Chop Chop

There's nothing like crisp fall weather and lots of logs, to bring on the powerful desire to chop wood. We've been working on stacking a wood pile for next winter. There's always someone nearby who wants to help. Here's Mr. Bean getting a log ready with the peavey:


He's a fan of loppers too:


As she so often does, Rachel quickly got the swing of chopping:


Rachel's great photo skills catch Eileen's lucky chop:


John gives a demo:

Our neighbor Paul is one with the maul. (He cooks too.)

John is very into the zen of stacking. Perfect cribbing is the key:

With Pauls help, we finished chopping and stacking this pile today. It's so satisfying!

Sills

The carpentry will now begin. It starts with sills -- the wood that sits upon the concrete foundation. It must be measured exactly and be perfectly square, otherwise we'll have a crooked house (not the first). We measure on top of the the concrete walls, a few times, measure again, then snap chalk lines all around. Perfect. In the trade they call this "dead knutz":

John bolts the sills down.

Getting there...

And it's done. It's nice when a job goes uneventfully. The next step will be building the deck.

The Foundation Part II

The Foundation Part II is about water, moisture and drainage. While we were "curing" in Forida, (Did I mention it was a sunny 80 degrees down there?), the outer walls of the fondation were sealed with a black waterproof coating. Gary also dumped piles of sandy fill for backfilling.


Next is drainage. The outside is outlined with perforated pipe laid in a bed of gravel. Over that is filter fabric to help keep sediment out of the gravel bed. All this pitches to the low northwest corner of the house. From there a pipe will be buried downhill from the house to carry away water. The photo below shows the start of the exit pipe:


Here is John prepping the outer drainage before backfill is added:


Next is inside drainage. Pipe is laid and covered with gravel, a vapor barrier, then sand. Again, it's pitched to the low northwest corner where it ties into the outer drainage pipe. Later on, a concrete slab will be poured to complete the cellar floor.


Now the hole is backfilled with sandy fill.


Wooden horseshoe??

The Foundation

A foundation begins with footings -- just like people. Soon after the hole was dug, Jim from Hampshire Concrete arrived with his crew and began the work.
Here are the footings which will hold the walls. Interior footings will be used for weight bearing beams and the chimney:


The boom truck carries and lifts the wall forms to the hole:





The Boss makes sure everything is going properly:



One of the three concrete trucks:



Cellar windows are set inside the forms:



This form is partially filled with concrete:



The crew at work:



Jim (the Dog Boss's owner), is enjoying this mild mid-November day:



Next day the forms are removed. The concrete needs to cure for a few days before back filling the hole.


We went to Florida for a few days while the concrete cured. Our contractor sure knows how to time things efficiently!

Dig Big

We begin from the bottom up -- with a cellar hole. Four stakes are in the ground to mark the corners of the house. Here's Gary assessing the situation:



Matt holds a stick at the bottom of the hole with a receiver attached to it. The receiver is connected to a nearby transit via a laser beam. This helps Gary dig to the proper depth.

Now it's Matt's turn to drive (or should say, "dig"):

The hole is dug and pins are set at the corners. The concrete workers will use these to set the footings and forms.

Building a Permit

The building process cannot begin without submitting paperwork and fees. John spent many hours putting it all together.

There's the deed, water test, energy compliance report, septic inspection, and more...



And the septic design (pretty impressive!):



House drawings, of course:

More forms:


Then, in return for all this paper, we get a pretty yellow building permit which must be conspicuously displayed on the site :-)

440 Feet Later

Well, gone are the days of dowsers with their divining rod searching your yard for the best place to find water. Today, a spot is chosen and that's where you drill until water is found. It eventually happens (in this area anyway). However, this spot is not arbitrary. It must be:

• 50 feet from any property boundary, including the road side


• 150 feet from your leach field or any neighboring one


• 25 feet from the house


• 15 feet from the driveway


• accessible enough for the drill rig to get to

After lots of measuring, we found a few square feet that satisfied the criteria and put in a stake to mark the spot.

We hired Henshaw to do the job. Kirke has a great reputation and his business has drilled most of the wells in this neighborhood.

As you can see, it's a big rig:

This "slurry" is composed of very small particles of rock produced during the drilling. When wet, it feels like heavy sand.

Water was found at 440 feet -- a fairly deep well for this area. The water was tested and the results came back fine. And here it tis -- the finished well: