hold it in place.

Then he was able to start fastening everything together.

Using the hammer drill to fasten down the tracks.

Upon closer inspection, we downgraded the grade of B we originally gave to the cement job.  You can see from this picture that the right side of the wall sits nice and flat against the cement.  However, there is a hump in the middle of the first section so there is a gap at the end of the track.  Jim will have to do a lot of what should be unnecessary work to make things level - he'll probably end up taking the studs down and trimming them so that everything is level.  So while we're so relieved to have the concrete down and everything stable underneath, it's a little frustrating.

But you have to press on.  Jim is installing a bridge of track underneath where the two wall sections come together for stability.

Screwing everything together.  Jim has to work in precarious positions on the ladder and screw on the outside walls.

The bridge is all done and the two wall sections are connected.

After that, he went back and started filling in some of the other studs.

Then he is putting a 20' long piece on top of the track which goes over this bridge area and adds support to the entire wall structure.

At the end of the day, it's a wall!

From up the hill, the structure really looks different now!

 

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6.25.2015

This was another early morning - Kyle and Julia wanted to be on the road by 6:30 and we had to leave about the same time to meet the contractors at the land.

Today they put the cuts in the concrete.  Concrete will always crack in a slab and putting cuts where you want them controls any movement so that it doesn't crack where you don't want it to!

They start by making chalk lines....

And then Leigh starts cutting.  We thought he would use a walk behind saw but he said he can be more controlled in the depth using a hand saw.

Done with the first cut and starting the second.

Making the cross section cuts...

Last cut!

Looking good - although a bit dusty!

Jim to the rescue with his trusty leaf blower!

Jim took off all of the curb supports today - it looks so clean now.  He was able to inspect the concrete a little better today - there were a couple spots that he's not thrilled with - one area by where the door will be is a little low and there are a couple places in the front where they went a little higher than the pour stop.  Jim said he gives them a B on their work.  But it's flat and we're so happy that it's in place and all of his shoring held up that 80,000 pounds of concrete!

Here's the back with all of the curb supports and the underneath supports taken off.

Working on taking down the supports underneath on the front....

...and then taking off the curb.

Then it was my job to scrape off all of the concrete spills so that these pieces are clean when we go to use them again.  Right now, the concrete comes off fairly easily - if you wait another day or so, it's almost impossible to get off.

They made a little bit of a mess when they were pouring the last corner since they put concrete right from the truck.  So Jim had to break it up.

The block at the back of the building dried out enough that Jim could continue putting membrane on.  When he took off the plastic that we had in the corner, this little frog was there.  We have no clue how he got up there so high.  We have strange colored frogs - almost chameleon-like.  When we were doing backfilling, we kept finding these pink/flesh colored frogs that blended in with the rocks and soil.  This little guy is Nudura green!

Cleaning this area and getting ready to continue up the back wall...

Working up all the steps...

 

Another great day but we were pretty beat by the end of the day.  Getting up early and having this be such a big event kind of took its toll.  We plan on crashing early tonight!

 

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6.24.2015 - Concrete Day!!

Well...the day that we have been waiting SO long for finally dawned!  The weather forecast was perfect - upper 70s, low humidity, and just enough puffy clouds to block a little bit of the sun from beating down too much. 

Kyle and Julia got in from NYC about 1:30 this morning and we had to be at the land ready to go well before 7:00.  Needless to say, we were all running on coffee, Diet Coke and adrenalin!

About 7:00, the crew starts arriving.

Getting the laser level set up and measurements taken as well as last minute instructions from Jim.

Before long, the pumper truck pulled up the driveway and started setting up.

Extending the beam out over the building.

Just a little after 8:00, the first concrete truck pulled up the hill!

Emptying the concrete from the truck into the pumper.

All the crew is in place and ready to go.

Okay - our hearts are in our throats at this point.  All the worrying about the shoring holding and the multitudes of things that could go wrong come down to this moment when the concrete starts flowing.

If you remember, Jim wanted a little concrete placed in specific sections of each bay over the scaffolding towers below to set the load.  So the first one is done and they are moving to the second.

Then it's back to the corner to start placing the concrete. 

Checking the laser level to make sure the level is good.  At this point, we can breathe a little bit easier knowing that the first concrete is on and everything is good.

Bringing up more finishing tools.

This is a power screed to get everything completely flat.  This crew was very skilled and gave you a lot of confidence watching them.  No one was panicked or rushed - they all knew their jobs.

First part all nice and flat.

Continuing to fill up the first bay.  Meanwhile, Jim and Kyle were checking the status of everything below the deck - making sure that the Pex lines were holding pressure, meaning that nothing was damaged, and making sure that the shoring wasn't stressed and that there were no signs of deflection.  Everything looked perfect!

Using the power screed again...

Time to float the concrete - bringing the cream up to the top and leveling everything off.  Leigh is continually checking levels as they finish the concrete.

Here was the first issue.  They had ordered 19 yards of concrete - the first truck was supposed to be 10 yards and the second 9.  However, after filling up the first bay and starting the second, they ran out of concrete, which definitely should not have happened.  So there was a little bit of panic and at first Leigh told Jim to order 9 more yards of concrete.

Meanwhile, the second truck pulls up and starts unloading while the first truck is in the other driveway cleaning out.

 

Working on filling the second bay.  At this point, Leigh told Jim to change the order to 5 yards of additional concrete, which he did.  The first truck was headed back to the plant and would be filling up and heading back.



Working on the third bay and around all the plumbing, continuing to check levels.



There was a lot of hand finishing around the utilities.



Continuing to work...

 

Once we got to this point, there was still concrete on the truck and Leigh told Jim to see if he could cancel the order because he thought he would have enough.  Unfortunately, it was too late for that - the truck was already back on the road.

 

Floating the concrete...

Almost done with bay 3!

Looking amazing!  We are so ecstatic that we don't even care at this point that we had to pay for another $400 of concrete - it's looking fabulous and everything is solid down below.

Filling up the last area - the stairwell.

This is where they basically ran out of concrete - the whole thing is basically done except for a tiny corner.  So obviously something was very wrong - the first truck could have only had 5 or 6 yards of concrete on it.  Both Jim and Leigh calculated the concrete amount and the 19 yards was more than enough and included extra. 

Meanwhile, the pumper truck starts folding up and preparing to clean.

The last concrete truck pulls in and literally shot a tiny amount in the corner and that was enough.  This will be something that both Leigh and Jim will talk about with their salesman on another day - there was no reason for there not to be enough concrete and the first truck obviously didn't have the right amount on.

Finishing the last corner.

Jim had the concrete truck come down to the building and put concrete in the sill area.

Kyle placing the concrete....

Pumper truck getting all cleaned up and ready to leave.

WOW!!!  It's all in place, flat and beautiful!  Truly, words can't describe the emotions at this point.

 

Jim got a bucketful of concrete to do the footer area inside the carriage house for the half wall in the stairwell.

 

Jim and Kyle had to carry concrete in 5-gallon pails over the newly-poured sill and into the carriage house to fill up the footer.

Kyle starts working the concrete while Jim continues to bring more bucketfuls.

Wow - look at that - all done!

By this point, the crew had taken off to probably grab some breakfast and rehydrate.  Time for us to do a little cleaning up of the site.  The pumper cleaned out his truck up on top, so Jim had to start working the leftovers.

The crew comes back and begins the finishing work.

This is the power trowel - quite the machine.  It's hard to fathom that the concrete is getting firm enough in just a couple hours that this machine is going to go on it!

Can't get enough of the view!

Aaron begins to test the concrete and start working on the edges.  He has nice padded kneelers - Jim used to work on old boards to get out onto concrete!

He's standing on our deck!

Jim brought the power trowel in the bucket over to the front of the building.

This was a little scary - Jim can't see the front of the bucket and has one guy yelling to stop and the other saying just a little more!

It's up on the deck now.  Whew.

Leigh trying to get it started but it's ride to the top flooded the engine for a bit.

So it was back to the old fashioned way for awhile.

Meanwhile, Jim has to keep checking and working the sill.

Putting a pretty edge on the front - one of our traditions!

Power trowel working now - this was amazing to watch.  It's like a giant floor buffer and takes a lot of control.  Kyle was telling us about all the YouTube videos where people have quite a few disasters with these machines - gulp!

Working his way down the first area.

The sun was bright in the sky and begins to harden the concrete - Leigh continually used a spray bottle to wet the concrete as he was troweling.

Aaron continues his edge work around the building.

A little scary to see the trowel over the building but Leigh has it under control - however, Kyle kept yelling to Jim and whomever was below this to move out of the way, just in case!

The finish that the power trowel puts on is so nice - it really polishes it.

Jim has to continue to work the leftover concrete on both driveways.

Wow - looking amazing!

This was pretty incredible to me.  Leigh wanted Scott (in the black shirt) to throw him a little cream to fill in an area.  So Scott just scrapes off a little from the top where he was working on the edge and throws it to Leigh!

More hand finishing around the utilities while Leigh continues power troweling.

And Jim continues to check on the sill and work it when necessary.

The sun was making the top firm up quickly so Scott brought up another power trowel to help out.

Our footer is all finished.

Dual power troweling!

Leigh gave Jim a turn!

All done!!! 

After an hour, it's time to put the curing agent on.  This will just keep the concrete from curing too quickly and keep it healthier and stronger.

Leigh told Jim not to wear shoes while he was on the deck at this point because it would mar the surface - he told him to wear socks!  So here he is in his socks spraying the curing agent.

Still pinching ourselves that he is walking on the deck at this point!

The deck really looks amazing from up a little farther on the hill!

 

Jim gave Kyle some Bobcat instructions and let him have a turn cleaning up the concrete remains and turning them into gravel.

He got the hang of it pretty quickly!

Time for another project.  These trusses will go on top of the second floor walls.  However, they have to have nailers attached to the bottom of them.  We will have to have a crane lift them into place when we're ready for that but Jim needed them flipped over so he could attach the nailers.  So they built some sawhorses out of block and wood.  Then Kyle guided Jim using the Bobcat forks to hold them in place.

They put gravel and wood on the ground - they lifted the first piece from the Bobcat...

...and laid it on the wood.

Then they lifted them up and placed them on the sawhorses - no small feat since they weigh about 200 pounds each!

And repeated the procedure...

Flipping....

....and lifting...

...until the last of the 9 trusses was in place!  A huge accomplishment!

After about an hour, Jim put one more coat of curing agent on the deck.

Time for a celebratory picture!!!

After a shower, we headed out to celebrate our new deck.  We tried a new place in Lake George - the Blue Moose - which was a lot of fun.  Then we went for ice cream to Martha's - it was just rated one of the top ice cream stands in America and has been featured on the Today Show!  Check out the lines!  It was worth the wait!

 

We were all exhausted at the end of the day but couldn't be happier with how the day went.  We were so happy that Kyle and Julia were able to be here to experience this day with us.  Such an amazing weight off our shoulders - now there's no holds barred for building up! 

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