Starting the foundation

After pouring the footings, now we get to start on the foundation. This is Jeff, one of the two brothers doing our foundation, starting to build up the forms to pour the foundation. He is standing under what will be the dining room. Notice we're no longer wearing T-shirts to work in; the ambient temperature for the last week has been low-40's. And yes that is standing water inside the footings (just a few inches).

The other brother, Mark, is putting twist ties on the rebar crosspieces, a few feet down from where Jeff was standing in the other picture. There is a huge amount of metal going in to that foundation, clearly.

We will talk to the engineer tomorrow when he gets back from hunting, about the west end of the basement. Because of the slope of the hill, the foundation wall may need to be 11 or 12 feet tall at that end of the basement, and we will need to work out whether it is all concrete or framed wall.

In local weather news, there is already 3 feet of snow in the mountains above 4.000 feet elevation and Crystal Mountain ski area opened for the season 5 days ago. Here's hoping the snow doesn't get down to 1500 feet for awhile!