Katie lends a hand

Martin Luther King day today was sunny and warm (57 degrees), and found us at the home site working.
Lest anyone think James is the only one working on the house, here are pictures of Katie and Becky patching divets in the foundation with Krikrete. Katie is shown below, doing the same patch work. We think she will be the youngest construction worker this project will see!

In this photo is James filling in geothermal trench #1 with
his Boy Toy (he says his resume can now include "heavy equipment operator"). Next on the list is digging geothermal trench #2, which will coincidentally lay 3 feet under the trench for bringing in power and cable (the geothermal lines lay 5 and 6 feet under, for the outgoing and incoming lines, and the power conduit only needs to be 3 feet down, given the mild winters and shallow frost line). Note the blue sky in the background, so rare in January around here.

While James filled in the trench, Becky and Katie used kwikrete to fill in divets in the foundation. (The cross braces that held the foundation forms in place had plastic cones at each end which get removed after the forms come down, leaving a ~1-2 inch cone-shaped indent in the foundation wall, which has to get patched to prevent leaks tracking along the metal brace left inside).

This last picture shows what we were patching, I took it in Nov while they were building the forms, showing the metal cross-pieces bridging the forms; the plastic cone that is eventually removed is the grey triangle on the right, and the 2" spoke of metal has a head that holds the brackets for the forms, and is removed when the wall is poured. You can also see the rebar inside the wall; the bars are 12" apart, which is closer than usual, because of the high wind we can expect on top of the mountain here. (As the foundation guy said, there is no way this house will blow off the mountain in a storm!)

We also added a layer of rock on a soft spot on our road this week; until it gets compacted down the only vehicles that can make it up are 4WD or AWD (thank goodness for the Jeeps and Subarus that we drive). We think there is a spring under the road where it goes past our downhill neighbor that is undermining the road at the same spot their septic line goes under the road. Also on the list this week is to redo the last few feet of the road: currently the last 30 feet are at a 16 degree incline, which has proved daunting (and impassable for delivery trucks).

Geothermal trenching, part 1

Here's a picture from last month of the inside of the basement after we poured the foundation (the wheelbarrow is there for scale). Those 12 foot high walls are daunting. It took until the very end of December to get all the forms taken down from pouring the foundation, what a huge project that was. After that we get to fill and patch the concrete where the various metal pieces went in, and waterproof parts of the foundation. Fortunately, since we are building on a hill, much of the water (rainfall etc) heads downhill and doesn't pose much of a flooding threat. Unfortunately, the flowing water itself can cause problems (keep reading....)

These photos are from yesterday: the trench is 6 feet deep, to carry the geothermal lines away from the house and back. (Part of the heating and cooling system for the house is a geothermal heat pump, which uses pipes set 6 feet underground to collect and distribute heat and cooling, at an even 50 degrees from the ground temperature, to help heat and cool the house). Since the lines need to be 6 feet deep, they needed to be laid under the electrical lines, which only need to be 4 feet deep, SO, we had to get this set in first. James dug a 150' trench, 6 feet deep, off the west side of the house. The blue tubing lays at the bottom of the trench, and the return tubing going back to the house has to lay a foot higher, pegged into position with metal stakes. James and I spent yesterday afternoon placing the stakes. The left photo is the trench running along side the house; the right photo is James down in the trench at the other end. We had a system of ropes and harnesses and ladders to keep him safe while he crawled through the trench to pound in the stakes. The pictures were taken before the rain started; shortly after that it got quite wet; by the end of the project, there were several inches of water running down the trench, with a few spots where the water was 2 feet high and over the top of his boots. (We have pictures of him emptying the water out of the boots). We were both spattered with mud by the end. Definitely one of those days when we have to keep the goal in mind; we are still trying to dry out clothing.

Foundation poured

A few pictures after the foundation was poured. Yes, that is snow dusting the ground on the left.


We poured the foundation on Dec 15th , after a week delay for weather. The Seattle area was hit with a cold snap when the temperature didn't get above freezing for 10 days; we couldn't pour the concrete in sub-freezing weather. The bright spot however was that the prolonged cold snap froze the roadbed, so when the concrete trucks did come up for the pour they did minimal damage to our dirt road! The grand total for the pour was 8 truckloads of concrete, for a grand total of 320,000 pounds of concrete.

Here it is, the foundation, waiting for the dirt to be filled back in around the walls. This picture is from the northeast corner, looking at what will eventually be our front door. The forms have been taken off much of the wall, but you can still see some on the left side of the picture.

This photo is inside the basement of the west wing of the house (on the original plans, this was to be a 4' deep crawl space, but the slope of the hill was more than we expected). The forms are off the wall, and you can see the cutout for door into the central part of the basement, and a window facing south from the basement.

Foundation pouring

We poured the foundation yesterday (12/15)! This is a picture of the concrete crew; their names are Jose, Jose, and Jose (really!) They are waiting for the next concrete truck to arrive with its load of concrete. This is a view of the 'west wing" of the basement (originally planned to be a crawl space, but the slope of the hill gave us a 12' deep basement). To pour the foundation, the forms had to be built up 12', with a scaffolding built up around the top for the guys to pour the concrete.

In this photo, Mark G and "Jose 1.5" are pouring concrete (pumped through the black pipe, and into the form) into the wall between the center part of the basement and the west wing; they are 12 feet above the ground, on forms and scaffolding. There are also 2 guys on the ground helping guide the concrete pipe (they happened to be named Jose, also), that is pumping concrete up the hill from the landing (a 16% grade that the trucks can't make).

Mark G, in the foreground, is placing bolts or screws that will eventually hold the house down onto the foundation. In the background is the guy who owns the concrete pump that we used to get all the concrete into the forms. All total, we needed 8 loads of concrete, each with 10 yards of concrete, each weighing 4,000 pound....that totaled up to 160 tons of concrete for the foundation....

This is a view of the north side of the house, facing toward what will eventually be the driveway. You can see the concrete leaking out between the forms. We fortunately never had a "blow-out" in the wall, however did have a blow-out in the base that will be under the masonry heater, which was quickly patched and refilled. If we had to have a blow=out, that was the best place to have it.

We were fortunate in weather: we had hoped to pour the foundation a week ago, but got put off because the weather was below freezing for over a week. As soon as the weather warmed up over freezing, we poured. As it turned out, having a deep freeze for 10 days before the Big Pour made the road up to the property very firm and frozen, and having big heavy concrete trucks on the road did much less damage than if the weather had been muddy.

Here you can see the concrete in the forms, and the bolts that will hold the house down. The tons of concrete we just poured should hold the house onto the hill, now we just have to be sure the wind doesn't blow the house away (that is the basis of the engineering for the building). The foundation guys let the concrete cure for a full day after pouring, and will start taking down the forms tomorrow
You should see it in person, it's amazing to look at!

Working in sub-freezing temps

The camera is standing at the east end of the house, looking over the forms in place, ready for the concrete to be poured for the foundation. Notice, however, that there is snow on the ground: that is snow that fell 4 days ago, and the temperature has been below freezing ever since, which is too cold to pour concrete. The current cold snap is supposed to continue all this week, so we can't pour concrete this week, and are hoping to pour the concrete early next week.

This is a view inside the west end of the basement, looking at the forms. Jeff is on the ladder attaching wires to the rebar. Each of the panels is 2 feet high, so the wall we're looking at is 12 feet tall. Since that exceeds the height maximum for concrete walls, we will actually need to put in 3 feet of dirt fill on the floor of the basement before we pour the slab (floor) so the wall will only be 9 feet high, which still makes an awesome basement. Note the snow on the ground.

James is standing in the doorway into the basement, at the western wall of the house. Note the very warm jacket and hat and gloves, which weren't warm enough. But in the Pacific NW, when you are in the construction business, most of the year is adverse weather conditions, so you need to handle cold, and rain, and....

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!

The footings are poured

We poured the footings (the cement at the bottom of the foundation) on Wed (11/4/09)! Now that the footings are poured, there's no stopping us now!
This is a corner of the footing in the basement for the masonry heater, that I carved the date and put my handprint on. Too bad the kids were in school and couldn't put their hands on as well. I'm told this will be visible in the basement.

Here is the cement truck, from our neighbor Walt Miles (Miles Sand and Gravel). We poured 4 truckloads of cement today, 10 cubic yards per truck, you do the calculations, but it's a lot of concrete, all of which was pumped uphill by the pumper-guy (white pick-up at the left, with pipes heading uphill). The guy who held the other end of the pipe was a very strong kid.

This is the footing for the east wing of the house, which will have a 3' crawl space under the house. The center part of the house has a full basement, you can see the forms at the right side of this photo.

This is a photo of the garage footings; the guys were taking off the forms already, a mere 6 hours after pouring the cement, and it had already hardened! The ambient temperature was around mid-50's, but the cement was already so hard they could pound on it with hammers. Amazing stuff!

I am so happy we have the footings poured. Now the weather won't affect us as much, now that the footings are in!