All week we've been finishing up our concrete preparations. On Monday we had to run errands so didn't do anything on the house, but Tuesday afternoon we set all the bracing on the outside of the forms. On Wednesday we dug the channels for plumbing drains (shower drain, bathroom sink drain, toilet drain, toilet vent, kitchen sink drain, kitchen sink vent, and washing machine drain, plus the clean out for the main pipe and we also put in where the well water will come in too). We set all the plumbing into place (first we did a dry fit and then we connected everything together). On Thursday we verified the correct grade of the pipe so that it all flows out of the house into the septic tank. Then we covered it all up, graded the gravel so it was even all across the entire foundation of the house. Finally on Thursday we added all the rebar into the footing and added the lag bolts (these will connect to the structure of the house to tie everything together).
We are pretty much done - all we need to do is add a few more screed boards. Then Scott is going to take at least a day to run through how this concrete process will work and what I'll be doing. I will be getting down and dirty in it all along side of Scott too!!
Otherwise, not much new to report... We need to check the weather again, but the plan is still that we will be pouring our foundation this coming Monday!! How exciting! My friend Kristen Orr made the comment that it's the little things. And after living for about 6 weeks now with no electricity, no running water, no TV or common household things - it really is the little things that make us excited!!
I posted these on my Facebook page too, but here is a sneak peak into our daily life.
We don't have running water, but we are blessed with our awesome neighbors who let us go over and fill up our buckets with water whenever we need too! We have collected lots of these empty kitty litter buckets and these 2 serve as our dish washing station. We use others for washing hair and for taking a 'bath' - generally this means just getting a wash rag wet and cleaning that way.
Above is our 'loo' that our neighbors from OH got for us!! Keep in mind, we do not have a real toilet, so this 'loo' has been such a blessing for going #2!!
About a week ago I planted some lettuce in this bag of Miracle Grow and it's growing!! This will be a great addition to our rice/chicken/bean burritos soon!
The next pictures below show our sunset one evening (this happened to be the same evening that I caught Scott making us dinner in his underwear!! haha. I'll spare you all the picture of it, but he had me laughing all evening!)
I'm not sure how easy it is to tell, but in the last 6 weeks since we've been here, our ground has gone from very little ground coverage (except for the cacti and sage brush) to being FULLY covered in up to a foot tall of wild grasses in a golden, burgundy and different shades of green, plus we have all kinds of wild flowers too! And I've been told that our cacti will soon be blooming!
I have lots more pictures to share here soon, but we are busy today with errands and doing laundry. Now next week, after the concrete is poured, I should have more time, while it's curing, to come into town and add a ton of pictures to share!!
Have a great weekend!!
No comments:
Post a Comment