Wow! So much has happened in the past couple of weeks since I last posted an update. As I’ve gone back through photos for this post, I’m in awe of all that’s been accomplished in such a short time.
I left off last time by providing an introduction to our house renovation with lots of photos of the very beginning stages of the project. Most of that work was demolition and digging out. I also provided the back story on how we landed with this plan for our multi-phase house renovation.
I’m very happy to report that we’re now in the rebuilding phase. I don’t think we’ve ever had so much dirt being tracked around our house! But, this is a sign of progress, so it’s all good! This too shall pass.
Let’s see, this update will start the week leading into Thanksgiving up until now. We did slow down quite a bit the week of Thanksgiving so that we could spend time with family and have a break from the project for a bit.
The week before Thanksgiving, we had come back from our trip to Cabo (Read the Trip Review Post Here!). While we were away, my Dad had finished getting the whole basement dugout and put in a new driveway, along with many other things. It was so strange to come back to our house just hanging out on a couple of beams… no big deal!
Scheduling House Work
That being said, I would highly recommend setting up your house projects for when you’ll be away. Go on a trip, road-trip to visit family, etc. It allows the crew to come and go as needed and get done what they need to get done. They’re also not interrupting your daily life and routines.
This is especially helpful if you are a stay-at-home-parent. Living amongst the construction when you’re used to being home all the time with two little ones can be challenging. Lots of new noises, new people, changes of all kinds. Obviously we weren’t gone for the entirety of the project, but it was a good solid week. It worked out well!
Form Footings
We got back on Tuesday, the 19th of November, and the guys worked to get all the footings formed and got quite a bit more dirt dug out of the basement that week and weekend.
Pour Footings
We hit the ground running on Monday, the 25th of November, and got the footings poured. This was huge! We’ve been really blessed with mild weather so far for the project. Getting these footings poured while it was still above freezing was a huge relief and saved us money and time/effort! This past weekend, the weather was in the mid-to-high forties – so great!
Partial Wall
Once we got the footings in, the guys worked to get the partial wall formed and set up to be poured. This is a partial Fox Blocks wall because it’ll adjoin the two spaces – our existing old basement and our new basement.
Our new basement will be about two feet taller/deeper than the old basement, so we needed a foundation to match the existing floor in the old part. Our contractor, Dennis with PLS Builders, will be building a wood-framed wall on top of this partial wall to close it in. Hopefully that’ll happen this week sometime.
Because we’ve previously had to enter our basement from the outside (right), we’re tearing that out and putting an access door in this wood-framed wall instead. This will be much more convenient for us to get to storage!
Once we got that partial wall poured, we then focused on getting the floor ready and putting walls up!
Beams
And somewhere in there, our two support beams arrived, so they rigged up a “system” (haha) for placing those under the house and on the bracing beams. This was a tedious and nervewracking task. They handled it like pros and got the beams in place rather smoothly.
There are two beams, one is about 35′ and the other is 18′. We opted to pay for steel beams so that we can have a wide-open area in the basement. It isn’t a huge space as it is, so not having to worry about posts in a couple of spots will keep it feeling open and spacious.
Pea Gravel
We were happy to get the beams delivered and in place, as well as the pea-gravel laid for the floors, all in one day. This was huge because we needed to get these two things done so that we could remove the skid-steer from down there. All the heavy lifting needed to be completed, so that we could move on to building walls! Once the walls are up, anything large isn’t getting out, and anything big isn’t coming in.
Walls
And now, the fun part – building walls. This is literally like building Legos. One just fits into another and you move on to the next one. The hardest part of building the walls is getting everything squared off and plumb with other parts of the project. In our case, we had an existing basement and existing house above us that we’ll need to tie into. The walls need to be as close to perfect as possible.
Once you get your measuring and marking complete, you can lay your first row of blocks.
Then the guys had to drill holes into the footings to place vertical rebar every so many inches. Once those are in place, you can lay horizontal rebar along the whole first row.
After you get the whole first row completed, rinse and repeat the process row after row. You’ll likely have to cut down a few pieces in each row to fit and fill it. This is easily done with a reciprocating saw. Those seams will later be sealed with a spray foam adhesive. A few horizontal 2x4s will be used to brace that area and maintain the block’s integrity for pouring.
Once you have a couple of rows completed, you’ll be able to check that your walls are straight and square with your measurements. At this point, you’ll still be able to easily give the walls a nudge (or easy kick) to get them into the place where you need them to be. Once you get them lined up correctly, you can take that spray foam adhesive and spray it between the bottom of the first row of blocks and the footing all the way around your perimeter. This will hold the walls in place and create a barrier for when concrete is poured.
I mean look, guys, if I can do it anyone can do it! It is actually kind of fun, and is very much like building with legos (on a large scale, obviously)!
Waterproofing
Waterproofing is a very important consideration for any building project. Eric’s family actually runs a waterproofing/caulking business, so it’s always top-of-mind for us. We’ve got a drain tile line placed around the exterior perimeter of the basement. It ties into the old clay block tile from the original home. We’ll also be placing drain tile on the inside perimeter of the basement that will drain into the exterior tile and out to the tile line that was trenched out to the back of our property (I showed this in my introduction post here).
Then, on the outside of the Fox Blocks, we’ll be using a couple of different types of waterproofing that are a peel and stick barrier. More on that in a future post. We did this on the back of the partial wall already, and then back-filled with pea-gravel.
That does it for now…
That’s about where we’re at right now. We’re hoping to get the walls and floor poured this next weekend, and then Dennis will begin his portion of the project. It’s been so fun watching all this get put back together. I can’t wait to see how things come along in these next few weeks.
I’ll leave you with a few fun photos from the project. I know the guys couldn’t really care less about getting their photo taken, but I know I’ll love having these to look back on! It has been such a blessing and so fun to have the help of our family members throughout this phase.
And for the grand finale… Cash just doesn’t quite know what to think of all this commotion. Today he decided he didn’t like not being able to get into the basement anymore. Yes, that’s right, he walked right across a beam and jumped right down (that’s 9ft!) into the basement with the guys. haha! Getting him out was a bit more tricky!
Until next time, you can find me on Instagram and Facebook with more frequent “live” updates!
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