Pre-pour Pics as Promised

This morning, I can say I am not quite as sore anymore.  If I crouched to get through this doorway below it might be another story...

Not that the walls are full of concrete and stable, the obstacles through this doorwary can be removed.  Note that there is a bottom brace and two middle braces, plus the scaffolding on the inside.  A back-breaker of the worst kind! 

 Friday we installed the window bucks and the metal plates that are a part of the ledger system for hanging our floor joists.  The brackets penetrate into the cavity and have holes through which the concrete will flow and bond, securing them and the hardware that will be attached later.  You can also see the OSB sticking up behind the scaffolding - this is for interior bracing.  Seriously - a lot of work accomplished on Friday!

 Saturday morning, it was hard to trust the blue sky for all the rain in the night and morning.  It didn't last, but because of the stormy weather, we waited until Saturday morning to put the interior vertical braces up.

 Sean showed up right on time with the pumper.  He is a friend of Pop's and a great guy to have working with us.  He arrived 30 minutes before the concrete to set up and get everything in position.  The concrete would then be fed into the pumper and out the extended hose.

Here it is extended, and Thomas is getting a mini-lesson on manipulating the nozzle at the corners.  Too bad it wasn't as easy to manipulate once the concrete was flowing through it - lesson learned is doing the scaffolding a little higher for the first floor walls...

Along with the pumper came the pencil vibrator.  It was electric, but still had a sizeable motor that had to be carried around so the operator could use two hands.  David was just getting warmed up!

The prep work that went into the pour was no small step, and it wasn't until after that Thomas said he'd have backfilled the whole thing if the walls didn't hold and just shop for a double wide.  We were all pretty excited for the reality descending upon us early Saturday morning - or maybe I was the only one giddily jumping around and clapping and muttering, "It's all happening!"