Pouring Downstairs

 Hi all! Well, to continue the story of the foundation downstairs.....

The mixer truck has arrived, full of redi-mix concrete.

Because the pour is downstairs, and around the back of the house, we've hired a pumper to pump the concrete to the forms.  Here the truck is backed up to the pump, and discharging concrete down the chute into the pump hopper.

Here it is from another angle.

And another angle.  See the concrete running down the chute?

Here's a closeup of the hopper and the grill on top.  So debris and big chunks don't get in the mix and plug the hose.  That would be bad.  Very bad.

Here's the pump.  The concrete goes from the hopper into the hose coming out the bottom.

Then the hose runs across the yard, down the side of the house...

Around the back yard....

In the downstairs door....

And across the floor to where the guys are pouring.  Note the connection between the two sections of house.  Just thought you might be interested.

Here's a picture of the concrete shooting out the end of the hose.

And here it is from the other side.  I just do my best to stay out of the way.

Here the guys have been working the top of the concrete, but stepped away for a moment.  Maybe they were too shy to be in my picture.

And here we have a shot of the most of the pour.  They started with the floor, then moved on to the  foundation along the wall.  In this picture, one of the guys is just finishing the top of the new foundation.  Now we just wait for it to cure for awile, then Chris will strip the forms sometime tomorrow.

Downstairs Again

Back downstairs we go. 

These are the septic pipes for the new bathroom about to be built downstairs.

This is just a view of the other side of the downstairs.  I thought you might want to look around a bit.  Move along, nothing to see here.  Just a new door, new window, some wheelbarrows and a ladder.

Theres the old door again.  Any ideas for a new home for it?

Here I'm standing by the new door.  See how it floods the space with light?  Very nice.

Now this, is the form for a new piece of foundation.  The previous owner had, at some point, undermined the foundation in this area, so Chris is pouring reinforcement.  That hot pink line is the string line...so the form would be straight.

And here we have the rebar inside the form for the new foundation.  Drilled and epoxied into the existing foundation, and all tied off.

Here it is from another angle.

And here is the trough (I'm sure its not actually called a trough, but humor me) for the new sewer pipes.  They're under that rock.  Like the angle of my photo?  I'm feeling particularly artsy today.

Here's another artsy view of the rebar.

Speaking of rebar;  here's an example of what I mean when I refer to "tying rebar".  See how the two pieces of rebar are tied together with the piece of wire?

These are the parts needed for rebar tying.  The wire pieces have loops on each end and come in a big roll like you see to the right.  The tool for twisting the wire is that red thing.  I believe its technical name is rebar tie twister.  Okay, I made that up.  I have no idea what its actual name is.
Note:  Chris tells me its called a Yankee Puller - similar to a Yankee Screwdriver.  Don't we all feel so much more enlightened?

First you bend a piece of the wire into a u shape and put it around the rebar.  This is for example only, so I'm just putting it around one piece of rebar.

Then you put the loops on the wire ends on the hook of the yankee puller.

Then, and this is the fun part, you hold onto the red handle of the yankee puller and puullll it away from the rebar.  As you do so, the drill bit looking thing inside twirls around and twists the wire. (Twirls around:  very technical language).

See, here it is pulled out a little farther.  Of course this is only the fun part for the first few.  Not so much for the next hundred or so.

Another important piece if equipment at this stage is the epoxy gun.  Thats it just below the rebar tying stuff.  Remember when I said the rebar was drilled and epoxied into the existing foundation?  Well, this is how the epoxy gets there.

Another view of the epoxy gun.  I'm sure you can figure it out, I'm too tired for another tutorial.

Slider

Sorry for the infrequent posts, but my mom has been visiting, so I haven't been around the computer much!

Chris has the slider in the dining area!

Doesn't it look great?  Look at all that light!

I'm standing in the kitchen, looking toward the door to the garage.  That's the fireplace to the left of the door.  Behind all those boards.  Even more importantly, look at all that light flooding in from the new slider to the right of the garage door!  On an overcast day, no less!

More New Windows

Well folks, we're moving along.  Chris and Dan are still puting in the new windows.



In this picture, you can see where we enclosed the covered porch to gain a little more square footage for the kitchen.  Thats the new kitchen window, with the old breakfast nook window to the left of it.  If you look to the right of the kitchen, you can see the guys are getting ready to replace the dining area window.  The walkplank is set up on the ladder.

Another back view of the house.  The dining area window on the left, and the new garage window next to the new door.  Remember what the garage window used to look like?  You can refresh your memory here.

I'm not sure if this view has changed much since my last post, but here it is again.  You can see the new windows still to be put in leaning against the kitchen wall, and if you look down the stairs, you can see the latest drain pipe.  Like how I captured both of the latest projects in one picture?  Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Here is the new living room window with the sawhorses and boards in front of it.  Chris does his cutting here because it has the best light.



Lastly, I'll leave you with another look at the front of the house.  She's coming along.



Basement

In addition to installing new windows, Chris is still working on the drainage system.

They have cut out some of the basement slab to run a new pipe under it. 

Here you can see the trench, the tidy pile of concrete that was cut out, and the new bedroom windows.  Remember the old long, narrow window to the backyard?  The new one is not as wide, but considerably taller, so you can see where they framed in the old window opening.

Back wall.  Two lovely new windows.  The door will be replaced too, they just haven't done it yet.  I really like the old door, just not for this application.  I'm trying to think of another use for it, but haven't come up with anything yet.  It's really old, I believe it was old when they put it in the house originally.  It's solid wood, nice and heavy, and the glass is old and wavy.  Let me know if you guys have any ideas.

Lets take another gander at that concrete pile.

Here I am precariously balanced over the trench.  All to get the good pics for you guys.

And there the pipe goes under the foundation to the backyard.

Also in the basement, the guys smoothed out the dirt behind the new walls, laid down a layer of heavy plastic and covered it with crushed rock.  (Remember it also has a drainage system under all of that).  This baby should be dry even in a hurricane.  Not that we get hurricanes, but I'm just saying.

Here I am in the far back corner.  Those two white pipes sticking up are cleanouts for the drain pipes.  There's another one next to me where I'm taking the picture.  Never let it be said that Chris does anything halfway.

New Windows

 Notice anything different about the house?

That is a brand new window in the living room!  And if you'll look down the side of the house, the downstairs bedroom has a new window as well.

See?  There's the bedroom window.

Here are some more new windows and the slider that will go in the dining room leaning against the kitchen wall.  If you'll take a look at the  exterior wall, you'll notice that the new kitchen window is in, but the old nook window isn't out yet.

Here they are side by side.  New, old.  Clean, dirty.

Perhaps you can see it better from this angle.  Old, new.  Dirty, clean.

Yuck.  You had pretty much forgotten how bad the house used to be, hadn't you?  Sorry for the unpleasant reminder.

I'll leave you with a look at the nice new kitchen window.  You can see the backyard!  What novelty!