Friday was our Labor Day

Since John had to go into the prison on Saturday, he took Friday off and that was our work day. We spent a good part of the morning measuring, re-measuring, and then measuring again to find the exact corners of the house and get the walls aligned properly with the footer.


Here is one of the exact corners. John was thrilled that the diagonals measured within 1/8th of an inch!

Next came preparing the rest of the parts for the form. Drilling, drilling and more drilling.


These 1x2 boards are used to hold the insulation vertically in place within the form. Each one of these will remain in the finished concrete wall.

Next we did sawing, sawing and more sawing of pvc pipe.


Here's our container of pvc tubing that will also remain in the wall after it is finished. I am sure John's blog will be updated with more details and specifications :)



Finally, a bucket of washers and nuts, together with the threaded rod will hold the forms together. (Susan, I use ice cream containers for everything, too :).


We had to bend our rebar over to avoid hitting the insulation inside of the forms. I got to do this job and it was pretty fun! My Dad was an ironworker before he retired, so I think it may be in my blood :)



Lining up the insulation, preparing to put the form up.


Now, the puzzle pieces can start coming together. The threaded rod goes through the pre-drilled holes in the insulation.



Next, the straps and pvc tubes go on.

From this point on, it was difficult to take pictures because we both had to be hands on. We stood up the insulation, poked the threaded rod through our plyform and then put the other side together while it was standing up. John's design worked beautifully and even had an added benefit that he had not necessarily planned on. Because each of the threaded rods runs through the 1x2 wooden slat, it was fairly easy to line up the holes for the other half of the sandwich. It reminded of what some puppets look like where everything moves together.

We then put the 2x4x12's in place to support the plyform for the weight of the wet concrete.


Here is the finished product! Right as we were wrapping up the first form, a large black cloud formed and we had to scurry to get the form covered before it poured. It ended up just being a little summer squall that was finished fairly quickly.


The day was a scorcher, so doing anything to get out of the sun was helpful. We literally followed the shadow around our insulation stack while we worked :) John also made us a little temporary roof to help create more shade.

We were hoping to have the forms up this weekend, but tomorrow is Hadden's 6th birthday, so we will take the day off and celebrate at McWane Science Center with him. The forms can wait until Tuesday morning.

Have a wonderful Labor Day whatever you have planned.
Shirley