Pour #2 is done!

Sorry for the delay in posting. We DID finally pour the stairs and patio. Then IMMEDIATELY switched to opera mode – so I’m crazy busy on that.

To go back a little… we had a number of things to finish up in the prep for the pour. We got the inspection on Friday, Jan 8 and schedule the pour for Tuesday, Jan 12. Then we looked at the weather. Icky icky icky. We kept knocking things off our to do list. All the time noting that the chance of rain for Tuesday was increasing from 50% to 60% to 80% to 100% (and Weds up to 70%). That did it. We canceled Tues and set up for Thurs. Guess what happened?

You are correct if you guessed that we received NOT ONE DROP of rain on Tuesday or Wednesday. NOT A DROP. I was cursing the skies – well maybe the weather forcasters more than the skies. But we were ready and more than ready for the pour.

Thursday rolled around. Skies clear. Girls off to school early. Chet out in the yard and ready to go. Donuts in their pink box awaiting hungry workers. We were expecting the finishers at 7:30am – by 8:15 we started getting a bit concerned. The pump guy called me at 8:30 and told me his truck wouldn’t start. He’d lined up a backup pump and promised we’d have something at the house at 9am. I called the concrete company to delay the concrete, but they were already on the way.

So the finishers showed up just after 8:30am. The concrete arrived at 8:55am. The pump arrived at 9:30am (we have to pay the concrete company for the delay). We were pumping by 9:40am or so and done with the concrete by 11am. We had 70 minutes of extra charges (I wished I’d known that the concrete guys sell you concrete with a maximum truck time of 35 min per 9 yards – I’m sure I could have negotiated that extra charge away). Ah well.

The finishers were very good, but some small problems have come to light since the pour. We think we can fix the slope problems when we tile the patio. All in all we were happy with the guys.

We learned the proper way to build the risers in stair forms – you give yourself 1/8″ gap on each side, attach the riser to a 2×4 or 1/2″ plywood and then attach that assembly to the stringers. After the pour, the finishers can easily remove the assemblage and smooth out the concrete stairs. We wedged our risers in quite firmly and will have a hell of a time removing them now.

Chet had to go to work on Friday, so we didn’t get a chance to remove forms till Sunday. We were very happy with how it all came out. And what a treat to enter the basement via a STAIRWAY. Hooray!! The drains are working beautifully.

Our thoughts have been much with Haiti this last week. We can only give aid and hope the relief effort reaches folks in time. Catie asked me if she could give the Haitians “all her money.” It is a sobering and instructive sight and encourages us to revisit our own earthquake preparation again.

We’ve tarped the house again in preparation for a series of storms that started Saturday night and is forecast to continue thorugh next WEEK! We’re mainly trying to keep the shoulder of the trench intact – avoid supersaturating that soil – so that we don’t have any more cave-ins in the trench.

We’re planning to hire the concrete finishers to install the waterproofing during the first week in Feb while we get started on the plumbing. We shall see how all that works out.

 

Still winding…

We’re getting closer and closer to a pour day. No REALLY, we are! (In the photo we’re lowering the compactor into the patio area to compact the base rock.)

I’ve got an inspection scheduled for Monday (hoping to change it to tomorrow). The concrete pump guy is scheduled for Tuesday with two finishers. I still have to set up the concrete order for Tuesday. But I think it might really happen Tuesday, though rain is forecast, so who knows.

We’ve been working on the patio stairs this week. I bought a huge block of polystyrene and shaped it to fit in the big hole under the stairs.

Then I reattached the stringer to the wall, marked, drilled, and cleaned holes for the rebar for the stair risers.

Chet cut and I installed rebar for the new wall to the right side as you ascend the stairs.

Then we cut rebar for the back retaining wall of the patio stairs and drilled the holes it will go into in the existing retaining wall.

THEN… we took EVERYTHING out and staged it.

 

Wind up to the stairwell pour…

We’ve made a little progress during winter break. The girls are getting many chances to “help.” Here they are keeping a piece of plywood on the worktable while Chet cuts out a form piece for the patio stairs.

The patio stairs will be built right along the foundation wall. Because of this, the patio stairs fall half in the overcut – so there is no dirt under them for half their width, and no dirt at the top end. So we have to build up some forms to create the outside corner.

Also, we don’t want to fill in the whole overcut void under the stairs with concrete. We’d planned on making cages out of metal lathe and filling them with baserock, but Paul Jr told us to get big blocks of polystyrene.

It took a full day to chase down materials for the next phase of stair form construction. First, I needed to find big 4×4 (foot) chunks of polystyrene. Finally located some at Pacific Foam. Nice folks.

Second, we had a waterproofing plan for all the wall area OUTSIDE the stair footprint, but needed to waterproof the foundation wall BELOW the stairs BEFORE the pour. Paul Jr. recommended a product called Red Guard (which I couldn’t find). The waterproofing distributor (Lowry’s in Hayward) convinced me to use a product called Aquafin-2K/M (remains flexible, rock veneer can go on top).

Before we could put the 2K/M on though, we had to clean the wall and fill in any holes with mortar. We did this yesterday and let it alone to dry for 24hrs. We then turned to installing a 2″ line for the sump pit. This line had to go through a 3″ ABS sleeve in the footing. There is a huge water path between the 3″ sleeve and the 2″ pipe inside it and we realized we needed to somehow waterproof this gap. We finally came up with the idea of using a 3×2 bushing between the 3″ and 2″ pipes. If we cut off the “stop” (the area of plastic in the bushing that stops the smaller pipe at a distance of 3/4″ from the outside of the bushing) built into the bushing, we could hypothetically slide it along the 2″ pipe far enough to fit a coupling on behind it, we could then glue the bushing to the 2″ pipe. Then we could slide the whole assemblage into the 3″ pipe and glue the bushing into the pipe. This would then seal up our opening while allowing our 2″ pipe to go through the 3″ pipe. Genius!! The trick would be first cutting the stop off the bushing and then seeing if we could get it to slide along the pipe.

After a number of false starts we found that a rough metal file and elbow grease were the best tools to remove the plastic creating the stop inside the bushing. Once the stop was gone, we carefully dry fit the pipe into the bushing. It seemed like it would fit, but we probably had to lubricate the pipe with something. Chet had the final brainstorm to just use glue and have the coupling ready to slap onto the end of the pipe as soon as we had the bushing slid into place along the pipe. It worked like a charm. We then assembled the rest of the pipe components and made a good guess at where to drill the hole. We confirmed level on the whole thing and Chet filled in the trench with drain rock. With this step done, the patio is ready to receive a 3-4″ layer of compacted 3/4″ base rock (which is sitting tarped in the back yard).

Today with the mortar dry and rain predicted tomorrow, I wanted to get the waterproofing 2-K/M stuff on the wall so it had 3 hrs to dry before being hit by rain. I was a bit uncertain – but motivated by the coming rain – so I mixed up my first batch of 2-K/M. It is a gluey liquid mixed with a cementaceous powder – like a concrete glue. I applied it with a big masonry brush in two layers. I’d hoped to do it in one layer, but the brush puts it on fairly thin. We’d decided to waterproof the whole wall along the stairs and ALL concrete that would be covered up in the impending pour.

So it is done and dry and ready for any rain that might come our way.

 

Photo Field Trip to Oakland Zoo

The girls were DESPERATE to try out their new cameras on a subject NOT around the house, so they convinced us to visit the Oakland Zoo today.

We’d planned on today as a workday, but then decided to stay inside with the girls. We played games during the morning. The negotiations began around lunch, so we agreed if the girls did their Holiday Homeshcool Homework (spelling, math, music), we’d go to the zoo.

They IMMEDIATELY jumped up and got going on the homework and then we had to keep our end of the bargain and get our lazy butts out into the cold and drive up to the zoo.

It was a nice quiet day at the zoo. We only had two hours to visit, but made the most of it. The girls got to use their cameras and run about. Catie took a very nice photo of me & Chet that I like quite alot. Not bad for a couple of old farts, eh?

 

Merry Christmas

We were so happy that Chet came home this morning. We’d feared that he could catch a mandatory overtime and be missing for xmas eve AND day, but home he came and early to boot!

The girls awoke at 5:30am and I kept them in bed till 7am (I’d been up till 3:30am like an idiot!). They got to open their stockings before daddy got home, but had to wait for everything else. We barely got through the stockings when Chet showed up – he’d took advantage of an early relief as he was ready to hit the road when his replacement walked through the door at 7:30am.

The girls were beyond excitement and tore through their gifts. Catie is really developing some amazing sweetness and appreciation for each gift. Beck is still in tear through everything in sight mode.

While I got lunch going, Chet and the girls cleaned up the living room. Paul and family arrived at 11:45am. The turkey was out, but the potatoes were still not done, so we ended up eating at 12:30pm. I’d cooked or prepared almost everything the day before, set the table, etc, etc. So it was very little work (relatively) to pull a full meal together by noon.

We had a really nice visit with Paul & family. Paul loved his Stokes ladder (we were hoping he would). We get to babysit it while he is visiting PaPa and TaTa. Maybe he’ll forget to come pick it up. Har.

We spent the rest of the day playing games (new Bingo game) and doing puzzles. A very peaceful, pleasant day. I usually want 20+ people for the holidays, but having just 8 was really very nice too.

 

Collecting Concrete for Cash

Some kids get to go to Hawaii over their winter holidays. Ours get to stay home and pick up chunks of concrete.

The girls ran out of nails and screws to pick up at a penny a piece and were asking for another money-making chore. Chet came up with a great one – clear out all the concrete chunks and chips in the basement.

They’re getting one dollar a bucket and so far they’ve picked up six buckets. There is much more concrete in 3″-ish sizes that they are less interested in picking up. I imagine they’ll get interested again one day before we really need it all up.

While the girls were clearing concrete with their bare hands (!), Chet and I excavated the area where the patio stairs will be (that was on the 21st). Well, I did the excavation and dirt-in-bucket hauling and Chet stood around watching and taking a wheelbarrow of dirt away every so often. Lazy boy.

Chet worked the 22rd, so on the 23rd we started building up the stairway forms. We got the outside wall built and the second stringer in despite having to redo the top outside form FOUR FREAKING TIMES and we even RAN OUT OF LUMBER in the middle of the whole mess. But the forms are up and square now and we’ll just forget that little piece of the journey. Crikey.

Because the patio stairs sit half over undisturbed soil and half over the overcut for the foundation wall, there is a huge void (under the stairs in the overcut) that we’d rather not fill with yards of concrete. We’d planned on building boxes of metal lathe and filling them with 3/4″ baserock, so I ordered baserock for a Saturday morning delivery. Of course, brother Paul (who came for Christmas lunch with his family) had a MUCH better idea for how to fill in the huge void, so we don’t need all the baserock that was delivered right NOW. We’ll use it when we build up the basement slab.

We got the drain pipe and drain rock leveled, glued, wraped, and laid in the area that will be the stairway and now we’re ready to form up the rest of the stairs. But that will have to wait until after the holiday.

 

Catie Goes to the SF Zoo

Catie has been desperate to visit the San Francisco Zoo. To date, she’s been asking at times AFTER 2pm in the afternoon. I told her that we needed to leave the house at 9am to get up to SF and see the zoo.

A day finally presented itself and Chet was even home, so off we went to explore the zoo. Catie was in heaven and the zoo was quite deserted. We got there at 10:15am and left at closing time (4pm) in a slight drizzle. Otherwise we had fantastic sunny (if cold) weather.

We saw polar bear, grizzlys, sun bear, eland, giraffe, zebra, lowland gorillas, a variety of lemurs, tamarins, penguins, lion, tigers, a DUIKER, black swans, rhinos, and more.

All in all a very nice day at the zoo.

 

Beckledee-Beast the Ballerina

Becky asked to take ballet again this school year. She’d joined the class about a month before the end of school last year, so was unable to participate in the summer show. But THIS year, she joined up not too late (BAD mommy!) and was able to be part of the holiday recital. Catie chose not to join ballet this year because: (1) she doesn’t like to stretch, and (2) she doesn’t like to wear tights.

Beck concentrated hard and within a couple of weeks before the recital was moved to the front line (center) so she could help lead the younger girls. She was VERY proud of this. When recital day arrived, she told me she was feeling shy but also very excited.

She did great and we all went out to the coffee shop for a post-recital celebratory hot cocoa. There happened to be a radio troupe at the coffee shop about to perform The Christmas Carol, so we stayed to watch and listen. Catie immediately fell asleep and Becky performed a Stage Three Meltdown, so the night ended less happily than one might have expected.

“Bah!” said Scrooge. “Humbug!” – A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

 

Wrapping up a great xmas present…

It’s not easy to giftwrap a sump pit, but I’m doing my best.

We had such a rare day – we actually COMPLETED the task we set out to do!! We’ve probably had this experience a handful of times since the beginning of the project. What a lovely feeling to actually finish the job we’d hoped to do on the day we planned to do it. Feels GREAT!!

We carefully placed the first stringer for the patio stairs and screwed it to the concrete foundation wall. This set the slab level. Using this level as a reference point, we located where the sump basin should go and figured how much to cut off it. Then we removed a little more dirt from the patio floor to level it out a bit.

The photo really shows me lining the sump pit with landscaping fabric. This fabric should keep silt out of the sump pit. After the fabric was in, we filled the bottom 3″ or so of the pit with drain rock, placed the tub in it, cut holes in the basin for the pipes (AMAZINGLY the first set of holes worked – really that was AMAZING!!), put the basin in the hole, filled in around the outside with many buckets of drain rock, gathered the fabric together over the sump basin and covered the whole thing with a big piece of plywood (to protect it from rain) to await inspection (scheduled for Thursday).

We finished gluing up the window well 2″ pipe and made a hole for it in the sump pit and filled in its trench with drain rock. Finally, we glued up the electrical conduit that will get burried in the patio base rock (under the slab) and ran it out to the sump pit.

Chet goes back to work tomorrow and we’ll get back to work on Saturday hopefully. Some rain expected tomorrow, but otherwise clear weather forecast. The patio stairs are next and they look fairly straight forward save for one thing. We’ll get to that in good time, no doubt.

Having completed our task for the day by 3pm, we tidied up the basement after I brought the girls home from school. Things were getting WAY out of hand down there with scraps of every imaginable building product piling up, cords everywhere, and tools tucked willy nilly into corners. All in all a very satisfying day for a change.

 

If You Give a Sissy a Sledgehammer…

We really are still working on the house, but we’ve been stuck in Wait! First We Have To Do This Other Thing Before We Do The First Thing Land for the last couple of weeks.

The situation which isn’t helped by Chet’s absence due to many trade paybacks. He had a run of four work days last week during the cold, cold weather.

We’ve also had a bit of rain to work around. The main problem with the rain is protecting the rebar as the trench around the house seems to be doing just fine and we finally have a solid downspout system in place to route roof water away from the trench.

Waaayyyyy back in early November, we thought we were going to waterproof the foundation, but first…