All Caught Up

It rained yesterday...

a lot.

Therefore, we didn't get a ton of work done, 

but here's some of what we did do.

We rented a demolition hammer (which is basically a mini jack-hammer) 

and Mr Mossi cleaned up the jagged edges of concrete along the walls

 where we had removed parts of the basement floor a while back.

He also chipped out parts of the original load-bearing 

wall footings to clear the way for new sewer pipe.

And while Mr Mossi worked on that,

I dug up the old sewer line...

and started the trench over to where the new sewer line will be planted
and then hooked up to the old sewer line outlet.

It's glamorous work, I know, but somebody's got to do it.

And Al?

She pouted because she wanted to play ball and we were too busy to play ball.

But when it started thundering she glued herself to my legs.

Have any idea how hard it is to dig trenches with a German Shepherd glued to your legs?

Yeah. You're exactly right. As if diggin' trenches isn't hard enough as it is.

And now, hopefully I'll get caught up on our previous happenings here at the Bungalow.

Here's the "Reader's Digest version":

Dave worked on getting the anchor bolts laid out...

and after drilling all the holes, he got them sunk and epoxied in.

Then he started putting the sill plates down!

THIS IS EXCITING STUFF, people.

THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF

FRAMING!

WAH-HOOOOO!

Wait.

It gets better!

On Thursday our foundation guys came and put up the forms 

for the foundation walls of our garage and filled 'em with concrete.

OH.HAPPY.DAY!

Then they came back the next morning and...

stripped the forms.
It's awesome, isn't it!

Aaannnd...

we got our first order of lumber delivered from
Wheelwright!

It is SO exciting now that we're done
tearing down and we are finally
BUILDING.
Oh.
About those J-bolts and STHD14s and such that I mentioned in the last post...
those are just a few things I've had on my 'grocery list' the past week or so.
I'm getting quite an education out of this project and pride myself on learning all about
 the nitty-gritty components that go into building a home, knowing what those components are for,
 what aisle to find them on at Home Depot or where to find them in town.
That's just another fun aspect of this whole, wonderful adventure.

A couple more things before I end this post...
a shout out to our sons-in-law,
Tannon 
and
Joe
and our daughter,
Natalie -
who all showed up and were a huge help when we poured the footings for the garage!
Thanks again for being wonderful.

Lastly...

These guys -
the company that put up the forms and poured the foundation walls for our garage.
First -
they showed up early...
days early.
That rarely happens with contractors.
Second -
I didn't go to school on Thursday.
I needed to be here to go over the blueprints with Dan, their foreman, on bolt,
strap and drain placement,so I was here the entire time they worked. Upon arrival,
these men literally jumped from their trucks (there were 3 trucks), immediately began throwing
forms off the flatbeds and into the trenches, placing rebar, digging where they needed to and setting forms. Every one of those men was in constant motion until the job was done.
It was exhausting just watching them!
They made me proud and I'd never even met a one of them before Thursday morning.
They worked like men were made to work.
And what's even better than that?
*Not a single curse word*
*Not a single cigarette*
NOT ONE.
Good, good men.
Makes me happy.


That's it.
I'm caught up, Reader's Digest style.
It'll have to do.