Basement walls

This week we got basement walls.

Tuesday Todd went fishing for walleye and did quite well. Then he stayed at a friend's to work on the van.

I stayed home and watched the walls go up and the children. They brought in these great big wall molds and set them up on the footings they put in last week. I am not sure how they connected them. By 11 AM I was hot and tired of listening to the pounding they had to do to set the molds and took the children to the closest Mc Donald's play land. When we got back they were nice and tired (OK just some of us) so it was rest time. I think Tabitha and I were the only ones who rested, but the others were quiet enough.

At 4:00 the cement mixers started rolling in. I didn't keep track of how many there were but I was told there were supposed to be five of them. I found the truck/machine that transferred the cement from the truck to the molds fascinating. It stretched well over the tops of our tallest trees. One guy walked along the top of the wells aiming the big tube to the correct places. When they were done unloading the cement trucks and were evening the cement with towels I did not see an obvious place for the basement walkout door. I walked over to a group of the workers who were taking a break and was casually talking to them about things. I wondered out loud if they remembered my door. They looked at me questioningly but I didn't make any fuss. I went back to my work and noticed the boss getting the plans out of his truck along with a measuring tape.

The next day, after taking the molds off, they cut my door out of the wall. Now we have three pieces of 8" thick cement right outside our back door. Before they left they sprayed the walls with a tar to help with water.

Front view

Back view

The house seems small to us after looking at wide open spaces for so long, but it measures correctly.

Wednesday we took Gabbi to a friend's house near Bay City and went into LJ's Kitchen and Bath to get some info about cabinets. We had our plan laid out and had gotten some quotes and were heaving trouble comparing them because we weren't sure weather we were comparing apples to apples or not. We ended up wanting to change the color anyhow. Randy W. gave us a fireplace mantle that he had taken out of a home during a remodel. It is nice and big and OAK which doesn't really go with the cherry cabinet color we had originally chosen. So now all the wood in the house is going to be natural oak--floors, doors and cabinets.

When we got home we bottomed the van out on the drive because of what the big trucks had done to it, so Todd wanted to fix the driveway a bit. There were places that the sand (all we have is sand) had shifted so much the tree roots were being torn up. He worked on and off all evening spending shifts in the van because it was raining so much. The drive looks nice now...at least until the next round of big trucks comes.