Building the Foundations

Today the concrete foundations were poured. The first step was to construct the wooden forms that will hold the concrete in place while it sets. Here's the view along the back wall:

And from the front...

Looking along the uphill (West) side of the house, the box-like projection in shown below is where the fireplace will be.

The overall structure of the foundations is pretty big, particularly when you recall the rear foundation wall is sitting on three pillars that go down another eleven feet. It will not look so big once the rocks and soil are filled back in, but it looks like we will have a significantly sized craw space! View from the NW corner:

Below the picture is looking down in between the wooden forms that will hold the concrete while it sets, and show the steel rebar which reinforces the concrete throughout. The steel rebar will be buried inside the concrete foundation walls along with also-visible upright black steel bolts. These bolts will be used in conjunction with other types of bolts (e.g. J bolts) to anchor the house onto the foundation.

This view between the wooden forms shows the ventilation boxes that will provide ventilation from the outside, through the concrete foundations into the crawl space area.

The same crane and cement mixer combination that was used for the concrete pillars will be used to pour the foundation:

Alejandro is guiding the nozzle from the crane and pouring the concrete directly between the wooden forms:

The position of the crane arm that carries the pipe and nozzle is operated by remote control by the person in orange. He manages the flow and location by watching where Alejandro needs the nozzle to be. Apparently the little remote control box costs $7,000 dollars. I guess it's the ultimate in remote control construction toys!

At the base of the foundation, there is a gap that allows concrete to flow out wider than the width of the wall until it hits a second small retaining board. This is to create a wider footing that helps distribute the weight on the foundations across a larger surface area. At the rear of the house there is no extra footing to the wall because it sits on the previously prepared pillars. This means there is quite a lot of concrete going into these foundations - about 35 yards of it.

After the concrete is poured, it is shaped and smoothed by hand and checked to make sure it fills all the right spaces and fully encapsulates the steel rebar.

First Conduits & Completion of East Side Retaining Wall

Filling in the east side retaining wall the top of which will be approximately ground level leaving about 10 feet below ground. The retaining wall itself comprises about 35 yards of concrete which, together with the pillars, means some 50 yards of concrete have gone in so far and we have not yet started with the foundations.

The completion of the east side retaining wall involved the installation of the first conduits for electricity, telephone and cable. I would not have thought that the TV cable would be one of the first items on the project list, but there you go...

Completing the Retaining Wall

Removing the forms and chamfer strips after pouring the concrete yesterday.

Retaining Wall

Foundation for the retaining wall is about 10 feet wide and 18 inches deep. That's going to be quite a retaining wall!

Our House Project on Sparrow Hill Gets Underway

Finally, construction is beginning on our new house on Sparrow Hill here in Corvallis. It's a fill in lot in a subdivision which is mostly completed and we picked the lot because it backs onto a protected oak grove and we really like trees!

First job is to dig a big hole for the foundations:

The lot extends way back into the oak grove and we are looking forward to owning a lot of trees as well as having them for neighbours.

The foundations at the back of house will rest on concrete pillars eleven feet deep in order to protect the tree root systems.

Getting the concrete into the holes at the back of the lot required the use of a large crane. The pump must have been pretty powerful to push the concrete 30+ feet into the air and pour it down a small pipe into the pre-dug foundation holes.

Here the trench is being dug for the down hill retaining wall. The depth of the trench is about eleven feet near the road - that's quite some retaining wall!