The Life for Me

Preparation work for the basement concrete slab was completed today. A very interesting crew came out and leveled and compacted the gravel. Due to a delay in the materials delivery, myself and one of the crew took charge of installing the 2" foam-board insulation and the vapor barrier. Tim came back in the afternoon to install the wire mesh and set the grade pins. We are ready to pour as soon as the inspector signs off on the prep work.

The plumbers came out on Monday and did the rough-in work in the basement. All the drain lines that would eventually be contained within the concrete slab had to be installed and inspected by the county before the concrete could be poured. The lines were run, capped and pressurized to 5 psi. The whole thing took two guys a little less than a day.

Central Virginia Waterproofing came out and sprayed and insulated the foundation today. They seemed to take a lot of care to insure that any holes were patched and the walls and footing were clean. They put a nice heavy coat of product on the walls. Afterwards, John and I spent some time distributing part of the ADDITIONAL 30 TONS of gravel that were delivered this morning by Backhoe Pete. I can't believe how much stone we are putting back into that hole!

Last Saturday's snowfall blanketed the mountains as well as the farm. We had a great time sledding down the hills. I'm sure that folks visiting Wintergreen Ski Resort were glad to get some of the "real" stuff. It was nice knowing that warmer weather was on the way so that the house buildig could continue on schedule. I took another picture out of the new window. It's fun having to completely different days so close together. Nelson County is proving to be quite a lovely place to have a home, or at least a foundation.

Note to self: Allow lots of time! Pouring concrete into a 12" block wall requires lots of time and plenty of hands. Strongly consider hiring a pump truck to eliminate a lot of the bucket work. Trust the numbers! If the calculation comes out to be 15 yards - order 15 yards. Again thanks to Matt and Josh and their crew as well as Don "The Stunt Man" W. for sticking it out with me to the end.

The Nelson County Block Ninjas struck hard with mortar and chards of cinder blocks flying through the air. Actually it was just really cold and everybody was trying to keep warm. It's exciting to get a sense of how the house is going to look and feel. We have our first two windows. Enjoy the view!

The very talented and hard working masons started this morning. Despite a slow start (somebody forgot the mixer) they were able to get about half of the block work done today. The weather was very cooperative, although the early morning and late afternoon hours were really chilly.