Framing Begins Next Week

I'm sure you all are excited to finally see a new picture up here instead of me whining about something or other, right? Actually, several things have been done this week, but not much visually until today, so I opted not to waste gas running out there daily and to just wait until the end of the week and make one trip.

On Monday, they filled the block walls with concrete. In fact, two of them are filled solid. The walls that are 12-inch block and which will have dirt filled up against them needed to have concrete every so often if they were over 6 ft. high with more than an 8 ft. span (or something to that effect). As is typical with inspectors, Brad checked several different times with a couple different inspectors as to what they preferred and got a different answer each time. So basically, instead of filling one cell every so many inches as the codes require, two of the walls are just filled pretty much solid. Bet I won't be getting any cell phone reception in the basement, huh? But if there's a tornado, guess where I'm heading?

By midweek, Brad bolted the treated lumber caps onto the walls. This is where the framing is attached. I just know that it sure is nice to see some lumber being attached to the block--a nice step in the right direction (upwards, that is). Then Thursday, the basement floor was poured and sealed. We took these pics right after the sealant was done, so it still looks pretty wet, and it smelled pretty fresh, too. By the time I walked around to the basement doors, I was getting a little contact high, felt like I'd been sniffing a few too many markers! You remember the old-fashioned Marks-a-lots that were just a little too toxic? Ah, the good old days!

Anyway, depending on the weather, Brad is ready to have floor trusses delivered and begin framing on Monday. Like usual, the weather forecast has changed three times already today. Here's hoping for pretty weather. Everyone promises it goes quicker once the foundation is in place, so I'm counting on all of you to be right. If the weather holds next week, I'll head out there a couple times and post more pics, rest assured!