Drained

Why am I looking at the same ditch again you ask? Because it now has power cables and phone cable buried, and above those cables there is a propane line and a ctv conduit. Since our satellite TV won't come from that direction, it appears I will be able to run a cable from the house to my shop. Is this a great country or what? The ABS pipe in the second picture is for downspout drains which are now all set up around the house. Tomorrow should see ditches being filled back in and it will be easier to walk around the project again.

More Backfill

Today was more back fill and compacting and more digging. Not much to look at but all necessary to get to next week's framing. Top picture is trenching for curtain drain outlets. All waterlines and septic drains are hooked up and will be back filled by the end of the week. Tomorrow, power lines are supposed to be brought in around the shop.

Dig It

The track hoe was running all day today. Top picture is where electrical wiring will come in to the transformer. This ditch will also carry phone wiring and a propane line to the house. The bottom photo is the start of the trench for the geo lines for the heat pump. When complete it will cover 800 feet in distance. It is 5 feet wide and 5 feet deep and when the loop is made the ditches have to be a minimum of 5 feet apart. That's a lot of dirt displaced that eventually will be replaced right back where it came from.

Filling In

The backfill started today. That's a lot of rock but the hole is filling up. Water lines have been set in the trench from the pole building where the storage tank will be installed and conduits and irrigation feed have been set to the storage building. Temperature was over 100 again but the crews stayed until 5:00.

Hosed

The slab is being hosed down all weekend. I think she's enjoying this just a little too much. I don't think it would be smart for me to stand in front of her.

Floored

The man cave has a floor. Ok, so the two bedrooms and storage areas in the basement have a floor too. Our task for the weekend is to keep it dampened down so it doesn't cure too quickly. With temps going well into the nineties for the weekend and triple digits Monday, we'll be busy.

Trenching Starts

The trenching has started. This one will hold the two 2" water lines, one for house and irrigation and one for fire sprinklers. Tomorrow the concrete slab will be poured for the basement. We also have a meeting with the pump guy so we can figure out how to push water through those two 2" lines.

Tubin'

Reinforcing mesh was finished up today and the HVAC guys were here until 9:00 PM putting down the tubing for the in floor heat. Connections have been made to the manifold in the first picture and tubes were purged and are under pressure test. We are looking good for the Friday concrete pour.

In The Heat

Today the insulating board went in. The black sheet is the vapor barrier. They are also putting in the reinforcing mesh on top of the vapor barrier. Temperatures remain in the low 90's so I hope these guys are staying hydrated. While they were working in this heat on top of the black sheeting I asked them if there was anything else they could do to make it any hotter and they told me they could fire up a couple of torches. The boys, along with Dustin, came over and we finished hauling the blocks out of the driveway. One more thing off the checklist.

Pavement Going

The under slab base is done. Next will be the insulation, heat tubes, etc. The old driveway pavement is broken up and ready to be hauled away. They are getting ready to fill in the dip that was our old driveway and level things out.

Yesterday Bob and Tony came over and helped me remove more of the landscape blocks that lined our driveway. We still have another day's work to get the rest of them. Diana became very popular when she arrived with cold beer. Thanks for checking in.

Inbound

Rough plumbing has been inspected and passed. Now the work is focused on the inbound end of the house. Water, conduit for satellite tv and geo tubing all enter the house here. A lot will happen in the next week as concrete is scheduled for the slab one week from today.

Growing

The below slab plumbing grew today. They are finished with that part of the basement construction. Thanks for checking in.

Rough

I'd like to say a special thank you to Tim Pfeiffer. We are about to dig 800 feet of trench for the heating system. The trenches will be dug into a field that Tim has farmed for a number of years for us. I didn't want to destroy his crop so he arranged, or rather rearranged his schedule to get here and get the harvesting done before we dig. The story behind this is that he and MA were victims of a fire that took his barn, hay and a lot of his equipment including his combine. His replacement combine showed up this week and today ours was the first field harvested with his new machine. So on top of getting everything back in order from the fire, he still went out of his way to accommodate our schedule. Thanks Tim.

Plumbers showed up today to put in the rough plumbing that is below the basement slab. Seems like a fun time as they were working with black pipe in temperatures that were in the 90's. Progress continues to be made.

Rockin'

The basement floor was built up today with rock, watered and compacted. Next the rough plumbing that will be below the floor will be installed. Now we're really starting to rock this project.

Sealed

The foundation was water proofed today with a product called 'tuff-n-dri'. Hope it works as water in the man cave would not be a good thing.

Stripped

The forms have been stripped so we now officially have a foundation. Now we can get into construction mode. Thanks for checking in.

Knee Deep In Mud

The pump and concrete trucks showed up today. In the first two pictures you can see the foreman is keeping track of the work. Now all of those forms with all that rebar are full of concrete. They will strip the forms tomorrow and Friday and we can move on to another phase. Tubing for in floor heat and plumbing that needs to come up through the basement floor are next and then they will pour the slab. This is an important part of the project as we will have the man cave start to take shape.

Getting Our Footing

Forms are now complete for the walls. Most of the footing forms are in place as well. Rebar is tied together so they are close to concrete. They are saying probably Thursday but maaaaaybe Wednesday. Thanks for checking in.

Almost There

The forms are almost all in place. The first picture is to give an indicator of why rebar keeps getting mentioned. Those are all ends that will be in the footing. Looks like they are on schedule to pour the first of next week.

10 Feet High

The forms have finally made it to the ten foot mark, ten feet six inches actually. The ten foot portion is the front wall and then from the sides it will step down the hill. Hopefully I will get some pictures of the front before and after the fill goes in as there is quite a dip that will become a level driveway in from the road. Can't wait until all that air and rebar is concrete and rebar.

Foundation And A Hint Of Things To Come

The foundation forms continue to grow. There was clarification on the engineering notes and what was four inch spacing on vertical rebar was really supposed to be sixteen inches at the top. Even though that's much less rebar, they are telling us it still will approach three tons when finished. Meanwhile we have been shopping for tile, flagstone, hardwood flooring and masonry. Too many places with too many choices and it exceeds my ability, which is somewhere between none and not much. We made some progress today so it is moving forward.