Foundation Footings Finished

With the footings done, we'll be able to dive into pouring the foundation walls this week.

With all the rain, the sump pumps are still working to keep the site dry. And given how much water is building up - and how quickly - the contractor wants to go the extra mile in sealing the foundation a couple different ways. Agreed!

The crew worked hard (in the rain) to get the footings poured. I've been asked how they can do that in the rain: since concrete is quite a bit heavier than water, it just pushed the water out of the way as it got poured. And apparently concrete can harden in cold, rainy conditions. Physics is so cool.
 

Peter was on hand as Assistant to the Regional Site Manager. If it has trucks, Peter likes it.

 

Concrete pumps are great! The dark black pipe is bringing in our liquid foundation. In all, two loads of concrete were needed for the footings.

The crew started in the NE corner of the house and worked their way toward the garage.

Almost done! You can really see how wide the footings are.

Done! The vertical rebar for the walls is all you can see now.

Warning: take extreme caution when standing on a ledge overlooking vertical rebar.

The rear footing, I'm told, is very big. This was required, in an abundance of caution, by the engineer since the rear wall is going to retain so much soil. If there's an earthquake, everyone's invited to our place to hide in the back room by this wall. It's not going anywhere - ever.

The left side of this photo is the side of the house with the MIL. The right side is our space, with the family room, laundry and bonus space. The concrete near the buckets is the base of the stairwell. The buckets are where the laundry room will be - and laundry chute!