Framing the Basement and Back Filling

   After allowing the basement floor to completely dry, or cure, the framers could come in and frame out the basement. But first, all of the lumber was delivered.

The next step was for Dan and a few of the kids to frame out the base of the fireplace.  

Then the base of the fireplace was built, one cinder block at a time.

After a few days, the fireplace reached the first floor.

While the fireplace was being built, we back filled around the foundation.

While these jobs were being done, Maria got to clean out the shipping container.

We keep all of our tools in there and it gets messy and unorganized quickly.

At this point, the framers came in to frame out the different rooms in the basement.

                          And then one day, we had a floor to our house.

Pouring the Basement Walls and Floor

     After all of the prep work was done, it was finally the day to pour the basement walls. The first truck showed up and the pour began.

The concrete truck hooks up to the pump truck and pumps the concrete into the walls. There are a couple of guys who guide the arm all around the walls.

Then there are a few guys on the ground in the basement making sure the walls

get completely filled.  There was only 1 major blowout, which means the wall broke open and the concrete came pouring out.

But we patched that up quickly and finished the rest of the walls without any issues. As the walls were being filled, Dan had to go around and make sure they were all plumb. 

If they weren't, Daniel would tighten, or loosen, the turnbuckle supporting the wall. By the end of the day, we had solid and level basement walls.

The day after the walls were poured, it snowed 4 inches. So we had to wait until

it all melted before we could get back in there to work. Once the snow was melted, we removed the strapping and stacked it neatly in the backyard to be used for the 1st floor. Then we removed all of the scaffolding and bracing system

and saved that for the 1st floor, also.

The next step was to apply the waterproofing all around the outside perimeter of the house. These are like giant pieces of very sticky tape. They will help keep any moisture out of the basement in the future. 

We almost finished this task when we got another 8 inches of snow on the first day of spring. This winter has been 

crazy, we are hoping spring weather comes soon. But while we were waiting for the snow to melt so we could get back to work, we hit the slopes!

After all of the snow melted, we started to prep the basement floor for concrete.

We covered the floor with sheets of plastic to keep moisture out. Then we laid

down sheets of foam and the pipes for the heated floor in Dans workshop. 

Then the concrete guys came and poured the floor.

Finally, the basement pour was finished.

Building the Basement Walls

    Now that the footings were done, we could start on the basement walls.
These walls are something new to our area.  Its called ICF, which is short for insulated concrete forms.  They are like giant Lego blocks made of styrofoam. And you put them together just like Legos, all while making sure they are straight and level. We don't want a crooked house.
A big tractor trailer came from Canada filled with the forms.

And we got to unload it all ourselves. The driver of the truck borrowed Dans truck and went to the store to use the restroom. Then he came back and watched us unload the rest of the truck while he took pictures of us. He was quite
amused.

Each layer of wall is called a course.  Over the weekend of January 20-21,
we had the first 2 courses up.  On January 22, Dan, Daniel, Joseph and Dans good friend, Jack had another course and a half up.

    At this point, construction is now visible from the street. We have made it
above ground.  There are 7 courses to the basement walls, so over the next month, we finish those and get them ready for concrete.

  Once the walls are placed together, one on top of another, they will be complete basement walls.  The styrofoam is the insulation and the plastic webbing between the styrofoam becomes the studs. Here's a picture of the studs, including the one

in the blue shirt.

But before we pour the concrete inside the ICF forms, we need to place clips inside to hold the corner pieces together with the block next to it. Every other course is reinforced with horizontal rebar and leveled. As we got to the 4th and 5th course, we needed to set up an alignment system, which also acts as scaffolding, so we could reach the walls and keep building. This system also
adds extra support to the walls as we work.

Lunch Time!!!

Oh how perfect..look who shows up in time for lunch...

Their timing is impeccable.

This winter has had some crazy weather that threw us off schedule now

and then. Dan and I went away for a week and when we came back the       basement was flooded. We had a weekend of heavy rain.

So that set us back a bit. We had to pump all of the water out, so we could get

back in there to work. 

Once all 7 courses were done, clipped and leveled, we added strapping to         the seams for added support for when the concrete is poured.

             Maria and Christina were two of the main strap installers.

Joanna was the official strap cutter today.

Juliana built 30-40 spacers for part of the alignment system. And she did it

in less than an hour.

Now the entire basement is ready for the concrete to be

 poured into the walls.

This is the view from the back of the house. 

BUILDING THE FOOTINGS

                         What are footings?
     Footings are an important part of foundation construction. They are
usually made of concrete with rebar reinforcement that has been poured
into a trench of some sort. The purpose of the footings is to support the foundation and to prevent settling.
The first thing we had to do was to build the wooden frames of the footings.

Once we had that done around the perimeter of the house, we had to 

make sure it was all level. That was Maria's job.

That's Maria in the back, the level is attached to the 1 X 4 that

 she is holding. It beeps and lets her know if the footing needs to go up

 or down, or if it is level.

The next step was to line all of the footings with plastic. This isn't always

done, but we wanted to take every precaution we could to keep any moisture out.

        

Then we installed rebar.

Next we poured stone on top of landscaping cloth on the outside of the footings.

Maria went all around again and made sure everything was still level.

Everything was all set for the concrete. Except the weather! We got 4

inches of snow in the footings which we covered in plastic to keep out any 

moisture.  So then I had to go aroung the entire perimeter and vacuum out

all of the melted snow so we could pour the concrete.

Now we were ready for concrete.

Apparently when the concrete is being poured, it splatters a lot.

After the concrete was poured we had to level it all up and add more rebar.
We were working against the clock here because the temperature was dropping by the hour. Then we let the concrete cure for 24-48 hours.
We finished just in time for another storm.

After everything was dry and set, we began to remove all of the wood from the footing frames. We can't have any wood under the house because of termites.
Then more stone was added to the middle of the basement so that we are  completely above the water line and out of the mud. We are now walking on stone, not mud.

The next step will be to build the basement walls.