Les is a great guy...he's been a mason all his life, but he also carves decoys and has a few acres in asparagus that he sells. He also collects antique tractors. He's retired, but said he'd help us when the time came. Scott had everything laid out for him, so all he had to do was "butter" the blocks and bricks, then set them. The block work went up easily and so did the antique bricks (which I helped to clean) that were put around the upper row of blocks. They match perfectly the antique bricks that were used around the foundation of the original house.
Unfortunately, we had 3.5" of rain Thursday night, which washed a lot of dirt into the hole around the outside of the foundation. Scott spent this morning digging it out so it can dry and he can paint the exterior of the blocks with tar.
Scott's using a steel I-beam down the center of the foundation to help stiffen the joists. He told me this morning we could hold a dance in there without the floors bouncing! You can see the foundations for the I-beams in the photo. You can also see the sewer line for the septic system. Actually, this is the old septic system that we're still using; we'll connect into the new one when the plumber comes in a month or two. It was disconnected for 6 hours each day when the mason was here, but with a porta-potty on site the inconvience was minor.
Scott will put the sills and joists in this week. Either late this coming week or early the following week, the timber framers from Lancaster County, PA (Riehl Construction) will come and raise the oak heavy timber frame. I'm told it will only take a few hours. You can believe I'll be photographing the whole event.
How wonderful to write with no major snafus, drama, mistakes, etc. to relate.
 |
| framed, rebarred, and ready to pour |
 |
| complete and ready for tar, sills, joists |
1 comment:
Hope it was a good donut!
Wish we had gotten the 3.5" of rain!
Addition is looking good! Can't wait to see the finished product!
Post a Comment