Monday morning....

I have been delinquent on posting pictures of progress...pardon me.  The month of July was a full month.  We started the month sending off my parents from Santa Fe.  The following weekend we were in Denver.  After being gone three weekends in a row, we were here the 14th, only because Tom left for a week-long out-of-town seminar on Sunday.  And then we were gone again to Santa Fe the next weekend picking up supplies/scaffolding.  This past weekend, we were home and preparing for the concrete pour on Monday.  To say we are go-getters is an understatement, but it feels like we have rounded a corner so to speak.

All month long we have been busy with house projects: cutting and building the window and door bucking and bracing for the main floor of the house (place holders in a concrete wall for the windows and doors), trimming out the concrete from the basement wall where the doors will be, framing the basement walls between the three northern rooms, applying sealant and flashing to the cellar stairs, and always site clean-up.  There is always measuring and planning, too.  Pop has been on the scene moving dirt ~ spreading out our hills of dirt around the basement walls to give them more insulation.

Lastly, we built the east, north, and most of the west wall of the main floor.  This process was similar to the basement wall, but not at all the same.  Having confidence in how the wall assembles and fills, Tom delayed the task as long as possible, as this wall would be exposed to the wind full on, as well as being only three sided.  Friday he set to it, and I joined in when I got home from work.  Pop & Andres had been helping, and the wall was well over halfway built.  It got a little more technical because of the 9 openings the wall is built around.  Lots of cutting rebar for the inner supports and trimming block. 

We took a break Friday evening for Pop's and my birthday party, Saturday morning for our work day/potluck/business meeting for the domestic water association, and Saturday evening for mass at Philmont.  Sunday morning we we were back at it and worked through till the worst of the heat, which coincided with getting all the clock up and rebar tied in.  A little rest and snack put us back outside to work a few more hours until it was too dark to see.

Here we are Monday morning, a couple hours before the pour:

The north side - looking from east to west (left to right) at the master bedroom and bathroom, front door, guest room, and bathroom.

 A mess of scaffolding and bracing, looking in through what will be the kitchen.

Thomas put the finishing touches on plumbing the windows and screwing down the bracing inside the window bucks.  We also fit in our wall penetrations. 

Alongside Thomas and I, our inside crew included Joe (a distant cousin and really hard worker), Andres (yes, the tall guy in the middle is a 13 year old), and Daniel.  They followed Thomas with the vibrator and helped us get a nice clean finish across the top.  Pop (not pictured) was our grounds man - he handled the extra concrete.

At 9 o'clock the pumper showed up.  The concrete began arriving at 9:30 am, and about noon we were eating pizza.  A packed morning....