Waterproofing / Termite Pretreat / Floor Slab and Wall Braces

It's manual labor time...

WATERPROOFING
We (mostly Jeff) spent the weekend preparing and waterproofing the lower basement walls.  First, all the cracks and holes had to be sealed with spray foam, then Jeff sprayed the waterproofing material all over the footers and walls.  Luckly, the process was easier than anticipated and Jeff was still able to spend some quality time with his folks who happened to be in town visiting for Chase's birthday!

Next, the footing drain tile was installed around the periphery (the black tube at the base of the structure).  It gets covered with pea gravel before back-fill. 

To get down into the hole (but not inside the structure), there is a small, steep ramp.  We attached a ski rope to the top and use the rope to repel in or help pull ourselves out!  Again, the boys are loving this!

FLOOR SLAB
Before pouring the slab, we hired a company to come out and pretreat for termites.  Rain, rain, go away!  A bit of a rain delay, but a day later they were able to pour the floor slab.

WALL BRACES
It was decided that wall braces were a good idea to install during back-fill since a floor membrane structure was not in place.  Interestingly though, nobody wanted to take responsibility for this.  We quickly learned that when it comes to a liability issue, nobody wants it.  The backfill guys said it was the wall guys responsiblity, and the wall guys said it was the backfillers responsibility.  My structural engineer said he wasn't responsible for doing the calculations.  After all the finger pointing and trying to negotiatie, I just did it myself.  Darn lawyers make things so difficult!  Funny thing is, the walls are so stout that we probably didn't even need the braces.

Lower Basement Walls

 

WE NOW HAVE WALLS!

Over the past few weeks, they've been putting up the ICF (insulated concrete forms...aka "walls") and pouring the concrete.  It's been fun watching the big cranes come in.  These walls measure 10'8" and create our sub-basement "Sport Court".   The south and east walls have double rebar since they will be 20' walls when complete.  The other walls just have one row of rebar.  Notice the scaffolding in the first photo and the orange ladder in the last photo.  It 's a 20' ladder and the only way in/out of the building.  Jeff and the kids love the adventure, but Doti sure is a nervous nelly...definitely afraid of heights!  

Lower Footings

This past week, they formed the lower basement footings on Monday and Tuesday.  They were suppose to pour the concrete on Wednesday, but we spent the day waiting for the city inspector to arrive.  We passed our first inspection...on the first try!  Now, the pour will be Monday after Thanksgiving.  We spent the long weekend with many helpers assembling 12" thick ICF block.  Altogether, we built 128 straight blocks and 16 corner blocks which consisted of connecting the two foam pieces with 16 plastic connectors.  Thank you everyone for your help!  It made the task go quickly!

You can see the ICF is everywhere...including our garage (as pictured above).

The kids enjoyed playing in the empty boxes...even Aspen stayed happy through most of it!

Digging the Hole!

On November 15th, Jeff and I met on the construction site early and watched as the excavator slowly began its process of digging up the dirt for our basement.  For me, it was so exhillarating as the process of building our new home actually became a reality.  It has been 6 years since we talked about buying Tract G in hopes that one day we would build a new home.  Today, that dream is becoming true - how incredibly exciting!

After school, we took the boys to the property so they could see the process first hand.  They were thrilled with the mounds of dirt they saw.  They ran up and down the piles as well as drove their toy cars on the imaginary roadways they created.  We finally allowed them to climb into the excavator bucket for a photo opportunity. This has definitely been an exciting day for us all!

Notice the step-down dig which is done for safety purposes.  Each step is 5 feet deep and 3 feet wide.  It took 3 long days to completely dig Phase 1 of the basement. Quote from the excavator: "This is the biggest hole I've dug in 15 years!" 

Construction Has Begun!

It's official, the new Guymon House is under construction! We've created this blog so that friends and family can follow along with us on our journey in building our new home.

On November 13th, we had a small "Ground Breaking" party, where a few friends and family members helped us raise a toast to the start of our big project.