April 14, 2004

One comment before I get started. I have had comments about how big the house looks. All of the pictures are taken with a wide angle lens and it appears to make everything look larger.

A good bit of work has been done since the March 29th update but the progress does not show quite as much. This first picture shows the peel and stick water proofing used on the Arxx ICF block [both of which Excalibur is a distributer]. This is covered with a dimpled plastic material [called Maxx Foundation Wrap] to keep the dirt from damaging the waterproofing. This also gives the water a way to run down the wall to the French drain to keep from building up pressure against the wall. We ran out of this material and had to use regular wall insulation to protect the waterproofing. It does about the same thing, but is a little more expensive.





This next picture shows the French drain coming out from the retaining wall at the end of the wall. The brick will be set directly on the footings back about eight feet, and then will go up on the brick ledge forms (seen above where the drain comes out from the wall). The drain is set directly on the footing, covered with stone and then covered with dirt until the back filling is complete. The brick will have to be laid before the backfilling is completed.





This shows the rotary impact tamper and the hand-held “whacker packer”, used to compact the dirt against the foundation. The foundation concrete had set a few days and was not affected by the vibration of the tamper. Here the blue Styrofoam insulation [we used, after running out of Maxx wrap], can be seen.





Here the [Maxx wrap] can be seen. It is up over the brick ledge for protection from the dirt during backfill. The plastic will be cut down to the brick ledge level right before laying the brick. You can also see the effect of the rotary tamper on the clay. Where it is packed, the dirt is shiny, like its wet. Also notice the brick ledge down the wall.





Screening was put in the basement area to build up to height where dirt should have been. This picture was taken this afternoon, while the finishers are working on the basement slab. You can see the size of the house here. The south retaining wall starts at the green box at the lower right of the picture. The north retaining wall starts just to the right of the exposed concrete of the wall, just to the left of the worker with long pole in his hand. The height of the wall is 10’- 6” from the top of the slab, to the top of the wall.





The dirt bank in the foreground will be cut down to the level of the yard. The two retaining walls can be seen to the left and right of the house. Much dirt work will have to be done to complete the yard.





This shows the covered back porch and garage filled in.  Stone screenings were used for the fill, so it looks like concrete.  The garage has the stone in place ready for the concrete.  In the right foreground is the ramp built to access the garage for now.  More work will have to be done on this when the brick is in place.





All the reference lines for the stone and concrete were chalked. Stone was put in the basement area. Termite spraying was completed inside the basement area. The footings for the front porch, covered porch, and garage were laid out.

That is about it, for this week. It now looks like it will be ten days to two weeks before the steel will be delivered. When that comes in, we will be able to see daily improvements in the project.