May 14 - walls are curing inside the forms...

Dan's checking out the walls - watch out for that first step, Dan - it's a lulu!!

May 13 - more basement work! The walls.......

Once the footings were poured and had a few hours to set, then came the forms for the walls.  Pretty cool operation to watch!

OK, the forms are being set for the footings.

Now, comes the cement for the footings.

To get to the far wall, they put together a very long trough....

The big truck - wish my grandkids could have been here to see it!

Now, a few hours later, the forms for the walls can  be set.  Note, the inside of the walls looks like brick!  Pretty cool.

Pretty big operation - those chassis with the forms in them are evidently something the owner of this company has patented.  Pretty interesting to see how they get moved around.

Big crane does the heavy lifting...

May 12 - start of the basement walls!

Today, the wall company came, put up the forms for the footings. 

Digging the basement!

Today, Saturday, May 11, we have already (by 9:00) had four huge truckloads of dirt gone from the pile.  Dave and Dan expect to have the  basement completely dug by end of day!  It only takes Dave about 5 or 6 minutes to load 28 cubic feet of dirt into a truck!  Amazing to watch. 

 

 

Isaac and I watched for a while from the second story window..

Look at that HUGE piece of old cement!

Even for this big machine, that much cement is a stretch!

Now you can see the whole thing.  Our property is 1-1/2 lots, as is the house next door.  By the location of this cement, we figure there must have been a large house on that middle lot.  Both these houses were built in 1941.  Maybe it was an old farmhouse?

Isaac helping...

The guys are setting up the lazer so Dave can precisely take just the amount of dirt needed.

Isaac loved actually helping.  He grunted and postured - too funny!

Laser safety glasses for the youngest helper.

The hole gets bigger!

Our favorite machine operator/artist, Dave!

Here, Dan and Roy are positioning the laser.

 

Clean up after demolition, then start digging basement!

Well, today the guys worked on out.  Massive walls from the old original porch were all removed.  Since there is now so much concrete that needs disposing, Dan found an outfit that will come and take the rest (you'll see the HUGE pile) in their 28 sq. yard truck.  They'll take it to be crushed and recycled.  Only problem is, we have to break it up into no larger than 2'X3' pieces.  Tomorrow morning, then, Dave will start pounding the big pieces and dropping them to make smaller pieces.  The neighbors have been warned!  Low and Jessie kept cleaning off the brick.   The new construction will cover most of the back of the house, leaving only a pretty small triangle of brick showing from the original house.  Dan did some investigating today, had a brick mason come in, and we've decided to remove the brick from the back side of the house.  That will make the framing of the new addition easier and cleaner.  So, the back of the house and the addition will be vinyl sided, with brick from the ground to the first floor windows.  So, here are my pictures for the day.....  I find this whole process facinating, thus the number of pictures!

Starting on the basement!

It's a pretty big hole - 8 ft deep, more than 30 ' wide...

Here's the concrete that we have to break up tomorrow...

The brown is the dirt from the basement digging.  The gray is the road base that Dan got delivered yesterday - free!

Right now, we have a 'shotgun' house - this shot is from the front porch through to the back - you can see Dave's machine out there!

View from inside the old kitchen into the new basement.

You can see the layers there - top soil on the ...uhhhh top! and clay the rest of the way...

Now that we have no doors on the back of the house, every night we nail MDF board across them - enough to deter some adventurous kids, we hope.  Now that these openings are 8 ft in the air - watch what we had to do today...

Roy took a ride up on the bucket!

 

 

 

 

This is from the inside - Low is helping Roy get the MDF board outside.

Buttoning up the house for the night...8 feet in the air on the  bucket...

Uh, Dave - I have a little problem here.....

 

I locked up the front door like we always do, but now I can't get out!!

See, the front door lock doesn't work, so we use a 2X4 against the door to keep it secure.  So, like we've done every day, Jessie 'locked' the front door.  Only problem is, he's already done a terrific job of securing the openings on the back....soooo, "Dave, I need a ride down from this second story window!!"

Safely down with a big smile - thanks, Jessie and Dave!