Monday, September 22, 2008

CLOUD HOUSE GOES 3-D!

When I arrived at the site on 16 Sept 2008...

...I was happy to see Aaron had prepared a level playing field for the masons.


Block arrived and so did the crew from Rice Masonry.


James gets the fun work: mixing mortar and cutting unwanted parts from blocks.


Chris is the crew chief, here checking a row for level.



Joe also lays up block, and here checks for plumb.


By the end of the first day, Cloud House has risen into the 3rd dimension.


At four feet high, there was pause for the inspector to approve the re-bar and hold-downs, and then concrete grout was delivered by C.W....

...pumped and poured by Doug,...

...and vibrated by Chris.


When wet from washing, the ground face block's aggregates are plainly visible.


All cleaned up from the grout pour, the second lift got underway.
 Excess re-bar is cut, but the shiny hold-down rods reach up for the first floor shear walls.


By the end of Friday the 19th, the CMU walls were well on their way to being erected.


On the home-sweet-home front, 

the trailer we found arrived...

delivered by the seller, Sandy and her daughter, Liz.

And I had my first visitors: Steve and Sarah from Cambridge, MA!

Monday, September 8, 2008

CLOUD HOUSE GETS FOOTINGS AND TANKS

There was a flurry of activity before Labor Day Week-end...


...under ground tanks and drain lines....footing slabs and grade beams.


But I am ahead of the story.
We left off with piers poured with their re-bar "fairy circles" sticking up. Now form work surrounds them.
On the left, below the gravel, is a curtain drain as well as a rain water discharge line. 


Next to go in were three tanks: two cisterns for rain water, and one septic. Here Randy and Alan deliver the last one.


Took a little push from Aaron and his Link-Belt to get it up the hill and over the hole.


And down she went.


Meanwhile the crew from RK Concrete had completeted the form and re-bar work, and concrete was called in.

Loren Trion, and his big new shiny white truck, arrived, and, while chewing a straw for focus....


...the mad rush, which pouring concrete always is, began.
"What are the the orange tags for?" I hear you ask.
Ever hear of an "Ufer Bar"? Me neither. The inspector kindly pointed out that we forgot it.
(It's to ground the electrical system.) 
"Put it in, take photos, put them in the permit box. Where do I sign off?"


Around the box the crew goes: Eric on the chute, Simon holding one end and Doug the working end of the vibrator, with Cameron and Jim, the trowellers, waiting to jump in.


The mad rush is over, now the finishing touches...trowlling, and, on the right, Eric adjusting the re-bar which will go into the concrete block walls.

More carefully, Eric placed the main hold-down rods. They will eventually rise over 11' to attach to shear walls on the first floor.


The concrete crew is gone, Aaron and Kenny are back filling tanks with gravel, and filling up with water to check for leaks.



The next day the concrete crew returned, stripped the form work, cleaned off all their debris, and left the foundations to cure.