Progress continues on a new home for Thor and me (and Bear dog and Turtle cat) as concrete is poured in stages for footings.
NOTE: People have been asking to follow our progress as Thor and I pursue our quest for our dream home with sunsets over the Salish Sea. So starting with my post of 5/21/22, we set out.
We have been anxious to get construction underway and drains installed before the fall rains really set in. (Our county had officially-Disastrous floods last November with the “atmospheric river” here in the Pacific Northwest far corner, and we don’t want to lose any more of our high waterfront bank this year.) Our sunny drought summer lasted well into October, so Thor, Bear dog, and I were able to enjoy some final water sports in our new neighborhood before construction began.
Thor with his new paddle board in Semiahmoo Bay, 5 minutes from our homesite, as Bear dog wades with Mt. Baker to the east:
Our new neighbors (in house in top photo), Pat and “Southern” Bill, took us sailing in their new boat, and we saw porpoises skimming along! Bill even trusted me to take the wheel for a while. (We are lucky to have great new neighbors on either side, with “Northern” Bill and Julie on the other side.)
So, after the last update (October 15 post), we had footing forms laid out for the first round of concrete pouring, which would proceed in two stages to build up a foundation. The first pour was scheduled for October 18, as we crossed our fingers and the rains were still holding off, but our builder called to let us know that the concrete truck had gotten stuck at another site, and we’d have to wait until the 21st, when the first rains were predicted. Luckily, the pour went off without problems! (After the six months of nerve-wracking delays in getting our permit, we were beginning to wonder if our project was cursed. Meshak, our builder, swore that in his decades of building houses, this had never happened before….)
The big pouring rig made it down our narrow driveway and was ready to go as the rain clouds gathered and started to spill:
The concrete truck arrived to hook up:
Then what Thor called “the giant proboscis” started plopping concrete into the forms. (BTW, I finally felt that this project was actually going to happen when the honey bucket arrived.)
A worker with a remote control directed the tall crane arm to move over the forms as the other worker guided the tube.
It was raining pretty steadily by the time this pour was done, but apparently it was not a problem. Meshak was happy with the good soil quality that wasn’t clay or mud.
A couple days later, the forms had been removed. Rather confusingly, the footings do not correspond to interior walls.
Next step was installing the forms for the upright foundation walls. The house itself will be four feet above ground level.
With these forms in place, it became easier to visualize the interior spaces. Below, the foundation “wall” on the left will be the west (sea) side of the open great room, with a door out to the deck, which will be above the unwalled footings on the right in the photo:
For the second pour, we had a bright green crane arm.
By now, Bear dog is an old hand (paw?) at this process, so he’s become a supervisor. He’s making sure the young man with the vibration rod is inserting it into each pocket to settle out any air bubbles.
Thor and I continually marvel at the complexity of this building project (including the Byzantine process of getting the permit). The engineering of the house, grading the lot, and all the utility functions to be installed cover many pages of specs and drawings. I keep recalling the charming casita that my former husband and I built on our land in southern Chile, with just the help of two local men. “The Don” German had building experience, so he lined up this oxen team to haul gravel to our building site over the dirt roads. At one point, the oxen owner gave me the long stick used to lead the huge beasts, much to the amusement of the local men watching, but that’s a story for another day….
We had no running water or electricity, so all work was done by hand. To mix concrete to anchor the support posts, we hauled water in large buckets, in a wheelbarrow, from our rudimentary well many yards away. The cement was poured in a circle on the ground and water added, shoveling the mix together with gravel to achieve the right consistency. Below, Don German supervises Rosauro on their improvised scaffolding.
We ended up with a cozy casita, and the local native hardwoods were gorgeous! Stay tuned down the road for a blog series about my Chilean adventures, but I need to scan a lot of slides first….
I’ll keep everyone updated as our new home starts taking shape. Thanks for following!
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and a Pulpwood Queens International Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
