Stair Footings

The next step is to pour a landing for the stairs to rest on.  The new staircase will end just outside the existing concrete downstairs, so Chris needs to pour a little slab for them.  Yes, just Chris, no Dan today.

Here are some of the bags of concrete that need to be hauled downstairs so Chris can mix them with water and pour the concrete in the forms.  By the way, this is concrete.  Not cement.  Cement is an ingredient in concrete.  It drives me wild when people talk about a cement sidewalk.  No, its a concrete sidewalk.

Okay, I'm over that rant.  Guess who got to carry the bags downstairs?  All 18 of them?  Yes, me.

Here is Chris, working away.  He's using that wheelbarrow to mix concrete.

And here we are downstairs.  No, I didn't use that ladder to go downstairs when carrying bags of concrete mix.  Ho! Ho!  That would have been hilarious!  No, I went out the garage, down the backyard  and in the door to the basement.  One bag at a time in my arms.  No wheelbarrow, as it would have been a crazy runaway going down that hill.

Oh, and if you look in the right side foreground, you can see the stringers for the new stairs.  They are the jaggedy-sawtooth looking things.  One end of each gets nailed to the floor joist upstairs, and the other rests on the new footing Chris just poured.  Then the stair treads are nailed to the stringers.  And there you go!  A staircase!

Here's Chris mixing up some more concrete.

And dumping it in the form and smoothing it out.

Here is a closer look.

And a far away look.  Those are the last two of the concrete bags on the wall to the left.  And a bunch of empties on the right.

In a happy bit of news, look how well the new drain is working!

Here's the new concrete looking down from upstairs.

And here's another look from the other end of the stairway opening.

Lastly, here it is from downstairs.  See the jack in front of the foundation wall?  Holding up the post, which is holding up the upstairs.  Kind of important.