Days 9 to 12 - Time for a break

The foundation is complete!
The walls are sealed and the drainage is ready.
The garage is filled and compacted, ready for the slab. The rest of the house is also backfilled and the interior is ready for the skim coat.

This is when I take a three-week hiatus from the project so I can bask under the Mexican sun (and finish up some other projects I've left in Vancouver and Tofino). When I get back from my holidays, the concrete will be done (someone else is pouring the skim coat/water barrier inside and the garage slab while I'm away) and then we'll be ready to frame up the house! We should see lots of progress starting back up on February 19.

Day 8 - Stripping the forms

Jake and I got most of the forms stripped today and of course it rained all day. It's rained so much in the past few days we've had to rent a pump to drain the swimming pool that has formed within the walls. Just a few more forms to remove tomorrow before we can start laying out the perimeter drain and the rainwater leaders. We rented the forms and they'll be picked up tomorrow.
We've schedule someone to come in and seal the concrete on Wednesday. In the past we've rolled on the black sealant ourselves, but this guy Tim (from Tim's Tar) will come in and spray it all on within an hour. That will save us a lot of time and grief.

Day 7 - The Big Pour

Well we poured our walls! Besides the fact that we underestimated the quantity of concrete we needed, the pour was a success. It took 25 cubic yards of concrete (not 21 as we calculated) and we were done in about 4 hours. As you can see in the picture we needed the pump truck to reach over the walls to fill all the forms. The rain let up in time for our 11 o'clock pour and didn't return until we were done.
We will strip the forms on Monday and prepare for the backfilling. We'll need to set the perimeter drains to catch the rainwater from the gutters, seal the concrete, and have the engineer give us the next OK first, but that's for next week...

Day 6 - Forming the Walls

Frantic day today trying to tie up the loose ends before tomorrow's pour. The torrential rains in the morning did nothing to speed things up. We did get a lot accomplished, in spite of being knee deep in mud. We still have a few hours of work before we can pour the concrete, but we've postponed the pump and concrete trucks until 11 so we've got the time. The engineer, Sara, came by and gave us the OK. We are good to go..
So, I am off to bed for our early start and hopefully an early finish to start my weekend...
Kelly's coming up from Vancouver, Sarah and Riley are here right now, as is Ryan. Alana, her two boys and Micca will be joining us all for dinner tomorrow night so we'll be having a nice family dinner tomorrow.

mmmm.... Baan Thai......

Day 3 - Setting the Foundation Layout

Well we made some progress today despite the chill. We now have all the footing forms layed out and level and we are backfilling and putting in the steel. Unfortunately, the backfill is being drawn from a frozen pile of dirt. So, using a blowtorch and a pick, Ryan spent most of the day fighting to get the dirt from the pile into the wheelbarrow, while I spent a better part of the day breaking away the ice from where we intend to pour our concrete. And now the snow is dumping down so tomorrow will be an interesting day...

Day 1, 2, and 2.5

In the first few days we've set up the "batter boards" and set the outside forms for the footings level and square.
The batter boards hold up string lines (which I've highlighted in yellow in the picture) which we use to establish the placement of the formwork below.
Monday there will be five of us working on site as my brother, Ryan is flying in tonight for the week, and my dad will be there with his two workers Mike and Jake. We should get lots done and hopefully pour the concrete by the end of this week. Hopefully it'll warm up enough...

Day 0 - Excavation

Yeah! We finally broke ground! Today I will be calling "Day 0" as tomorrow is when my work begins. Moe, the excavator, dug out the plot for the house and we are ready to start the footings.

The temperature dropped below zero last night and the ground is covered with snow. Whose idea was it to build a house in the dead of winter?

Because of the cold, we will have to wait until next week (when it hopefully warms up) before we pour the concrete so we've decided to pour the footings and foundation in one pour. It'll be a bit trickier to build the forms and set the steel but then we'll only need to have the concrete pump truck for one day (at $500 a day, it'll be worth it).

It's good to finally get things rolling. I've been back and forth from Vancouver half a dozen times in the past month or so and I am looking forward to staying in one spot for the next three weeks.

Post Holiday Blues

More frustrations as I was called back to the island to help my dad with a job in Parksville only to find out we can't do it for another few days... Unfortunately, I had to postpone a small job in Vancouver to get to the island, and now I have to wait until I go back (maybe this weekend) to finish it up.
So, here I am back in Campbell River still waiting to start building the house on Peterson Road. The excavator has torn down the trailer (YAY!) but we still can't do anything until the trees are down, which means next week... So we wait...

Happy New Year.