Time to build and pour the bond beam

This morning I tied the lower course of steel (rebar) on the north wall bond beam (visible just above the top course of block in this picture). I tied this horizontal steel to the bent over ends of the vertical rebar coming out of the poured cores. 8 inch "J" bolts get tied to this lower horizontal rebar and the top course of rebar will also be tied to these bolts. The threads of the "J" bolts stick out of the concrete beam and the 2" X 8" pressure treated wooden top plate gets bolted to them. Then the trusses are affixed to this wooden plate and we're off to the (roof) races.
I'm happy to report that I laid the last 8" X 8" X 24" AAC block today in the 12th course of the east wall. Hallelujah! I'll fill the remaining 6 cores with concrete tomorrow and tie the horizontal steel on the top of that wall. If there is time left in the day, I'll begin building the side walls of the bond beam. The difficulty of building the bond beam is still very much an unknown quantity. Nevertheless, here's a picture of the 12th course in the east wall finally being finished! You and I both were wondering if I'd EVER get these blocks laid, huh!? Here my grandson, Ethan, is doing a joyous "victory bounce" for me to celebrate the last AAC block being laid.

Pouring concrete in bored cores

Until the bottom of my left heel (?) started hurting today, I mixed and poured wet/loose concrete into the 3" bored cores that I had drilled as I laid the AAC block. These 3" cylinders are vertical and are located approximately every 4'. Each hole gets filled with concrete and a rebar is dropped down the hole to create a 3" steel/concrete column. These columns - which extend all the way down through the slab & stem wall into the footing - will be tied into the top bond beam that I keep harping about. When I am finished with the bond beam, the block walls will be tied together top-to-bottom and side-to-side with concrete & steel. This picture is a shot down the north wall from east to west (be nice... the wall is pretty straight). The rebar sticking out of the holes will be bent over and wired to another continuous piece of rebar that runs along the entire top course about 3" higher and parallel to the top (12th) course of AAC block. This literally makes a poured concrete/steel beam. Before the bond beam is poured, 8" "J" bolts will be wired to the lower run of rebar and a second horizontal piece of rebar will be tied above the first run (All new construction in Florida (I'm told) is required to have such a bond beam to stiffen/strengthen the house in case of a hurricane). A 2" X 8" wooden plate will be bolted to the top of the wall with these "J" bolts and the roof trusses afixed to this plate.
Here's a blast from the past... the buff kid kneeling in the center is me 90 pounds and many years ago (circa summer, 1966). As U.S. Naval Academy 2nd Class Midshipmen we were in Little Creek, Virginia being indoctrinated by the Marine Corps before our junior year (19 years old... and as I recall barely shaving). We (8th Company, Class of 1968) had just made an amphibious landing in very rough seas (we disembarked from a troop transport ship into tiny landing craft that bounced around like corks until we hit - HIT being the operative word - the beach). We were wet, cold and miserable.On a somber note: My dear friend the Honorable LT Spence Dry (over my left shoulder) was the last Navy SEAL killed in Vietnam (I was with Spence in the Philippines during the summer of 1969 the moment he made the decision to become a SEAL)... he was awarded the Bronze Star with "V" for Valor, to wit:
You'll be happy to know that back at the Academy your tax dollars paid for the following kind of frivolity. This is my classmate and friend, Scott McRoberts, who later became a Naval Aviator (P-3 pilot) and retired as a Captain (O-6):

12th course finished on west & north wall

Well today while running between raindrops I experienced a momentous occasion... I have finished cutting and drilling block... all that's left to do before starting the bond beam is to finish gluing the 12th course on the east wall (all the blocks are cut and fitted). I should be able to get those glued tomorrow and get all the remaining cores poured with rebar. Monday will start the "unknown" relating to gluing the bond beam sidewalls that create the cavity to pour the concrete into with the horizontal rebar. Hopefully it will go smoothly and we'll be ready to start building the wooden south wall very soon. Here I am too pooped to pop at the end of the day:
Here you can see the 12th course on the north wall... FINISHED!Here's my little man learning to crawl... Ethan is just too cute!

FINALLY... the lintels are in!

Today was primarily spent preparing to put the lintels up. I had to rebuild all the scaffolding on the inside of the north wall so David Musser and I would have firm footing to set the lintels. The lintels are 8" X 8" X 64" long, VERY heavy and awkward to handle so having a good platform to work from was important. The work paid off as David and I - with Tracy & Shane, David's helpers, assisting on the ground - were able to set the lintels in about 15 minutes. I'll be able to complete the 12th course on the north wall tomorrow and maybe finish gluing the 12th course on the east wall. Then it's time to build the bond beam, tie the rebar and pour the cavity created with concrete.

You can't see it but Alexis and I set the window frames with long screws today. The gaps between the wood and blocks still have to be caulked and taped with "Gorilla brand tape" to minimize unwanted air infiltration but that's pretty much a no brainer... then it's time to set the trusses and put the roof tin on!

Wall repaired... two more cores poured with steel

As you can see - except for trimming the jagged edge of the door opening - I have repaired the wall west of the front door that was out of plumb.  I also poured two more cores with concrete and rebar between the door opening and the dining room window (if you look closely, you can see the rebar sticking up vertically).

I had hoped to set the lintels today but I really needed one more day to prepare. Hopefully David Musser can come tomorrow afternoon after I get everything ready and help me lift them into place (windows set, block surfaces prepared, rebar bent out of the way, scaffolding built, etc.). Next, I'll finish the 12th course (filling in between the lintels) on the north and east walls and start the bond beam. David and his crew are itching to start (work for them is slow) the south wooden wall and set the trusses. He convinced me to hire a crane to set them even though the 29' trusses are very manageable with 3 men and one geezer (ME!). Setting the trusses with a crane will be much easier, will speed the process and may even save me some labor money. The prospect of "getting the roof on" is exciting.

Wall demolition and frustration

Here's a picture of the rubble following the demolition of the first 4' of the wall just west of the front door (I hadn't laid the blocks to a string - doh! - so the wall was significantly out of plumb and had to come out so the lintel over the door would line up). As you can see the block broke but the adhesive held when the wall was toppled. The glue, the poured cores & the bond beam are going to build a "very, very fine house."
After I gingerly tore out the 4' of wall I had to prepare the 1st course for the 2nd course to be laid on top of it. This was NOT easy as the glue does not scrape off easily with the rasp and I labored for over an hour trying to get the surface level. Unfortunately I was a little off in the middle and by the time I got the 4th course laid (see below) my error was magnified and it was out of level again (with a slight hump in the middle). I'll have to do more scraping tomorrow to level it out. Frustrating... KNOW that I'll be glad when these blocks are laid and the bond beam is poured. It'll be on to nailing nails and raising the roof! My Granddaddy was in the Navy... that's why I like to be surrounded by water. BUBBLES!? WHAT BUBBLES!?

More cores got poured today and some steel tied

Today (Saturday) Alexis and I finished pouring the cores in the west wall and tied the steel on that side and around the corner for the soon to be poured bond beam. We would have done more but my drill went NORTH (no more slurs about "going South"... the South is where I wanna be!). When we get the bond beam poured MAN is this going to be a strong house... tied together top-to-bottom and side-to-side with steel and concrete. David Musser came to help put up 3 of the lentils but I didn't feel like I was ready so we postponed it for a day or two.Looks like my grandson Ethan just won the lottery!

More cores got poured today... more pouring tomorrow

Coming down our driveway:
Several cores in the west wall got poured yesterday before the batteries on my drill/mixer went dead. We'll be ready to start the bond beam soon. Late Saturday afternoon David Musser is coming by to help me lift and set (in glue) the lintels over the three windows to the left of the front door... the lintels that go over the door and the dining room window aren't ready to be bridged yet.
This is a sunset from our duplex's back deck... ain't Tennessee beeee-u-tiful!?
Call 911 and get my Granddaddy on the phone!?... he wouldn't make me eat these yucky things that are good for me!

Getting ready to put up the lintels

As you can see from this picture we're almost ready to put the lintels over these three windows (the 12th course!)... gotta find someone to help me with this "heavy lifting"... I don't think I can pick one of these 8" X 8" X 64" lintels up by myself and position it 8' in the air (I'm sitting on a stack of 6 lintels).
The two opening at this end of the house are a more problematic as the sill on the far left window is a bit too high & needs to be adjusted down... and the wall to the right of the window next to the door opening is not plumb (laid without a string... doh, Dave!) and needs to be partially torn out and relaid... UGH!I spoke with David Musser today and arranged for him to bring "his crew" (Shane & Tracy) to help me build the south "stick built" wall and to put the trusses, sheeting, roofing felt and tin on. We could be "dried in" in three weeks or so!

Alexis' climbing rose bush came today

As we've stated in previous posts our dream is to build a mortgage free, energy efficient Irish cottage... with roses climbing up the front wall... like this:And here (drum roll, please) is our first baby climbing rose:My big news is that the first vertical footing-bond beam 3" core got poured today with rebar... each core will be poured like shown below and then tied to a horizontal length of rebar that runs continuously around the top of the AAC block wall effectively tying the walls together from top to bottom and side-to-side:
I almost got the 12th course on the west wall completed today which only leaves the bond beam to pour above it (the rebar from the shot above is barely visible in the center of this far wall (look closely... it parallels the top of the wall right in the middle):Now I have to tackle the north front wall (courses 11 and 12) and set the HUGE AAC lintels over the windows and the front door... HELP!:

Less than 100 blocks to lay

I roughly figured out that I have less than 100 blocks to lay... Hallelujah!... one more course on the west wall + the bond beam... one more course to glue on the east wall + bond beam... 2 more courses on the front (north) wall + the bond beam. In this picture I am finishing up the 11th course on the west wall... Alexis and I are hardcore & proud Southerners so we began flying the Leonidas Polk flag today. He was a Confederate General (known as "the fighting Bishop"), the Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana (back when Episcopalians knew Jesus) and a founder of the University of the South (1860) which our property borders on the east.
This is a long shot from the southeast corner of the house. I'm finishing out the top of the 11th course by rasping the rough spots smooth. Remember the south wall will be "stick built" out of 2" X 6"s because it will mostly be windows for the passive solar design I came up with. A block wall would just be too much for me to handle with the massive lintels that would be needed to bridge the openings.

A visit by Sister Lucy & Sister Elizabeth

We had a nice surprise late this afternoon when Sister Lucy and Sister Elizabeth came over from St Mary's Convent for a visit. Two years ago their Community graciously sold us our land. When the surveyor discovered that the parcel was landlocked, the Sisters worked with us to get us legal access (an easement) to the property. When we're a little farther along, Sister Lucy, who is an ordained Episcopal Priest, will come down for a house blessing... here we are standing between the dining room and the kitchen (Boone & Baxter are in the foreground... Mosby is on a recon patrol... "nobody knows where Mose-Bose goes!?").
It was back to block laying for me today (I'm using the white adhesive again as you can see on the wall... I like it better than the gray although there's probably no difference except for color)... I actually got quite a bit done today and, happily, my block laying days are numbered. I have to admit that I'm uneasy about pouring the bond beam... mixing concrete, up and down the scaffolding bucket-by-bucket... and I thought laying this block was physically taxing.This is Alexis' sweet potato... it sat around the kitchen for a couple of weeks and sprouted so Alexis planted it in her square foot garden... it's now putting out very healthy looking leaves.

I love CraigsList

How can anyone NOT love CraigsList!? Long before we got access to our land and were able to start building our house in earnest I began haunting http://nashville.craigslist.org/ and was able to buy an awful lot of house stuff at incredible prices (under the "material" & "general" headings):Here are some of the deals I have snatched up over the preceding 24 months:
~ All of our kitchen cabinets (quoting the seller's wife, "...these cabinets just aren't me") which have hand painted murals (baby chicks, ducks, etc.) on the doors (the people threw in an essentially NEW $1500 jacuzzi tub & vanity/laboratory for FREE!... "just haul it off")
~ $3000 worth of Corian for $15 that we will use to line the walls around the FREE jacuzzi tub plus a bunch more FREE stuff just to haul away)
~ All of our windows for 25 cents on the dollar (most are NEW Pellas to go on the front of the house.. the rest are NEW name brand units for the passive solar south wall); both leaded glass exterior doors for less than 1/2 price
~ Refrigerator, $1200 washing machine (for $150)
~ Kitchen counter tops, bathroom mirrors, Kohler double kitchen sink with very nice faucet & a shower enclosure (I discovered a repairable crack in the fiberglass and she gave us the unit to haul away... I fixed the $300 enclosure for a $25 fiberglass repair kit)
~ Fiberglass laminated plywood that I initially built my foundation forms out of and later used the forms to build the floor and walls of our 16' X 20' storage building
~ ... and today we bought enough HardiPlanks to cover both gables and the south wall so they can be stuccoed along with the AAC block (we got these concrete/fiber planks for less than 1/2 price even factoring in gas to Nashville and back)
Making mention of these deals is not meant to brag on my haggling skills but to encourage you to consider CraigsList for both buying and selling.

A Stormy Saturday

Dave is taking the night off, so I'm filing the report.

He'd hoped to lay another few courses of block, but the weather had other plans, including some pretty sharp cracks of thunder and a hard rain mid-afternoon. We went to alternate plan B and began to move a few boxes from the container to the storage building. We were also looking for the ceramic filters to our water filter system; alas, they're still MIA somewhere in a box in the container (think final scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"). However I did come across my CD file which contains several CDs of power points I use during the school year. If we can get the contents of the container into our storage building, we'll have one less expense and I can begin to create my "lasagna garden" for next year.

The 'square foot garden' is doing alright, but I took too long trying to find the coarse vermiculite recommended. Finally I did a compromise of half perlite and half horticultural vermiculite. The green peppers and squashes are doing well, but the tomatoes are a bit anemic. The "upside down/bucket" tomatoes didn't work at all.

Ever the optimist, I am eagerly awaiting delivery of my 4 heirloom roses from Oregon's Heirloom Roses. My selections include "Zephirine Drouhin" an 1868 climbing rose (which will grow up the front of our cottage around one of the windows), "Great Maiden's Blush" "Apothecary's Rose" and "Rosa Mundi" shown below. These last 3 have their origins around the 12th century (1100s). Many thanks to Dave's brother, Steve, for steering me to Heirloom Roses!

"Rosa Mundi"These are the looks that we're hoping for:

Learning to pour the 3" cores...

Three of the four front windows were positioned over my 3" bored cores. Today I decided to learn the tricks associated with pouring these full of concrete (18" - 31" depth). I knew that a stiff mixture wouldn't fall to the bottom of the hole so I mixed my first batch really WET... WRONG move... all the gravel sank to the bottom of my mixing bucket with essentially gray water on top... obviously too much water. I remixed a batch with less water and the loose concrete mixture seemed to fall to the bottom of the hole as I poured it in the 3" hole with the rebar. This is a picture of one of the window sills after I poured the core and laid the last sill block on top. The window buck will sit 2" from the edge and will be wrapped with AAC 2" X 4" trim.
Here I am at the end of the day looking out the kitchen window with a deceiving smile on my face... I'm bushed!
Here's a picture of my 7 month old, look-a-like grandson, Ethan Dail (pronounced "Dale")... except for his beautiful mop of hair of course. Ethan is thinking, "my Granddaddy loves me... he loves me not... NAAAAH... MY GRANDDADDY JUST PLAIN LOVES ME!

We made the best of a rainy day...

I was almost out of "glue" (adhesive) for my block laying and it looked like rain so Alexis and I drove to the AAC block place in Ringgold, GA (just south of Chattanooga). We bought some more adhesive and some replacement tools (that I had worn out) and used SafeCrete's band saw to cut some blocks anticipating the need to create a bond beam in the very near future. Here you can see me bringing in a pallet of blocks to cut.This is a picture of me using the commercial band saw to "slice" the blocks into the 2" side walls for my bond beam above the 12th course of solid blocks (the "Joseph Mansfield" course). I'll put rebar in the middle and pour the center cavity that has been created with concrete to form the beam that ties the building together from top to bottom (from the footing through the stem wall, slab and blocks that have already been laid... I'll also put "J" bolts in the bond beam to bolt down the top plate... we'll nail the trusses to this wooden plate).
Alexis carefully stacked the "slices" in the bed of her pickup. We also cut the 2" X 4" AAC trim for the windows and door on the front of the house. With the sliced blocks (approx 1000 lbs.) and ten 55# bags of adhesive on the tailgate (it was a full load for an F-150 pick-em-up-truck!) we drove back to Sewanee having turned a rainy lemon day into lemonade.

Our roof trusses arrived this morning

Silas Nolt, our truss-guy, had a "Mini Me-type" helper (I guess it would be more appropriate to call him a "Mini Mennonite" helper?)... this little guy will be three on Saturday... cute.
The trusses coming off Silas's trailer:It'll REALLY be a milestone when we get these up and covered with tin!Here's a panorama of the building and our load of trusses:Back to laying block with my ice chest dunked wash cloth to keep me cool. The front (north) wall is almost finished... just three more courses and the bond beam (our red "mortgage FREE" front door will go in the opening to the right after I build the door frame and saw the blocks off even vertically):Watering Alexis' square foot garden is a lot easier than laying block.Our billionaire "neighbor," Sir John Templeton died yesterday at 95 (Templeton Growth Fund)... our people were never able to get with his people so Alexis and I never did get to "do" tea with Sir John at his library which is just down the road (St Mary's Lane) a piece from our land. May Sir John rest in peace.