SUMMARY:

• Got most everything finished monday night for pour day.
• Storm Monday night almost blows off top two courses
  • Crazy scrambling by Karianne and I to increase bracing
  • Very little sleep Monday to Tuesday
• Tuesday – POUR DAY
  • Last minute scrambling the morning of
  • Prayers are answered, its a perfect weather day
  • Anticlimactic – no visible change
  • Wavy walls and lots of extra bracing
•  Wednesday through Friday – Recovery & Bad discovery
• Saturday – French drain installation
  • Works backwards! Epic Fail 😦

Well the week started off with a bang! But I’m happy to report that things have slowed down a bit.  I am back at work and not dedicating full days to the project. 

Monday was super exciting. The wind started showing up in the afternoon but we didn’t think much of it. We finished out our day and had most everything ready for the pour the next morning.  And then.. the wind advisory arrived (our neighbor clocked up to 48 mph gusts). It was terrifying.  We have spent all this time and money getting to this point only to feel like the wind was going to rip it all apart. Granted, it was full of rebar, and was braced to withstand all the pressures of concrete, but the bracing stopped short of the top two courses. And the top two courses started separating.  Mind you this is happening after 9p.m. when it is dark outside. So Karianne and I ran outside and screwed in a bunch of 2×4’s in the walls holding down the top two courses. Just picture franticness in a wind storm and the complete feeling of chaos. I may or may not have sort of fell slowly/fastly somewhat controlled/uncontrolled off the scaffold once. But somehow we all came out unscathed. After lots of prayers and a fairly sleepless night the walls all survived! 

Pour day:
We did wake up to about an inch of snow on everything. But it turned out to be a very beautiful sunny day with very little wind. In short, a perfect day to pour concrete. We were a bit nervous the wind would continue making it unsafe to pour but we definitely had our prayers answered.
Before the trucks arrived there was a lot of last second preparation, lots of running around checking this and that. But then the trucks arrived and we started pouring. And it all went pretty well.

Andrew and Sam even got a turn holding the concrete hose. It was fun to watch it all, something we had worked so hard for, happen in real time. After the concrete was all poured we pulled the string lines on the walls and they were all pretty wavy. Which means we spent the next couple hours putting up more bracing and straightening out the walls. My gas tank hit beyond empty. We hadn’t eaten lunch and I just didn’t have much left to give. Finally though all was straight and we were “done”. It was a bit anticlimactic though. We got the concrete poured but it didn’t look any different. It was very cool and reassuring to have the concrete, but there wasn’t much visible change.  Karianne and I found that a little comical.

End of Pour

Pour Day Recap

So the rest of the week has been a rough recovery for me. The “old man” thing is real . Sitting behind the computer has made me soft. Can’t wait till i get some stronger “project legs” under me. During the week I went to take any wood that we used for forms off of the concrete because the longer the wood sits with the concrete the harder it is to get it off. Anyhow, while I was out there, I discovered a bunch of hollow spots in our walls. This was really discouraging 😦 John and I have a plan to pump structural non shrink grout into the voids. This will fix it, but even still this was sad to have this happen.  I guess it is the first time it has ever happened to John.  He will make it right but that took a lot of wind out of my sails. He will come Monday to pull off his braces and pump the grout in.

With the snow we finally received we needed a play break!

And now for my epic fail 🙂  Yesterday, I decided to put in the french drain to get water away from our foundation. The plan was to trench a good distance away from the house and then dig down really far. Once you get past the clay, the water should theoretically be able to drain down into the earth. Trench Excavation

Well I dug the hole and put in  the pipe, but it didn’t drain. In fact not only did it not drain, but it filled up all the way to the level of the top of the footers and it sent water BACK to the footers! Or in other words, it is a reverse French drain.. doh!! 

Reverse French Drain…

It was a good week though. I’m excited for this next week! All of our floor trusses and subfloor should show up on Wednesday. I can’t wait to start installing those. I have already installed them 3 or 4 times in my mind and in my dreams while sleeping at night 🙂 Can’t wait to do it for real 🙂

Week Recap

Mark