February 22, 2007, Thursday

At last we have a break in the weather! Mid-January to mid-February was probably the longest cold spell with continual snow cover in over a decade. Progress on the addition has sped up as the temperatures have risen. Upper 40’s and lower 50’s with over a foot of melting snow have turned the construction site into a hog wallow but it isn’t stopping the workers. One worker has spent considerable time channeling the water to sump pumps to drain the site.

There are two primary areas of construction currently. One is focused on preparing the elevator shaft for a pour while another contingent is rapidly laying cement block walls for the interior walls and south wall.

One of the novel things that is going on is the use of a “ground heater.” The machine runs constantly to warm the ground near where the 30 foot free standing wall for the community room will go. Once the ground is thawed a large trench will be filled with concrete for anchoring supports for the big wall. The builder is a bit anxious about it because of its height and free standing nature. He hopes to gets it done and supported before the strong winds of a spring thunderstorms have a chance to blow it down. Unlike the “Three Little Pigs” I guess with enough huffing and puffing even a brick house can blow down.

January 29, 2007, Monday

       Progress has slowed considerably this month at the temperatures have plummeted and snow has made an appearance. Work continues and 2 additional pourings of the basement walls have occurred. Only one more pour is needed to finish this stage. The rest of the basement walls will be reinforced cement blocks which should progress quickly if the weather cooperates. The next two weeks are expected to be bitterly cold with temperatures expected to dip in the sub-zero realm some nights. It is winter after all! A new photo panorama was added to the photos collection this week!

January 3, 2007, Wednesday

The last several weeks work has continued to progress. Constructing the rebar framework was quite interesting. It was entertaining to observe as the workers climbed the springy wall of steel to tie it all together. It took quite a while also to clean and prepare the forms and put them in place for the first wall. Pre-made steel reinforced forms were used for the straight parts while wooden forms were hand crafted for the zigs and zags of the walls. The additions first wall was poured on Friday the 29th of December. It was a rather damp overcast day. Not ideal for working in; rock even needed to be spread so that the cement trucks would have solid ground to park on while the cement was poured. A pump truck was used to pour the cement into the wall forms. It took five or six truckloads to complete the days project. Pouring took approximately 3 hours. Shortly after the work was completed it changed from mist and drizzle to rain. Over New Years weekend we received about 5 inches of snow on top of an inch of rain so this next weeks work is rather muddy. The forms are being removed now and set in place for the next pour it will take several rounds to complete the basement. The first sets of pours are relatively simple because there are no windows or doors in those sections; they are the unexposed walls of the walk out basement. Check out the Three new video clips of the creation of footings, building the forms, and pouring the wall.