Construction News

Spring and Early Summer 2024

April, May, June

June, July 2024

July 2024

August 2024

Winter in the garden - February 2024

In this overhead picture of our site, you can make out the back buildings - the Library, some sheds, some paths, and the winter trees. In summer you could barely find the ground because the garden had become so overgrown while we planned the next adventure.

March, April, May

Spring was full of obstructions to construction: delays in getting the funding, details, details, details to be worked out before we could close on the loans and get the Money!

But then the RAIN!! OMG it just wouldn’t stop, and even more than the giant puddles, the water turned the clay into sticky gumbo that was nearly impossible to walk through, much begin digging out a basement.

But our faithful and stalwart volunteers braved the muck to remove a couple of nearly dead trees and LOTS of invasive brush. We finally had a kinda clear site that one could imagine becoming a building. The yellow “H”-shaped markers are the batter boards that guide the digging - a phantom outline of our dreams.

June 3, 2024

Wow! Just look at this sweet Ma-chine! Brand new, new car smell and all; still had the plastic over the radio (yes, and air conditioning too). Ready and able to do some major digging.

First clearing out the bits of the old basement, then dredging out the muck all the while trying to not cause a cave in along the rumbly edges. Max and La Machine did a great job, given the instability of the dirt and the tight quarters they had to work in.

June 11, 2024

Finally we have a real excavation of the basement. It kind of blends into all that red clay. Had to haul off two giant trucks worth of the stuff and it is still piled up all over the site.

Still, it was an exciting time, in spite of the agro of dealing with the sticky, clumpy, crumbly dirt. Some of it had to be moved by our hard working crew: Josh,

June 24, 2004. OMG - Cannot believe it!!

Construction can get very dramatic and exciting, especially if no one gets hurt - not a given when working inches from heavy machinery and power tools. This particular excitment occujrred just as the guys were finishing up the footing (the dark grey stuff around the edge of the excavation).

I watched as one giant piece (compare it to Max’s truck) of the wall fell onto the freshly poured concrete. Holy Cow!! How do you fix this? A days work and a load of cement wasted? The cement is setting up right now - this needs to change in a hurry!

Fear not friends and fans. Between Max running the Machine and the workers shoveling like mad they got the dirt, the cement/dirt mix and the setting cement thrown aside. Then the concrete truck driver squeezed out enough fresh cement to patch the footing.

By the next day, you could not see a thng - it was perfect, like it never happened. Pays to have good help.

July 1, 2024

Now we’re getting someplace. The basement construction uses insulating foam forms for the walls; you can see them stacked up and also set and ready to place the steel rebar on the cross pieces. Then the cconcrete will be poured into the space and, voila! we have a structural wall, insulated inside and out. Pretty cool.

August 26, 2024

This photo shows the progress being made; construction has LOTS of pieces and parts. The basement walls are formed and filled; the sill plate (the piece of lumber on top of the wall) is in place, some of the backfill gravel has been deposited (you have to see a “Stone Slinger” in action some time).

August 27. 2024

And then its time for the stem wall - the concrete block wall that the framing of the house will sit on. The house will be elevated above the ground about 2 feet. This gives access to space for the services to run (the crawl space).

Did I mention that it gets really hot down in the hole, and working out in he sun for 8 hours? We really appreciate the work that our guys are doing to bring us closer to our goals. THANKS GUYS!!!