First AAC block gets laid

I know it doesn't seem like a big deal but I got the first AAC block laid today... actually I got blocks #2 and #3 laid as well (two of the other corners... one corner left to be laid). Getting the corners accurately set makes "filling in" between them much easier. Tomorrow - assuming I can drag my sore self out of bed - I should be able to make some real block laying headway.

Here's BLOCK #1... it's a thang of beauty, ain't it!?... ONLY 727 blocks to go.

We're electrified!

As of this afternoon we are electrified! Our temporary pole passed inspection and Lee Pettes, the Duck River Electric Coop supervisor, can be seen below "plugging us in." I've been struggling with getting over my gout for over a week so I've not made much progress since our last post 4/21/08. Tomorrow's the BIG day when I start laying the first course of AAC block. Getting the first course level is VERY important so David Musser brought his transit over late this afternoon and we shot the grade on the four corners. The first course will be slow going because I have to get it PERFECTLY level so the rest of the blocks will go up quickly and easily. I met with Joseph Sumpter this morning about our putting in a rain water collection system. Collecting our own rain water will move us one step closer to being off the grid - our ultimate long term goal.

This is Lee Pettes installing our meter:
Here's the Duck River boom truck connecting the electric wire from the pole on the road to the temporary power pole on our property:
David and I have just completed shooting the grade on all 4 corners of the house so I can begin laying the AAC block tomorrow morning. Baxter is bravely guarding the pallets of block.

AAC blocks arrive... feels like a "donkey" stepped on my toe

Today our AAC block arrived from Ringgold, Georgia. They off-loaded the 28 pallets with a forklift that piggy backs the flatbed truck and is called a "donkey." Unfortunately my gout moved from my right ankle to my right big toe... it feels like the donkey stepped on my toe. As the day progressed the pain increased but I tried to keep working. By day's end I was wishing someone would shoot me and put me out of my misery... I felt BAD!

Getting back to the block: we needed only 20 pallets for our house but Derek at SafeCrete wanted to clear his yard (because they are moving the manufacturing facility to south Georgia) so not only did I get a 50% discounted price... he sent 8 extra pallets. Granted some of the blocks are cracked and chipped but out of 28 pallets I'll be able to finish the house and build Alexis some planters in the front of our Irish cottage.

David Musser and Shane Pickett worked until 2 PM and finished decking the 16' X 20' storage building. They are really doing a GREAT job... I am impressed with their attention to detail. Both are experienced construction workers so we are benefiting from all of their skills.

Here is the donkey coming down the driveway with a pallet.
This is a picture of Terry, the truck driver from SafeCrete, setting two pallets on the slab.
This is the west end of our slab with several pallets of block.Now it's time to learn how to lay AAC block.

Concrete sawing and the Templeton Library

Lots of pictures today... not much text... this is Pete Clark sawing the slab.David and Shane stripped the forms off the slab while Terry Stephens (not shown with his backhoe) dug the hole so the water line could be repaired from the concrete truck crushing it during the slab pour.

I spoke of our neighbor, Sir John Templeton, several posts ago. His library is out our driveway and one mile to the west. This is a shot of the $33 million library almost jumping out of the ground as you approach the building. It's very out of character with the mountain and should be on the set of a horror movie.

The library sans even one book (Sir John gave up his American citizenship and lives in the Bahamas):
The statue in the center of the circular driveway is to glorify Sir John by Sir John. Note the tacky paint job. We don't expect to be invited over for tea.
There are 6 or 7 apartments in the library and they do have a magnificent view of the valley and Winchester, Tennessee.

I'm so thankful for friends

We didn't get much work done on-site today because David Musser & Shane Pickett were working another job and I was still afflicted with my ankle gout. All I was able to accomplish was to drive to Lowes and buy the siding for our storage building. I'm making the south wall of the (16' X 20') storage building into a green house of sorts so Alexis can grow vegetables most of the year. To that end 12' of that wall will be clear corrugated plastic and I'll install a substantial shelf or 2 to double the area for her plants. We're also considering making the back corner into a chicken coup so we can produce our own eggs. We're still learning about chickens so "these plans haven't come home to roost."

The best thing that happened today was that I received an email from my close friend (Tulsa) Craig Buis who paints murals in high dollar homes and custom stains concrete for a living. Craig advised me not to cut the concrete to look like tiles but to use the system he uses to stain the floor. He explained the step-by-step system of blending/applying the stains to me over the phone tonight. Not only will the finished floor knock your eyes out but it will save me hundreds of dollars in concrete sawing plus savings using his recommended brand instead of the one I spoke of in an earlier post. I'm excited about the possibilities of mixing and blending several colors. Here are some pictures of Craig's work... all of this is concrete... floors, back splashes and countertops:


I ordered my AAC block today and it will be delivered Monday. I got a great deal on the block so the next biggie is to learn how to lay it. My new friend Sonny Gonzales who stuccos for a living called and said that coincidentially he was plastering an AAC wall like mine and that he had discovered a stucco product that he really likes and that goes up very quickly. He's appreciative for me getting him some local work and promised to be ready to stucco our Irish cottage in 3 weeks. I guess I better get rid of this gout and learn how to lay AAC block, huh!?

The slab is poured!

We got the slab poured today... 21 yards of 3,500#, fiber glass reinforced concrete... Steve Franklin and his crew (John & Robbie) did a really nice job for a very reasonable price... thanks, Steve! Meanwhile, David Musser and Shane Pickett almost got the floor built for our 16' X 20' storage building. I am recycling my concrete forms so I'm getting a lot of storage area for a very reasonable amount. David and Shane also did a really nice job too. Thanks!

Here is Steve Franklin directing the flow of concrete from the first truck. Unfortunately, the weight of the concrete truck crushed my water line and Terry Stephens has to come back on Friday with his backhoe to dig up the line so we can repair it... stuff happens:

This is John Watson on the slab with the paddle machine doing the final finishing. I wanted a slick finish which I will score with a concrete saw tomorrow to look like 3' X 3' tiles. Sometime before we move in I'll stain the concrete to look like leather:
Here David Musser and Shane Pickett are building the floor of my 16' X 20' storage building reusing the inside forms from the stem wall pour for the floor (it doesn't look level but it is). We'll strip off the outside forms on the slab tomorrow and they will be stood up and used for the walls in the building. David Musser has already built the roof trusses and I found the perfect length of used tin for the roof on CraigsList for less than half of retail. Having this new storage available will allow me to close out my other two storage buildings in Monteagle for a savings of almost $150/month.

Ready to pour the slab

I have been stricken with a "bout of gout"... OUCH! I can hardly walk but David Musser and Shane Pickett (David's friend and helper) were able to complete the last of the gravel leveling and tape down the vinyl-bubble-foil insulation/vapor barrier. I met with Steve Franklin, the concrete finisher, late today and he approved what we had done. He and his crew will be on site at 7:30 AM Wednesday morning (4/16/08) to pour and finish the slab. A finished slab will be our first major milestone and I'm PUMPED! Hallelujah!

This is a picture taken from the head of our driveway looking west towards Sir John Templeton's library which is a mile down the road on the bluff. Sir John (a billionaire and founder of the Franklin-Templeton Fund) built a $33 million library to house his books (presently there is not a single volume in the library) and to glorify Sir John. There's even a painted, life-size statue of himself, briefcase in hand, striking out from Franklin County as a young man to seek his fortune. The library looks like it belongs on the set of a horror movie... VERY out of character with the mountain and in a word... noveau riche.
This is a picture taken at the head of our driveway looking east towards Sherwood Road. You can see the white truck on Sherwood Road so you can see that our driveway is about 800' in off the main road. Ain't spring in Tennessee BEAUTIFUL!?

Plumbing at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning...ugh!

I wouldn't have made a good tradesman... Howell King, my plumber, told his helper (ME) to meet him at the job site at 7:00 AM... SEVEN AM!... I am NOT a morning kinda guy... ugh! He told me he cut me some slack because he usually starts at 6 o'clock... that's O-dark-thirty to me... the middle of the night for heavens sake... I'm usually checking my eyelids for holes at 6 in the morning. Nevertheless, we got busy and got all the drains in the gravel by noon then realized we had laid part of it out wrong. Instead of a utility room and half bath we were going to have a VERY large pantry with no place for a washer/dryer or toilet/vanity. Fortunately, Howell having been a plumber for 35+ years scratched his head and in less than an hour we had the utility room plumbed properly. Howell's a good old boy with a GREAT sense of humor so he didn't mind my joke about how easy plumbing is now with the new plastic pipe that you glue together. To be a master plumber all you have to know are 5 basics: 1) hot's on the left, 2) cold's on the right, 3) water (%#@&) flows downhill, 4) payday's on Friday and 5) you need to stop biting your finger nails. After the drains were in and double checked, we dug under the footer and brought the water in to the house. Since I'm running all my other water lines in the attic, we were finished in less than an hour. The AMAZING thing was Howell's incredibly low charge for labor ($231)... $231 added to the material that David Musser got me at wholesale and I had my rough-in plumbing completed for less than $500... the other two bids I got for the same amount of work with materials were $2,500 and $1,800... WHAT A BLESSING and a BARGAIN! Thank you Howell!

This is my impersonation of an Oklahoma Department of Transportation worker

Laying out the plumbing is much like putting a jig-saw puzzle together (Howell & me)

Another beautiful day in middle Tennessee

It was supposed to rain all day but it turned out to be another gorgeous Tennessee spring day. I met with Silas Nolt, the Mennonite truss guy, out in Altamont, Tennessee (between Beersheba Springs and Coalmont... you just about can't get there from here)... it's like going back in time being around those Mennonites. I looked across the road from Silas Nolt's home/shop and there in a field of kid goats was a middle aged Mennonite woman dressed in an ankle length calico dress and nineteenth century-esque bonnet weed eating the fence row... surreal for sure.

Getting back to the trusses, Silas and I struck a deal and he's going to deliver the 33 trusses May 1st (6.5/12 roof pitch with a 10' X 10' X 6'2" room accessible by way of a fold up attic stairway... like hide-a-beds... designed to be uncomfortable so in laws won't stay more than three days ;-)). The May 1st date puts the pressure on me to "get-r-done" re laying the AAC block. Happily, I found out that Silas' father, Mennonite Bishop Nolt, is a part-time block mason and may be willing to help me get the first course laid level and square. The first course being level is critical so the rest of the blocks go up easily.

I talked to the plumber/electrician today... he's coming to set up the temporary electric pole Saturday morning. Thereafter he and I will put the drains in the gravel. I had a BRILLIANT idea this morning... rather than put the water lines under the slab and chance a leak sometime in the future... why not put the water lines in the attic where they would be accessible if there was ever a problem? I'm "conditioning" the air in the attic anyway so the temperature up there will be the same as in the house so if the pipes freeze so will Alexis and I.

I also discussed the details of stuccoing with my new friend Sonny Gonzales who has been a plasterer in Texas for 30 years before moving to Tennessee last year.

Here's a picture of David Musser finishing the leveling of the gravel... and a nice shot of Baxter's butt. Baxter is my "Cedar-Crest-Velvet-Eared-
Knucklehead"... his Mama was a promiscuous Red Bone Hound and his Daddy was an opportunistic Great Pyrenees therefore Baxter is a VERY LARGE (and sweet) dog (120#).

Another BEAUTIFUL spring day!

The weather was spectacular again today but David Musser, my helper, couldn't get here with his transit until 5:00. In spite of the late start we got the gravel leveled to grade and now we are waiting for the plumber to put the drains/water lines in the gravel. Once that gets done I'll roll out and tape my "foil-bubble-vinyl" vapor barrier/slab insulator and we'll be ready for the concrete finishers.

This picture is looking south down our 200' gravel driveway from St. Mary's Lane.

This picture is of David Musser standing in the master bedroom's walk-in closet and me standing in the doorway of the master bath-to-be.

This picture should be entitled "almost finished leveling the gravel."

Finally a DRY day!

It was dry enough today to put Terry Stephen's Bobcat to work spreading gravel inside the foundation's stem wall. To use an old Navy phrase "Terry really turned and burned." I was very impressed with how much work he got done in two hours including spreading the excess gravel on our 200' driveway.
David Musser was late getting to the job site due to personal errands but after Terry left David and I used his transit and a "concrete hoe" to finalize the grade of the gravel. It got dark before we could finish but I'm very pleased with our progress. I talked to Howell King, my plumber/electrician tonight and we'll have the drains/water lines in the gravel by week's end. Hopefully, that means we'll have the slab poured within 10 days and I start learning how to lay AAC block.

Sunday Night

Happily, it was dry all day today and tomorrow promises sun and 72 degrees so I'm hoping to get a Bobcat in tomorrow afternoon to spread the gravel. If the Bobcat can maneuver on drier ground and if we can figure out a way to get the Bobcat over the stem wall and into the center of the foundation we'll finish the gravel spreading in no time. Howell King, my plumber/electrician, is bringing the temporary electric pole one day this week and assuming we get the gravel spread tomorrow, Howell will be able to get the drains/water lines in this week as well. Then, hopefully the concrete finisher will be able to fit us in ASAP and we'll have a slab poured.

Thursday

Yesterday was pleasant with sun most of the day. Unfortunately Tuesday night it had stormed so the ground was too muddy for us to spread gravel. David Musser and I made the most of the day by consolidating items from 3 storage units into 2. Some building material that I had collected over the last 24 months could now be kept on site if covered by tarps.

We had hoped for a similar weather pattern today, but it has been raining off and on all day, so the site is a major mudhole. Our area forecast indicates more rain through tomorrow, with a possible break for Saturday through next Tuesday. I had to postpone laying the drains & water lines in the gravel until we can get it spread and leveded. Pouring the slab is on hold until that's all done and the weather stays sunny for a few days to dry out the ground.

Getting the slab poured is a major milestone that both Alexis and I would like to have behind us!

On a more upbeat note, Alexis has been reading several books on gardening, including a book on 'Square Foot Gardening" and the Organic 4 Season garden. Of course, she can't begin to 'break ground' on a traditional garden until the house is much farther along, if not finished, since machinery needs to come and go around the house site for some time. She's researching options for containers, planters (we have 2 'Earthboxes') and other non-traditional methods for raising vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers. So far, lots of good ideas, but as with building, she can't do a lot until the weather drys up for a few days. Some things we can do include planting some blackberry and blueberry bushes in various spots in the lower woods area, and she's rethinking the area near where we've stacked about 5 cords of wood from last summer. We hope to split and stack about that much this summer as well, which may give us 4 years of good wood for the woodstove.

Rainy Days and Tuesdays?

The good news is that there have been some good rains of late, including a thunderstorm last night and some showers this afternoon, after a morning of bright sunshine. We certainly need the rain to help end the drought!

The bad news is that the property is a soggy mess and we can't finish the gravel work for the slab. We remind ourselves this is God's timing, not ours, so we worked on some of our projects unrelated to building. It was a productive day for us both, but we do long to get the foundation done!

The forecast for the rest of the week includes more rain.