Forms Filled

I can't believe that it worked out, but we poured our foundation this past Saturday! Again, it couldn't have been done without the help of many friends and family and God's sovereign timing!

Last Monday we got a few friends to help set the last of the wall forms and start setting the rebar in place. We scheduled an inspection for Thursday figuring this would give us enough time to finish the forms plus enough lead time to order the concrete for Saturday if we passed.

Wednesday a whole crew of guys came over to help out. We worked on getting more of the steel rebar in, building and setting the forms for the 3 piers under the master bedroom, clearing some dirt in the way of the concrete truck access, etc. We got quite a bit done considering there were 11 of us!

Taking a step back, Tuesday afternoon we found out from the County that the inspector would require a certified letter from a licensed surveyor to confirm the location of our forms. This was a surprise and an obstacle since after calling our surveyor we discovered he was out of town for the week. We tried several other surveyors on Tues. and Wed. and weren't able to get in touch with any of them. We rescheduled the inspection for Friday hoping to have more time to get this required letter and still pour the foundation on the weekend. Thursday we finally found a surveyor who could write the letter for us, but he would have to redo everything and the cost was much higher than our original survey. We decided that the extra cost was not worth saving a few days in our schedule and we would wait for our surveyor to return. We kept the inspection to make sure there were no other issues of concern.

Thursday evening and Friday morning we finished getting everything set for the inspection. This is where God's timing comes in. On Friday morning at about 8:30am we called the County to find out when our inspection would be. We were hoping for amorning inspection so just in case the inspector passed us without the survey letter we could still order the concrete for Saturday. We was told the inspection window was 1:30 - 3:30. Bummer. Until... about 9:30am we got a call from our original surveyor saying he was back in town and could come by in 15 minutes! What!? No way! At a little after 1pm he called saying the letter was ready. At about 2pm the inspector came by, found our letter and forms satisfactory and signed off on our inspection! After calling a few concrete places that were all booked up for Saturday we were able to find one with availability. The pour was scheduled for Saturday at noon!

Saturday the pour went extremely fast. We finished pouring 10 yards of concrete in about 1 hour! The guy who was running the concrete pump also ran the hose for us. This is not typical and was a huge help since he really knew what he was doing and having a fourth person made a big difference. Once he really got going it was a raceto keep up with him. He filled the forms and we did our best to level and smooth the concrete and set the anchor bolts before the concrete set up. Foundation done!

This week we will be removing the forms, bolting on the mudsill and starting to build the floor. We also need to fix a leak that we discovered under our existing laundry room. There are some rotted joists that need to be replaced so we can tie the new floor joists to them.