Thursday, July 30, 2009

Our foundation passes inspection


Yes, the other day the inspector came out to tell us that the goofy, complicated foundation we made here is the way it should be. There's 2" of pink foam on the footing and we continued it up to ground level all the way around, covering it with treated plywood for protection. Jared and Mossy got much of the foam up early this month. Their red visors had much to do with their productivity.





Around the base of the foundation is a drain for groundwater consisting of a 4" slotted pipe surrounded in gravel and covered with a fabric that keeps sand and silt out.



Wherever the foundation is not deep enough to sit below the frost line, we put foam on the ground next to the house, jutting out to keep the earth's heat in.



On the inside of the house, we had lots of help from travelers. Nora finished grinding the channel to drain the slab.









And a big crew came out to lay down the basement subfloor. It looks like they're mostly just standing around, but this just happens to be the only picture where everyone's not blurry.






Here's Dad taking a break well-earned be scrubbing this post for hours to get the moldy spots off.


It has been very encouraging to have all the family and friends come out and help, through words and through deeds. Just in time, too, as I was getting to a point of boredom with the whole house at the beginning of the month. Boredom is a dangerous thing. People want a peaceful life, and then when we get it, it's boring. So if you don't keep yourself inspired the natural thing to do is to start some trouble. So thanks to everyone I've talked to whose assured me that I'm in plenty of trouble already.

Justin is coming with his tractor next week so I'm busy making work ready for him.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Holy crap it's July

Progress in June was very slow, but progress just the same. I put a heavy waterproofing membrane on the foundation. It was kind of a fiasco, as a big section of the stuff fell off at night and there was a sticky mess. But we fixed it up and I think we should be nice and dry for a hundred years at least.

The next thing we have to do is insulate the foundation. Ground water is only two or three feet down at one end of the house, so we made a shallow footing. Frost here can get almost four feet down so we are insulating the footing to keep the place from moving up and down every Winter. This past Winter a crack opened up in the center of the slab about 1/8-inch wide, and in the Spring you could occasionally hear pops coming from the framing as it settled back into place. It sounded like what you hear in a new house made with green timbers or logs as they dry and take a new shape. Anyway here is the beginning of the insulation project. These corners have been screwy to figure out.


The other major project has been the subfloor downstairs. It is a little more than half done, and isn't too tricky now that the floor is mostly level.


Here you can see the done half before my dad and I piled everything from the other half on top of it.

And here's the not-done half. I'm making little channels in the slab so any water that does get in can easily drain out. I put some water on it to test how it drains and to add a little excitement.


My dad has been out at least once a week which has been very helpful. This month I hope to see some of you who may be visiting as well as anyone from around here who feels like coming out. We'll be having some sort of party July 11th, and hope to be putting up shingles for siding on July 25th.

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