Here we have my first attempt at illustrating an element of the interior decorating plan. The kid’s bathroom plan is shown below this photo of the primary elements included in the plan. The “striped” floor tile is shown in the photo below…the green accent tiles will be the same size as the white tile.
It was bound to happen sooner or later…It has been raining on The “L” Shaped House all morning. The forecast calls for rain continuing all afternoon and into tomorrow morning. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be very hot. The site turns into a gooey mess of clay and dirt when it rains and chases everyone home. Hopefully by Monday morning the site will be dried out and we can get the garage floors poured.
Jim Sletten finished up end wall of the basement adding the doorway that will lead into the crawl space. We decided to make it 36” wide by 48” high. The poured concrete floor comes through the doorway to the inside of the basement wall (no annoying step). These are pretty much the last blocks to be laid in the “L” Shaped House foundation walls.
The block laying crew is spending today filling cores and placing anchors in the foundation walls. Here Chuck is mixing cement (1/2 bag Portland cement, 18 shovels of sand, water to suit). Each of the 8’ cores takes a couple of mixer loads (29 batches and 522 shovels…so far). They hope to have all the cores poured today.
The last two photos show the asphalt waterproof coating as it winds around the perimeter of the foundation walls. In the last photo the (newly) proposed landscape terracing East of the basement walkout doors shows as an outline of black goo!
Jim Sletten is working on the last section of wall between the basement and crawl space. Once he the wall and doorway into the crawl space the block work will be complete. the finished crawl space cement slab is visible just beyond the wall. It has been a very busy morning at the “L” Shaped House!
The rest of the crew is busy filling the block cores and placing anchor bolts around the perimeter of the foundation walls. The last photo shows the asphalt water proofing that was applied to the foundation walls this morning.
A cement truck pulled in about 7:30 am and the crawl space floor was poured shortly after it arrived. The photos (taken by Paul Winters) show the Sletten’s right in the middle of the action. By the time I arrived for my noon visit the floor all done and the crew had gone back to the last few blocks and preparations for pouring the garage floors.
Matt has “jumped” on fixing the existing block wall on the East end of the basement. The picture on the right (below) shows the wall from the outside. We also see Jim Sletten on the far side finishing up the West end wall.
As a matter of fact Jim installed the ceremonial “Last Block” in the foundation as I walked around the site just after noon… Actually there was hardly any celebrating at all…
I stopped by on Sunday and found Paul (Winters) using these funny devices injecting water into the back-filled section just inside the garage foundation walls. The water causes the compacted soils to loosen up…and helps facilitate an even more compacted base. The little wooden stakes are the first signs work being done as Matt prepares for the pouring of the concrete slab. They will help to establish the floor heights and anchor parts of the reinforcing rod supports.
The guys are running a “jumper” around the inside of the garage wall foundation as they compact the base. I was hoping to get some video of this operation but just missed it!
The block work in the West end keeps chugging along. The basement wall is is full height all the way across the front of the house. The joining of the old and new walls is clearly visible in the first photo below. The end and back walls are nearing completion. Paul (Winters) has scheduled the waterproofing to be sprayed on the foundation walls early this week. Matt and Jim will finish up the West end and then “jump” to the existing end wall repairs. The second photo (shot from the basement floor) gives a little perspective for the new height of the walls.
This is going to be a lovely house. We are going to paint it blue with white trim (NOT Green!). The construction crew is doing a wonderful job! I love China so I decided that I’m going to do my room with a Chinese theme.
By the way… I am 8 … NOT 7!
Goodbye!
Hello people of the internet… Helen here with some news for you! You know that “ We are the Arneson family” in the top right corner of the blog. Yeah, the one that says I’m 11 when in reality I’m 12. Clearly my dad cares about writing stuff nobody cares about more than taking two seconds to change my age! or maybe he forgot that I'm 12 altogether…
