Weekend Eight

Dustin took off work Monday to try to get some more work done around the house.  He was able to get quite a bit accomplished.  You can see the base rock in the garage!  We're getting ready for floors, friends!  

He was also able to get all of the base rock in the basement graded.

Doesn't it look nice and pretty now?

I hate to disappoint, but I only have one picture to share with you from this weekend.  Dustin worked the entire weekend by himself.  Saturday, I took my mom to a CCW class, so I wasn't around to take pictures.  

Saturday he put vapor barrier down and laid wire mesh in the garage.  Sunday he set forms to pour the garage and basement floors.

This week, the plumbers will come and rough in the plumbing for the basement floor.  Then floors, sweet floors!  See you soon!

Weekend Seven

This was the LONGEST. WEEK. EVER!  Yes, the picture is dark.  Guess why?  It was freakin' dark.  Like late.  At night.  And we were all exhausted.  Dustin ended up having to work late, so Jaden and I went out to the house to get started as soon as school was out.  We were under a time crunch because the walls were getting waterproofed the next day.  Jaden and I worked hard.  I ended the day with over 16,000 steps, two hands full of blisters, sore muscles, and it was easily one of the most exhausting days of my life.  But, this was nothing compared to what my husband did.  I have no idea how he continued so late into the night.  I'm not sure, but he might be Iron Man.  He continues to pour everything he has into our home and it's impressive.

Up to this point, there have been piddly little things Jaden and I can help with, but on this day, we were all working.  Hard.  Look at our little man trying to keep up with his Daddy.  He was quite a trooper that night.

Day One

Fast forward to the weekend.  The walls have been waterproofed!  Dustin and Johnnie added half-inch foam sheeting to protect the waterproofing. 

Then, they jumped in their man toys and got to work!  A lot of earth was moved this day, friends.

The gravel and corrugated pipe act as a French drain, which diverts water away from the basement.  

Then, they back filled around the basement walls with dirt.  

Day Two

Today, it's just the McGuirks.  You can see the garage all nice and filled.  It certainly is easier to walk around now!

Jaden helped Dustin shoot grade to prepare for the basement floors to be poured.

Here's the other side of the house with the completed back fill.

Look at these two hard workin' men.  Peas and carrots.  Dustin and his mini.

As a reward for all of his hard work, Dustin let Jaden run the skid steer for awhile.  He had a blast!  Boys and their toys!  ;-)

Weekend Six

I'm going to go ahead and warn you now:  this post has LOTS of pictures.  There's a very good reason for that, though...we poured basement walls.  This is a BIG job, so Dustin enlisted the help of a few more friends from work.  Thank goodness for them!

So, since we have a lot of pics to get through, I'll try to keep the commentary shorter.  Well, I said TRY.  Anywho...we started the day early and prepared for the concrete trucks.

And then they came, one after another, after another!  

And so it began....in the picture below, they guys went ahead and got started on pouring around the garage.  Normally, you would wait for the pump truck first, but our poor pump truck driver got rear-ended and it took him a little longer to get there.  Of course, these guys weren't going to waste any time, so they improvised!

Why yes, those are boys climbing all over the super tall walls. :-o  And, you may also notice Johnnie running up the concrete chute.  That man is a squirrel!

Once the pump truck arrived, things moved a little faster and the boys had to sit and watch.

If you've never seen a pump truck in action, it is something to see!  

If you don't know what a pump truck does, it basically takes the concrete from the concrete truck, runs it through a big long hose and allows you to move it easily all over the site pouring concrete exactly where you need it.  It would be impossible to do that with the concrete truck alone.

The boys did get to jump in and help by tapping the walls trying to beat the air out of them fill the voids.

Doesn't that look like a lot of fun?  Another reason you want the concrete coming out of the hose instead of the chute from the concrete truck is because the space between the forms is fairly narrow and you need the hose in order to manipulate the concrete.

I decided to snap a shot of how the whole process works because I thought it was pretty interesting since I'd never seen it before.  As you can see, the concrete truck pours the concrete from the chute into the pump truck.  Then, the pump truck pumps it into the big hose.

The boys kept busy with their jobs all morning...I think it had more to do with the fun of climbing around than anything else! ;-)

Once the concrete filled the walls, they had to smooth it out.

Day Two

Sunday we were back to just Dustin and Johnnie.  They spent the day taking down the forms and now we have walls!

Jaden was the only kiddo there today, but that didn't stop him from climbing around as much as he could get away with.

We have a lot of clean up left to do, so the work will continue throughout the week.

Weekend Five

We were certainly under the wire this week.  Dustin was at the house every single night.  Again.  But, we're losing daylight now that winter is heading our way.  He even had to have me drive out early in the week and we unloaded more forms off the trailer by the headlights of my 4-runner.  This led him to make the decision to bring in a few other guys from work to help them get caught up and ensure we are ready for the concrete trucks again next week.

This weekend was our son's 13th birthday, so he had a friend stay over Friday night.  I've got to give them props...they knew Dustin had to get up early to go work on the house and although they did stay up WAY too late, they did it quietly.  :-)  By the time I took the friend home on Saturday morning and got out to the house, the progress was incredible.  What a difference some extra hands makes!

They were able to set all of the walls on Saturday!  Yep... ALL of them!  Woohoo!  They worked a full day and had me running all over the place for food, drinks, trips to Lowes, etc.  But at least I was doing something to be helpful.  I'm completely lost when it comes to this building stuff.  The picture below was taken from the corner of the garage.

This picture was taken on the opposite side of the house.  That square you see right in front will be the safe room on bottom and the porch on top.

This one was taken from the back side of the house as they were getting ready to start putting up the back wall forms.

On Sunday, it was back to just Dustin and Johnnie.  Those long pink things are foam and they are used for brick ledge.  This serves as a ledge for the brick to sit on.  Again, more stuff I had no clue about...  I do know it took the two of them most of the day to get it all done.

While they were working on that, I decided to snap a quick picture of the finished back side of the house.  This is on the back side, but the opposite of the one taken yesterday.  Here, you can see part of  the garage on top as well.

I cannot begin to express how hard these guys work.  It's amazing.  They're like little energizer bunnies.  They work and work and work.  What was I doing?  Well, I picked up trash around the job site since our trash receptacle had been delivered, I brought them little things they needed here and there, and I set up a camping chair to enjoy the breeze.  :-)

Next week, we should have WALLS, my friends!  I honestly have no idea what comes after that, but I'm about to learn.  See you soon...

Weekend Four

This first picture actually took place before the weekend.  Dustin spent every single night after work this week making the most of the daylight and working on tying rebar until he couldn't see.  Every. Single. Night.  :-(  A few nights, Jaden and I were able to stop by and spend some time with him.  Late nights = super late dinners, little family time, and a worn out dad.  He's keeping a pretty good attitude about it and his eye is on the prize.  Me...that's another story.  Remember that very first post when I told you I didn't really want to build a house?  THIS would be one of the reasons why.  I know, I know...suck it up, buttercup.  It will be all worth it when it's finished...blah, blah, blah.  The truth is:  right now it sucks a little so I'm throwing a little pity party for myself right here on my blog.

Saturday, the guys spent the morning running around gathering things they needed to continue working on putting up the wall forms.  Here, we've got more rebar tying.  Who knew there was so much rebar inside those concrete walls?!?!

Oooh, oooh!  The wall forms started going up.  See that big guy right in the center?  That's Dave.  You may not be able to tell in this picture (unless maybe you know about how big Dustin is and can see him over on the right and begin comparing the two), but Dave is big.  Like B-I-G.  I like to call him a bear.  I think of him more of a big teddy bear, but I believe that if you got on the wrong side of this fella, that wouldn't be the comparison you would use.  And the guys at work probably wouldn't agree with me, either.  At any rate, it's pretty entertaining to watch him pick up those big, heavy forms like they're little sacks of potatoes.

Johnnie and Dave got a good start on setting up the wall forms...

....while Dustin kept typing rebar.  Does this part EVER end?!?!  (Says the girl who just takes the pictures, runs the errands, and delivers lunch.)

Finally, Dustin gets to jump into the wall form game!  Once they got going, I got a better idea of how big the house is going to be.  You see, this house is going to be kind-of a surprise for me.  Yes, I've seen the plans and was actually a part of those decisions.  However, I just don't have that spatial sense that some people have.  I know how many bedrooms and bathrooms this house will have, and I even know the square footage.  It just doesn't mean much to me because I can't "see" it in my mind.  The wall forms are helping a lot with that.  I'll be glad to "see" it in real life!

They completed one whole side of the house and got a good start on the safe room, but didn't make as much progress as they had hoped.  What does that mean?  It means more late nights for Dustin this week and pushing back the concrete one more weekend.  Well, I suppose we ought to go ahead and get used to being flexible with the plan!

I'm sure Dustin will be super excited that I decided to share this picture, but it's part of the building process, and I feel like in order to stay true to that process, I had to include it.  Apparently, a piece of rebar got a little sassy and decided to take a small chunk out of his nose.  #ouch

What do you have to look forward to?  We hope to have the rest of the wall forms set by the end of next weekend.  I guess we'll see if we can get that done.  (It's also our son's birthday next weekend!)  See you next week!

Weekend Three

Saturday morning, the guys started bright and early so they could meet the concrete trucks!  I have to say, I was really impressed with the concrete company we are working with.  The drivers were on time (a little early, actually!) and very polite.  So far, I would highly recommend them.

Finishing the concrete and making it look pretty.  This part is pretty time-sensitive because the concrete starts setting up and gets a little more difficult to work with.  It's a good thing these guys move fast!

 

Dustin is adding rebar to give the walls strength.  You may already know this process, but I'm learning something new every day about home building!

We took a little "break" so the concrete could set up and came back to start stripping the footing forms.  Looky there!  It's starting to look like something...

Just in case you were wondering where the boys were....they were busy building forts, digging, and generally being boys.  It's a wonderful thing to see and quite entertaining.  There just wasn't as much "work" they could help with this time, so they made the most of it...and they were WORN OUT (and the big boys were, too)!

The next step is tying rebar and setting up these forms for the walls.  That's what you have to look forward to seeing next week, folks!