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.