It's all done. Just the curing left!!! And then there was a basement floor!
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Grandpa and his sons... John in the middle and Richard on the right.
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This was a lot... a lot... of work. Thanks John!
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Grandma and Nephew Joe.
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In comes the power trowel. When John first started this thing up... it whipped him around. Pretty powerful! What a nice finish to the cement.
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More smoothing out.
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This was such a cool picture... just had to take it. This gentleman ran the pump truck with the controllers you see to the left of him. It's amazing how precisely he is able to control the cement flow through the pump truck!
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Thanks Cal!
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More edge smoothing!
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Be careful Lyman!
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Smoothing out the edges.
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More helpers arrive!
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Thanks for your help guys!
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Boy did this machine save us a lot of work!
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a close up look.
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more work in the middle. Grandpa is working the power screed.
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Smoothing out the cement after the pour... part 1
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Now the middle.
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The pouring of the basement floor begins! In the background is the pump truck.
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All the braces are down...

All the braces are down. That took a while to do. Matthew was a good helper for Dad... stacking all the 2x4s and all.

Tomorrow is another BIG day...
We pour the basement floor tomorrow... first thing in the morning.
The pump truck will be here at 7amish... followed by the cement truck... and hopefully lots of helpers...

Rich and I were snapping chalk lines around the basement walls to indicate how high to pour.

All done! Whew! No blow-outs!
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Finishing up. This is a close up view of the top of the forms. Look at the beautiful, snow covered mountains in the background!
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3rd and final time around!
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Rich's Dad is doing the finishing work and putting in the anchor bolts.
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Waiting the the next load of cement to be filled into the hopper of the pump truck.
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Rich is filling the forms. First time around 1/3...
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This is the pump truck.
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Foundation all DONE!

Boy was having that pump truck great! It was worth every penny!

The whole pour was done within a few hours. Then a couple more hours to do the finish work which included setting anchor bolts.

I took lots of pictures. I'll try to get them posted today.

But for now... I'm starving! Nothing like a slinging some mud to build up an appetite!

The next big step...

Tomorrow for my 40th birthday... we are pouring the cement for our foundation. YEAH!
We've rented a concrete pump to make the job a little easier.

Stay tuned for more pictures! Oh.. and if you wouldn't mind keeping us in your prayers... that would be good too! (smiles!)

My dear husband, Richard. House builder... cement worker... framer... ???
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Corner of the south wall.
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All braced up and ready for the cement pour TOMORROW!
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Walls back up!

On Saturday we got the long East wall forms (for the basement) back up. What a project! Because the forms interlock like leggos... part of the South and North wall forms also had to be dismantled.

Today we put the West short wall form back together... and got most of the bracing done. We were racing against the impending storm with hail and tornado warnings heavy on our minds!

Luckily the storm passed over us with brisk winds and some rain. We were pretty much soaked by the time we finished the last of the bracing.

The cement pump is scheduled for my birthday... June 13nth!

On Wednesday (Rich's birthday!) we had a storm that included rain, hail, and a great gust of wind.

We were working on bracing our basement forms (for the cement pour)... but hadn't finished. Down came the rain.. and nickel sized hail... and then a great gust of wind knocked down our forms on the long East wall and short West wall.

We worked all day yesterday breaking down these walls and piling the styrofoam blocks in piles of good, usuable, and broken... Today we will rebuild those walls. Unfortunately... rebuilding means that part of the good walls must be dismantled because these foam blocks fit together like leggos in a pyramid fashion.

Please pray for light... soft... gentle wind while we get this up and braced!

This ladder looking thingy goes on top of the forms to stabalize them.
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Wind damage from the hail storm on 6/1/05. A great gust of wind blew down our basement cement forms on the short West wal and long East wall...
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The view facing West with the mountains in the background... on the right side is a huge dirt pile from digging out the basement.
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