|
|
Boards
to pull the level for the foundation.
We tried a string level and a water level. Neither were accurate enough. We priced transits and laser levels and end by building the contraption you see here.
After the huge cement truck had driven down the drive
and turned around inside the house, we didn't worry about delivery damage.
We were wrong.
This
is the first delivery casualty.
We waited all day Saturday for our first wood delivery. Then waited most of Sunday. Of course they delivered after we left and the driver decided to turn his truck around in some some "brush". We lost cedar trees on both sides of the drive, some as tall as ten feet.
We lost three Texas Persimmon trees. Eric is shown here with my favorite.
To ensure this particular trees safety, we had spent one whole weekend moving huge rocks so the drive could be moved away from it. One of rocks was only showing about a foot above the road. Bill broke a pick trying to dislodge it. When we couldn't get the rock out of the dirt, we dug the dirt away from the rock. The rock was mammoth. Bill used a landscape timber, that was about 4 inches by 6 inches by 10 feet, as a lever to rock one side upward. I stuffed rocks under that side. We did the same on the other side of the rock. We inched the rock upward until we had the bottom of the rock at ground level. Bill used the timber to pivot the rock out of the road.
All this effort was to no avail. The tire tracks show that the delivery truck was twenty feet from the road, and had gone back and forth several times. We theorize he got stuck on some of the large rocks we set around the tree to protect it, because the rocks were broken and driven into the ground.
To replace this tree would have cost $500 to $1,000 dollars. One that was a fruit-baring female with a single trunk as large as ours, is rare. It would have meant finding one on someone's land, buying it, then paying to have it dug and transplanted. We settled for some small trees that were available at a nursery.
1/2
inch exterior plywood and 2x4 supports 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch rebar.
We built the outside wall of the form, tied in the reinforcing bars, and
then built the inside form.
Bill, December 1994 |
We were thrilled to be building up instead of digging down. |
Our van in the living room. 
Other side of van, from farther away. |
Detail of J-Bolts hanging from 1x2. After cement pour these bolts will be used to tie the mudsills to the foundation. |
 |
Bill and Eric |
 |
 |
 |
|
|