Fig. 86
Just in case anyone was wondering? Aluminum forms produce a MUCH better looking wall than the wood forms. See Fig. 86. Good thing this will all be eventually covered by stone on the outside and walls on the inside...
Fig. 87
We also got out first delivery... This was actually a funny story. Debbie had went down to takes some pics and called me to say there was a large amount of 2x4's and other stuff sitting next to the foundation. I had no idea what she was talking about as no one had said anything about delivering anything. The house is a LOG house and there won't be a lot of 2x4's in it. A few minutes later she called back and said Rusty had seen the delivery, and it came from LOWES! The next day I drove down to see this for myself. There was tar paper, house wrap, a few treated 5 1/4 deck boards, some 2x6's, 284 6' 2x4's and 232 8' 2x4's! This was obviously someone else's load!
I came home and called Lowe's in Richmond. I told them that someone mistakenly delivered a large load of construction material to our home and the guy was like, "Huh?, let me research this and call you back". About an hour later he calls, and said the order came from Honest Abe Log Homes! Ooops... I called Ed at Honest Abe and he said yes, that was material that would be used throughout the job. OK... Good thing I didn't just tell them to come and get it!
Fig. 88 Pouring the basement floor |
Fig. 89 Radon vent pipe |
Fig. 90 First load from Honest Abe |
Fig. 91 Starting Debs garage |
After finally getting the wall mistake repaired, the concrete trucks came to pour the basement floor. Heavy plastic was lain down to provide both a radon barrier and to prevent the concrete from weeping into the gravel, then re-bar was added for strength.
We also added a radon vent pipe. What's a radon vent pipe you ask? Well this area of KY is in the red zone for radon. Radon levels in the red zone are VERY high. Since we will spend a lot of time in the basement eventually, we needed to vent the radon gas out from under the slab to keep it from migrating into the basement through any cracks that may develop between the wall and the floor. This pipe will go up inside a pantry in the kitchen where I will install a inline turbo fan, then on out the roof to vent. The fan will pull air through the gravel under the slab, gather the radon and vent it up high.
Fig. 92 Completed retaining walls |
Fig. 93 Garage stem walls |
Fig. 94
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Fig. 95 Big hole to fill |
Fig. 96 Yes those are the 4' x4' foot "pads" |
Just so you know, May is turning out to be almost as wet as April. It has rained here EVERY DAY for the past 6 days! Regardless, Noel has formed up to pour the stem walls for the garage attached to the house, and the retaining walls in the rear. He has already poured the pads for the porches on the south and east sides. The west side pads will be poured after the backfill on the back is done.
Saturday May 21th
I went down Saturday to change the oil in my old 1984 Craftsman GT18 garden tractor/mower. It has a twin horizontal B&S 18 HP engine. I bought this thing from a good friend of mine for $300. It has lived down at our lake property for several years where my younger brother has used it to cut his grass. It has always been pretty reliable just needing some basic care. So I had no problems attempting to use it to cut our 2.3 acres. I know long term, it is a bit much for this 44" cut mower, but it's all I have right now. I unloaded the tractor, changed the oil, put in a new air filter, changed the spark plugs and greased all the fittings. I also sharpened the three blades.
I should mention the grass is about a foot tall... I made one pass down the fence line, turned and started up the edge of the drive. I got about 2/3 the way up when the mower just died. I though I had let it run out of gas so got the jug and started to fill it up when I noticed it had plenty of gas? Hmmm... I tried to start it and it would not fire at all. Some trouble shooting revealed it was not getting spark. In the past this has always been one of the "safety" switches. I jumpered each switch but still no fire. Of course the battery ran down so I had to get my truck to jump start it. After it charged for a few minutes I tried it again. This time the starter lets out this horrible screeeeeeeeee sound. Crap! Being by myself, I had to hook a chain up to the mower and tow it back up to the shop where I could properly diagnose it.
Fig. 97 Stripped Gear |
Fig. 98 Starting the disassembly |
Fig. 99 Yep, motor had to come out! |
Fig. 100 Motor on Bench |
Fig. 97 shows what happened to the starter. A NYLON starter gear! Of course to have lasted 27 years I should not complain right? I figured it would be easy to get the starter out as I could only see two bolts holding it in place. Well to make a 4 hour story short, I had to PULL THE FRAKKING ENGINE! Even after getting the engine out the starter STILL would not come out until I removed a plate the engine was bolted to. Who ever designed this should be shot three times then buried under a pile of these starters! Needless to say I'll have to order parts. Plus I still don't know why it stopped getting spark in the first place. (Update 6/6/11: The reason I was not getting spark was the magneto failed. $44.95 for a new one.) Since I could not mow, I started weed eating the fence line. Man, there is a lot of fence line... I should have bought the larger trimmer...
In the meantime... Billy the excavator showed up to fill in the garage area with rock so we would not have to spend so much on gravel. He decided to use the wall debris from the foundation mistake. This is a good use for that stuff and will save Noel a ton of disposal fees. Billy will send the bill for his time to Randall who will deduct that amount from Noels bill for the concrete work. He got done around 2:00PM.
Fig. 101 Debs garage: Ready to pour floor |
Fig. 102 Garage floor poured |
Fig. 103 Water Meter Installed |
Debs garage floor was poured the 27th. That same day, after paying the local water company $620, the water meter was set. The construction crew will really appreciate this water. They have been hauling water from Rusty's for a week!
This concludes the foundation/concrete work for now. Noel honored his commitment to repair the mistake he made and did a good job. We will call him back to do the aprons in front of the shop and garage and to do side walks later. The Honest Abe crew is on site so we will move on to the Wood Section.
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