Building the foundation forms. Molly was helping by dropping her ball in the pit. Good girl.
Bathhouse Foundation
|
Digging out the basement hole took forever--we struggled with unusually wet weather through the fall of 2002. Whenever we got the perimeter footings dug out, rain collapsed them back in. |
| It rained the day we poured the footings--Jeff and I struggled to position a makeshift sluice (see below) for the concrete, which kept slipping--the concrete truck driver was nice enough to give us a hand--what a mess. Here I am smoothing out the surface. | |
|
|
|
Building the foundation forms. Molly was helping by dropping her ball in the pit. Good girl. |
|
|
|
| Ready for concrete. | |
|
We thought the worst effects of the bad weather were overwith once the footings were poured. How wrong we were! The day we originally scheduled to have the concrete walls done, the land was still too soggy to support the pumper truck, which promptly sank in our driveway. Two loaded concrete trucks waited out on the main road while Jeff, several of his work colleagues, and I ran bringing extra lumber, tree stumps, firewood--anything we could find to support the pumper truck's built-in jack. Eventually it lifted itself out of the mud--but long after the concrete in the other trucks had become unpourable and had to be sent back. A very expensive and depressing setback. Here's Jeff after the the second (and successful!) attempt to pour the concrete. He looks relieved, doesn't he? |
| The basement, finally! | |