A week's worth of work on the house

I meant to post before we left to go out of town for the 4th, but didn't, and now we've been back for two days and so it's about time I let you know where things are!

Monday, July 1: A day of unexpected visitors

Leah was again our super-helper-six-year-old, watching the video monitor on Reuben for us so we could get out and get some more waterproofing membrane on.

Thank you to Owen for taking a photo of me and Matt working together!

A friend from our Bible study came over mid-afternoon (around the time the little ones wake up from their nap) to give us some good solid time to work without having to climb in and out of the "hole" and more importantly, have to keep going in to wash the tar off our hands so we could touch small children! A HUGE time saver! Because even though Leah is great, there are some things a six-year-old can't do. ;)

While we were working, Leah called down that someone was knocking at the door. No idea who it was - I climbed out of the hole to find an older man I'd never met before. He introduced himself as a neighbor from a few blocks down from us. He was working on replacing a window well and needed some extra fill since his had settled, and was wondering if we could spare a few pails full. Woo hoo!!! One thing we've been wondering about is where in the world we're going to dump all this dirt without having to pay a whole bunch of money to truck it off. This isn't much, but these are the kinds of things we listen for from God to hear him telling us that he's got it covered.  A relative of Matt's who used to work in the excavation business stopped by and took a look at the excavated soils with Matt to see if they would be suitable for backfilling or if we would need to truck in sandier soils.  He said they looked sandy enough that we can re-use the soil on-site for backfilling.  

that much less dirt to find a home for!

Back down into the hole. ;) A bit later we hear from Leah: There's a blue truck in the driveway! Who else but an old graduate school friend who lived with us for a year or so way back before we had little ones. He stops by our house now and then, and we do by his every year or so. Turns out he's laid off, and not bothering to look for a job for a month or two so he can finish up his own projects (he doubled the size of his tiny house by himself a number of years ago and is still working on parts of it.) He offered to help if there was a day when an extra set of hands would be helpful! Little answer number two for the day. God can bring help from places we don't expect.

Tuesday and Wednesday morning (before we left) all blur together for me. A different friend from our Bible study came over to work with Matt for the afternoon on Tuesday, and between that and Leah covering the nap time so I could work, too, we finished all of the waterproofing, got all of the rigid insulation over the waterproofing, AND got the drain tile put back in for good on the south side of the house. That was a job - first, to muck out all of the mud that settled into that space next to the footing, (which has to be carried out in buckets) then to lay down some fabric to help keep the gravel clear, then the drain tile, then gravel over that (which has to be carried down bucket by bucket), fabric wrapped back over the top, and then dirt knocked down from the side to cover the fabric and keep everything in place. We can't fully backfill until the slab is poured in the basement, but can do just enough to protect the drain tile and fabric.

in-process shot of the drain tile

Owen was a HUGE help with the gravel. He worked HARD Tuesday night keeping the gravel buckets filled so Matt could come up the ladder with empty ones and have full ones ready for him instead of having to fill them himself. This was serious physical labor for both of my boys!

work, boy, work!

a shot from earlier in the day when our friend was over and his son and our two little ones were starting to fill buckets with rocks.

While we were gone at our family reunion, our framers got the main floor joists and subfloor installed, so this is what we came home to:

It's really neat to see it taking shape - you can see the lower level of the landing/entry/office, as well as the opening where the stairs will run - the little joist ends sticking out toward the camera in the upper photo will support the fireplace when we finally are able to put that in (for cost reasons that's something that we'll push out for a while).

And finally up to today, Monday, July 8th.

Our framer was taking the day off as his holiday, so it was just Matt working for most of the day. The task of the day was to get the drain tile on the north side of the house completed. This was more of a challenge than the south side for a few reasons. One is that the space is tighter over there...

...and the other is that the soil on that side of the house is not as well-draining as the soil on the south side, so instead of just knocking down some of the sandier soil from the wall a bit to cover the gravel and fabric, Matt had to carry nicer soil down the ladder bucket by bucket. So, bucket by bucket mucking out, bucket by bucket gravel in, and bucket by bucket sandier soil in. He is tired. Every time I saw him today sweat was shooting out of the top of his head - it was incredible. But he's sitting next to me alive right now, so all is well. ;) I bet he sleeps soundly tonight!

Owen was again a help, though we let him play for much of the day, too, and he spent the time after supper until the work was done filling buckets for Matt.

Owen filling buckets

the sand pile mid-way through the evening

So that gives you some idea where we're at! We're hoping our framer will be able to finish up some smaller scale details in the basement tomorrow so Matt can start working on laying the rigid insulation and then the tubing for the radiant heat. Once that's in and passes inspection, we're ready for concrete down there!