More pictures from cement pour on July 23rd

The hose truck arrived around 2:30 and the cement trucks started arriving around 3:00. We went through five cement truck loads and had enough left over to make a little slab just outside the pole building door. They started pouring around 3:30 and finished pouring around 5:30/6:00. PJ, Phil and Eugene finished smoothing out the cement for the basement and put up braces for the basement walls so they stayed straight. A hard job well done today guys!! =)

July 23rd....cement is poured!

Above are a few pictures from the cement pouring today. We had a lot of help...Phil, Eugene, Louie, Michael, Gary....many others stopped by to look what was happening. Kerri, Ben, Elaine, Jim and some other neighbors helped watch to see if there was any bulging bricks about to break. It all went pretty smoothly. Phil manned the cement hose while PJ and the others made sure there weren't any pockets and smoothed out the top. There was one corner that was starting to bulge, and Phil, PJ and Micheal boarded it up so that it wouldn't blow. (I have no picture of that because I was getting water bottles filled...it was a pretty hot day today.) We now have to let the cement sit and cure.

Mid July updates

Above are pictures of the styrofoam bricks that are just about ready to get cement. Braces were placed and in good time as we had a few thunderstorm/high wind warnings at this time. We didn't want any of them blowing down or away.

july 11th...half way there

Today was a very hot and humid one, but PJ and Phil were out there again, working hard. They put more bricks up today and put up the braces. PJ said that they were thinking about waiting for one more row to put up the braces, but soon after they said that the wall kind of swayed a bit, so they decided to do it right away. We have a storm rolling in this afternoon/evening, so it's a good thing they are up, we wouldn't want all that work and styrofoam to go to waste! In the pictures you'll see that they are about half way done with the basement walls. The south facing wall will not be styrofoamed due to the walk out basement feature. We are going to have 8 foot ceilings, it seems high now, but I'm sure we'll appreciate the extra room when we're all finished.

July 10th...the bricks go up

Phil and PJ were hard at work today getting the styrofoam bricks in place. By the end of the day they had the frost wall done for the house and just started on the bottom part of the actual basement. They compare the bricks to giant legos...pretty easy to put together. They should be finished with the walls in the next few days.

July 10th updates

The above pictures show the morning of the 9th, the truck arriving bright and early with the stryofoam bricks for the basement.

The cement truck arrives!

The forms are ready and we all anxiously await the cement truck, due to arrive at 4 PM. As soon as he arrives PJ, Phil, Eugene, Louie and Larry get right to work. A few hours later the cement is finished being poured into the forms and is left to set for the night. Tomorrow morning, 7 AM bright and early, the stryofoam bricks are due to arrive on the truck. They hope to get a good start tomorrow with the bricks.

More updates for July 8th

More July 8th updates

The above pictures show the form-a-drain going in. Not long now and the cement will be poured into the forms. Our styrofoam bricks for the basement are to arrive soon!

July 8th updates

The above pictures are from July 1st and 2nd. Form-a-drain had just been delivered and PJ and his dad were preparing to put them in. Phil had to dig a frost wall and rock and sand were delivered in to put around the forms.