Catching up!

It's been quite a while since the last update! 

Since I last wrote,  a city crew came and re-finished the temporary patch over the water meter connection.  It was fun to watch these 2 men very efficiently do this job,  and finish it so well!

      

 

During the holiday breaks Kyle and his friend Austin helped out quite a bit.  It was great having these 2 young, energetic helpers!  I think they had a good time working together,  and hopefully learned a lot!  Here is Kyle helping to build the forms.

I was a bit too optimistic when I wrote that I might be able to pour after Thanksgiving!  This stage of construction has taken longer than I expected,  because it is very complex.  

I decided to prepare for one large pour,  one that would include the cellar footing and slab,  the foyer slab and the living-room slab,  as well as the stem walls that support these levels.  The 3 different floor levels involve a lot of custom forming,  and a very complex system of reinforcement.   

At the back of the garage where I did the slump backfill,  I built a removable form for the stem-wall that runs down the middle of the living-room.  It also supports the Am-Deck that forms the suspended portion of the living-room floor.

This view from the garage roof shows the Amdeck section built over the crawl-space. The floor will continue forward over the garage.  

We have now entered the rainy season,  and even though Southern California is in the middle of a record drought,  I still needed to protect my temporary cuts from rain.  The light plastic I had put up before was getting torn apart by the wind, so I spent the time and $$ to use the heavier 6 mil black plastic.

Just in time!  We got a good rain storm soon after I put the plastic up!  In addition to the plastic on the excavations,  I lined the street fence with a dam of sandbags to prevent any dirt from washing into the public right-of-way.

In the next entry,  I will finally be caught up!  I'll really try not to get so far behind again!