The end is near....

As far as concrete block goes we have only one layer left.  Unfortunitly I had just heard the tarp we had over the opening drop and I'm off to try and fix it.  More to come ....

The hard part is over....

Can't begin to tell you how many times we've said this throughout this project, yesterday (Saturday) the guy from Mansfield Ohio showed up wit the concrete pumper looked around and basically said our forms would not work, he did give us some help and very good direction on how to make them work, I know because it has ben just over 24 hours and non of the wall have collapsed.  

I have told friends in the past that "God is in the business of Blessing Ralph" and God has been very busy from the start of all of this. Right now I'm especially gretaful for th e Blessing of my nephew, his wife and son who have been truly the key to all of this from the star.    Call me uncle Ralphie all you wan't -- No Charge.

Above are  pictures of the concrete pumper and some of the poured concrete.  Also an older one of Tom running the back hoe.

getting closer

Thursday was a day of putting up plywood, reenforcing matting, and re-bar in preparation for pouring concrete.  It was also a day of calculating how much concrete we would need, scheduling concrete delivery and arranging for a concrete pumper.  

Friday was like the big push the last of the plywood had to be in place, the sump pit had to be just right, every gap and seam had to be sealed.  Nothing could be left undone as a concrete pumper along with 9 cubic yards of concrete would be arriving at 8 AM the next day.  Everything was cleaned put up, put away and all we had to do was wait.

  

This old hammer... Day 5

Murphy's law applies to all facets of life, especially mine.  The rebuilding of the basement wall is taking much longer than planned, partly because of changes in plans and partly because of Murphy's law. 

Thursday, day 4 was a fairly easy day, haul the last bits of scrap metal and other "stuff" away, put together list of materials - concrete block and such, and arrange for excavator.   

Day 5 was a bit different, we got the excavator, and as expected we found out that it would only reach so far under the house.  The nature of the beast  meant we had to do some digging by hand, actually my great nephew and I spent about 10 hours Friday swinging a pick and shoveling dirt.  So the way my mind wonders I started thinking about a song I learned in 6th grade, was about John Henry ....

This old hammer

Driving hammer

Killed poor John

but it won't kill me

Below should be a pic of the end result of swinging "this ol' pick"  for probably 10 hours.

Vacation ...

 Its day three of my "vacation," the plant where I work scheduled a week of shut down and that also means they scheduled a  week of my vacation.  Most people who know me would expect pictures from a beach or some foreign country but instead I hopefully give you pictures from my basement. 

 

About a month ago a basement wall collapsed and was not covered by insurance, I am however blessed with a nephew who has spent most of his working life in construction and his wife who has been laying brick as long.  

The past 2 days and probably many more will be spent doing all kinds of stuff.  Monday meant just plain work, cleaning, organizing,  throwing junk away, and putting up posts on other walls to prevent them from collapsing like the other one did.  our basement is not finished and you know how those can be. 

Yesterday was spent putting up more support posts and I spent the day moving a water heater.  This is not like moving a couch, you have to move the water heater but that means shutting water off, draining the tank, re-plumbing water, gas lines, and vents to the new location, forgetting to glue some connections, jumping when they blow because they  were not glued.  

It also means breaking the shut off valve on the main water line.  On the positive side I broke the valve after all work was done, it is leaking steady but we still have water pressure.   The valve is before the water meter so I am not paying for the water thats has been going down the drain a mere 6 inches away.  At the same time I learned the water company is only responsible foro the meter and nothing else.  I called the water company and had several options, they could come and do an emergency shut off, no charge.  After I made the repairs I could call them and they could come back and turn it back on -- for an after hours reconnection fee of $95.13.  

They really did not seem to mind that the water was leaking before the meter and they were not going to make money off of me, and since I would not be paying for it I did not mind either.  So we are going with option two.  Tomorrow morning (Thursday) between 8 - 11 someone will come out and turn  water off, no charge.  After we replace valve which should go quickly I can call to and ask them to send someone to turn the water back on, no charge.  I'm gonna go buy some doughnuts and have coffee ready, maybe the person to turn water off will be ready for a break and can save me some time.  

Time to get back to work....