Sand, Water and Electricity

Okay, I wish the sand and water were at the beach but I’m equally as thrilled with them being at the lot;-)  Lots of progress last week…

Basement Plumbing Roughed In

The foundation was completed (kind of) on Wednesday.  We are still awaiting some final touches from Greenway Walls in that department but nothing that holds up progress elsewhere.  The water meter was installed by East Montgomery Utility Department after I was told earlier in the week that it had already been installed;-)  Thought that one was funny.  Our temporary electric was set up, inspected, and up and running in less than 24 hours thanks to a very prompt Dee Brinkley.  Dee said it might take up to a week after the pole was set to get service but we were open for business the day after he set the pole.  Plumbing for the basement was laid out on Thursday and roughed in on Friday.

Trench Next to Front Porch Pre Sand

Rusty and I completed our “drainage trench” on Saturday.  We had 20 tons of coarse sand delivered to the lot on Thursday.  After digging out the dirt that had fallen in on the landscape fabric from the hard rain last Monday, we proceeded to lay a 2-3 foot wide layer of sand that was ~4-6 inches deep around the perimeter of the house.  By the size of the sand pile, we moved ~12-14 tons of sand by hand (and wheelbarrow).  A front loader would have been nice but it wasn’t in the budget right now.  I considered it a great workout and great time with hubby BUT we were both very sore and Aleve happy yesterday;-)

Trench Next to Front Porch Post Sand

We are waiting on a soil test to get in the right hands before we move forward with an inspection.  Hopefully, we will be able to start concrete work mid-week and framing after that…a drenching rain today will most likely delay us this week but it is what it is;-)  There has been a few questions regarding our trusses so this will hopefully give us an extra day to get that hammered out…

HINDSIGHT IS 20/20:  Adidas tennis shoes with vented soles are inappropriate shoe wear when working with sand.

Vented Soles Good for Running...Not for Sand

$90 (landscaping fabric) + $310 (sand) + lots of elbow grease = $400 investment in a dry basement I’m willing to make.

Along the Front of the House

Draining Work

We are planning on being in this home for a very long time…therefore we are doing everything we can to protect it.  Rusty read an article in Fine Homebuilding in 2001 about waterproofing a basement – the man has a mind like a steel trap and tucked this info away so that he could engage his wife in manual labor 10 years later.  The good thing is that I can treat my own shoulder pain after shoveling clay out of the trench around the basement on Saturday;-)

Keeping a Basement Dry - Fine Homebuilding - June/July 2001

There is a drainage tile that goes around the entire perimeter of the basement.  The slit pipe has a sleeve on it to keep sediment out and this is then buried in washed gravel.  We decided to take an extra step simply due to the type of soil on our lot – red clay.  I’m from Illinois where the soil is dark and rich so the Mars dirt is new to me.  Boy, does this stuff retain water.

To prevent the gravel and possibly the pipe from getting gummed up, we laid a layer of landscaping fabric around the entire perimeter of the house.  Because some of the walls have started to fall in due to the rain, we had to dig out several areas – woohoo.  We couldn’t get the entire house done due to some pending issues with the foundation walls but we got most of it done before Monday’s gully washer.  It took about 3 1/2 hours in gorgeous weather – couldn’t have come up with a better way to spend some time with my two favorite guys.  There will be a layer of course sand that goes on top of the fabric before backfill begins but we’re waiting until wall installation is complete and nobody will be walking in the trench anymore.

HINDSIGHT IS 20/20:  Will was a huge help on Saturday and earned a whole dollar;-)  He was my paperweight on the end of the landscaping fabric – his job was to stand on the end of the roll while I pulled it out and cut it to size.  Rusty would then shovel gravel into the trench to hold the fabric in place.  No child was hurt in the waterproofing of this basement.

Close Your Eyes...

Okay, Maybe He Deserved $2