Week 9: Transitioning from Cement and Gravel to Wood

How things looked at the beginning of the week.  Note that the inaugural several floor joists that eventually will support the dining room floor have been installed.  The foundation drains running alongside both sides of the house have been installed at the base of the sump (not visible in this photo--a later photo will show where these drains enter the sump).



Preparing to install the tightline that will run in the trench along the house foundation and will carry water from the rain gutters to the sump.  One detail that Dylan has added is the 2x4 pressure-treated timber that holds the top of the foundation wrap firmly to the foundation.  This ensures that no dirt or gravel will come between the foundation wrap and the foundation.  Great idea!  In this photo, Dylan, on right, talks over a detail with Casey.




After the earlier scare with some premature backfilling, it's time for the no-nonsense official backfilling with 5/8" round rock without fines.  This is the first of two dump truck loads of gravel delivered for the backfill.




We can't have both an excavator and a large dump truck in the backyard without inviting Susan, Maya, and Zoe over for a look. 




Backfilling the trench around the exterior sump




Hauling gravel to the west side of the house for more backfill.




Zoe, Maya, and Susan watching the backfill operation




Ditto




Ron, the excavator, brought his two sons to help with the backfill process.  We had the strong impression that they would have preferred playing basketball.  In this photo, they are hand backfilling the trench on the west side of the house, which the excavator couldn't reach.




Ron's sons hand backfilling the trench on the east side of the house.  The tightline that will carry water from the exterior sump in back to the storm drain in front is visible in the center of the photo.  Of the four T-connections visible in the photo, two will ultimately connect to downspouts from our rain gutters on the east side of the house, and the other two will connect to downspouts on our neighbors' house.  This is a win-win for our neighbors and us--it reduces the load on our neighbors' drainage system, and at the same time, gives us positive drainage of those downspouts that could otherwise deposit water on the ground between our houses and add to our water challenges.




We brought in a brilliant sump physicist to ensure that every detail is perfect.




The brilliant physicist took this photo of the inside of the sump.  At the bottom, the black pipes entering each side of the sump are the foundation drains coming from the west and east sides of the house, respectively.  The white penetration on the left is the 4" tightline bringing rain gutter water from the west side of the house.  And the uppermost penetration is the 2" pipe through which water in the sump will be pumped out to the tightline running along the east side of the house and ultimately to the front street storm drain.




Ditto--a closer look.  The brilliant physicist will plan to frame this picture on one of the new walls of the house.  I probably will require that it be one of the walls in his office.




The long vertical steel plate shown in this photo is part of the tie-down mechanism that ties the shear walls to the house foundation.  Bolts from above are threaded into the top of this steel plate, and the steel plate is then bolted to the foundation.  This part of the total tie-down apparatus was custom-made for this particular project.  On the right is a partial view of one of many foundation plates that tie the joists to the house foundation.  The following photo contains a close-up of a foundation plate.  When all of the tie-downs and foundation plates are in place, if there is an earthquake strong enough to tip over the house, everything is going to tip over, including the basement and the elevator!




a close-up of one of the foundation plates




Two new posts.  The one on the right replaces an existing post that had begun to rot.  The one on the left is a new structural post added by our engineer, Jason, to help support the second story.  At the base of both of these posts are newly poured cement footings.




Each time we walk into our kitchen, there is less kitchen remaining.  This photo shows the east kitchen wall where both siding and sub-siding have been removed to make room for a new shear wall.




We have been thrilled to find out that the neighborhood birds have not been disturbed by all the hoopla and still like dining at the Littles'.  Some of the loveliest visitors have been the goldfinches, some of whom are shown in this photo.




Ditto



Ditto.  This one's a chickadee.



It has been very exciting for us to finally reach the stage of the project where the cement and gravel are pretty much done, and now we're starting to build things with lumber. Major lumber deliveries occurred this week, and some of the evidence is shown in this photo.  By the way, in the center of the photo, the transplanted lilac tree seems to be thriving, and we are gaining confidence that it will make a permanent and successful transition to its new location in the yard.




We felt the neighbors had suffered long enough looking at the mess we had created in front while installing the pipe running to the storm drain in the street.  Private Gardens came in and hauled away all the damaged sod and soil and replaced it with new topsoil and sod.  We have a front lawn again!  The entire job was done by James, who worked efficiently, but also with outstanding attention to detail.




In this photo, James is packing gravel in the cavity under the sidewalk that we created when we installed the drain pipe.  We were concerned that just packing dirt in the cavity might not provide adequate support to the sidewalk.  The packed gravel ensures a stable underpinning to the sidewalk.




The project presented two challenges to James--the downslope of our lawn and the height of the bed of his truck. This photo shows the ramp that James improvised so that he could transport old sod by wheelbarrow to the truck and new topsoil from the truck to our hillside.




Ditto




No aspect of our project is officially complete until inspected by one or both of our granddaughters.  In this photo, Maya watches the sod surgery from the front porch.




The sod is in and is about to be wetted and rolled.




Ditto




Dylan, right, and Dave in the center, take a look at the floor joists that have just been installed.  Serious framing is now definitely underway.




More lumber delivered to the job site




Watching framing of the elevator shaft from the kitchen doorway above.




Daniel, one of the Bellingham Bay carpenters, constructing one of the elevator shaft's stud walls.  Because the stud wall has to be backed by drywall, Daniel is building the wall on the floor, will next install drywall on the back side of the wall, then will tip the wall up--drywall next to the concrete basement wall.




This photo shows the new north wall of the elevator shaft.  The two wide posts that form part of the wall will support the main steel frame of the elevator.




More work on the elevator shaft.  The yellow material is fiber glass-covered drywall.  It is used in this setting because the fiber glass coating resists moisture, and we anticipate some rain before we can finally get a roof over this part of the project. 




For the first time, I can stand in the doorway of what really does feel like the entrance to an elevator!




This photo shows the steps from the new basement up to the existing basement spaces.   The photo also shows a hydraulic jack holding up a temporary post where a supporting wall will eventually bear the load.



The dining room sub floor is on, so that we now, for the first time, can walk from the kitchen out onto the addition without falling 10 feet to the ground.  The scaffold-like structure on the right is temporary additional framing that will be used to help position the vertical members of the elevator shaft frame.



Anyone who has had major construction done will have seen one of these wonderful devices.  It is an incredibly powerful magnet, and when you run it over the ground, it picks up nails, screws, and other bits of metal objects that the naked eye can't see.




View of the front of our house at the end of the week




view of the rear of the house at the end of the week