While I wait for Ryan to arrive I finish the storeroom to get it ready for the June 13 concrete pour.
I got it in my head that the footing between the future french doors was not deep enough. While the slab inside was going to be eight inches I imagined that it was not enough under the four-foot wide divider wall. My brain started seeing big trucks above and small cracks below! I had the time so I dug it out to about sixteen inches. The small sidewalk outside remained at about five inches.
As seen from the inside. The plywood ledge going around the bottom serves as my trim boards for the concrete slab. Because I do "mono" pours I need them to control the concrete as it comes out from under the wall and create a consistent height. More importantly, it keeps the concrete from getting on the inside wall forms. I learned this lesson many years ago during the chaos of screeding a concrete floor. It ended about an inch higher than the bottom of the walls and removing the forms was a nightmare then firmly embedded in hardened concrete. Now we simply place our screed 2x6 board on the ledge and the mid-room 2x4 and level out the floor. One less panic attack during the pour. However, I do have to dress it up when I take the forms down. The ledge leaves an imprint. A small price to pay.
Not shown is the 2x4 I'll use to divide the slab in half, pouring each section separately. I'm sure pros might do it differently but this way I do everything in manageable chunks and the quality turns out fine--tile ready if necessary. I won't be tiling this room, however.
Not shown is the 2x4 I'll use to divide the slab in half, pouring each section separately. I'm sure pros might do it differently but this way I do everything in manageable chunks and the quality turns out fine--tile ready if necessary. I won't be tiling this room, however.
The white pipe is waiting to be installed. I'm using two of the original drain holes in the existing retaining wall to bring in water and electricity when the time comes.
After the pour, the area above will be backfilled once the forms are taken down. Yes, I know the orange caps on the rebar are not code but they work. Locals use beer cans etc but I bought these on Amazon for next to nothing. The official version runs around $3.50 each, are very large, and you can fall off a building and not be impaled. Dead perhaps but not impaled. Very comforting. These are perfect.
With everything prepared the waiting begins. Nothing is certain when it comes to concrete. Will the barges be running? Will Jeff with his pump truck show up? Twice before he hasn't. Will it be sunny the day of? If it rains in the morning I will be canceled. The trucks can't make it up and down the mountain much less my cul de sac when they are empty. On the plus side, Heavy Materials is much better run and more professional than Majestic or Centerline on St John were. They thought nothing of changing the schedule for small timers like me.
http://newsofstjohn.com/2016/05/03/the-latest-with-the-car-barges/
http://newsofstjohn.com/2016/05/03/the-latest-with-the-car-barges/
June 15th dive with low key watersports from Steve Simonsen on Vimeo.
Ryan showed up as planned on June 5. It has been about six years. Seriously, I have no idea where the time goes. If I didn't keep this blog I would have thought it was just a few years. Like Thor, he'll be staying in the house. Unlike Thor, Ryan likes to party more than most. The mountain road might prove to be a major problem. I won't chauffeur! I made that pretty clear. I did promise him I would every Friday. haha. Other than that there would be times we have to go to town, the lumberyard etc, so it shouldn't be too bad. We shall see. Last time he was here he had his own place and vehicle that ran most of the time.
Waiting for the concrete we jumped down to the outhouse. This comes easily to Ryan. Alone it would take me quite a while to figure it all out. We're trying to square a trapezoid that the septic created. I thought I fixed it but as we went up it showed back up!
The black tarp is one of my old dust encapsulation nets that I had to shroud all my buildings when I was painting apartment buildings in SF. Basically, a shade tarp that made this work really pleasant.
This is where we ended when the concrete was due.
Ryan second from the left. Do not go drinking with these folks. They are professionals. Jason on the right, aka Starbutt, was the original administrator of our first Save Coral Bay Facebook page. It started as a private members thread but later morphed into what it is today. His admin skills and local knowledge of all the players was invaluable. There were and still are a lot of peeps who pretend to support the main issues but they had/have other agendas. There is some deep-seated ugliness that I don't want to touch on here. We were able to communicate about it off the record while he was in Colorado tending to his family's cattle farm. I can't say enough about his contribution.
D-Day....Jeff shows up.
Laying the pipe. I needed to build another cross scaffold for pouring the floor and moving the pipe around the perimeter. It gets very heavy and unruly when the concrete is flowing.
A selfie between trucks. Only two this time, 8 yards per. Everything went well with only one glitch. Jeff's pump truck got stuck where it was parked during the pour. This had never happened before. Despite a couple hours of trying everything, he had to call a concrete truck from another job to come get him. With a couple of chains, they pulled him far enough up the driveway to where he could get traction. Add this to the list of why they don't like coming up the mountain.
Another Ryan, who I hired to help, knew what he was doing. He usually does granite counters. I did a lot of standing around, yay! My Ryan is not a concrete man. haha, he's a carpenter! The thought of shoveling, digging etc is not in his wheelhouse. There are some ugly days coming with the work planned!
Another Ryan, who I hired to help, knew what he was doing. He usually does granite counters. I did a lot of standing around, yay! My Ryan is not a concrete man. haha, he's a carpenter! The thought of shoveling, digging etc is not in his wheelhouse. There are some ugly days coming with the work planned!
http://www.shuttleworthdesign.com/adastra.php
Best quality concrete to date. The walls of the storeroom won't need any finishing work. That's a first.
While we waited for Jose to return to backfill the storage room and dig out the steps along the side going up to the parking area we finished the roof. While overhangs are generally a no-no, the house has none, I was prepared to tempt fate to provide rain free indoor-outdoor living around all the windows and front door. The picture window that I plan on creating is going to run 12x4.
Two weeks after the pour Jose returned.
The shape of the new driveway. When finished the steep pitch at the bottom will be gone shortening the plunge to acceptable levels after you have done it a few times.
Because we had a new wall to work with I was able to take the "art" out of the dig for the steps. We tacked a 2x6 on the wall to give us the rise. Later on we found a way to still blow it. haha
The "notch" for the future midpoint beam to support the parking area.
Mighty Mouse is very happy with the new parking area.
a beach day for Ryan as promised...;~)
The other shoe drops. The wonderful parking area turned into a giant mud puddle.
You would think a 4x4 in low would have no problems. Wrong. It couldn't even make it five feet. Once the all-terrain tires filled up it was all I could do to keep the truck from going over the edge. First, we tried washing them with the pressure washer, after all, we only had to go about ten feet to get on the concrete. No luck. Ultimately it took a plywood base followed by the rocks you see above. Even then it took a major running start.
The next day solution. Larry delivered three yards of gravel. His 4x4 dump truck can back down the driveway. It took us all of an hour to spread it. I had no idea how wonderful this stuff is!
It must be July 4th. The St John carnival wraps up. Usually, I'm on a plane now back to SF. For the first time ever I'm staying to finish the stairs, the storeroom, retaining wall, and the outhouse. Have to make hay as they say.
