leach field dug and inspected

 Martin and I finally had a break in the weather. The leach field is in full sun for most of the day and digging it out becomes too difficult and hot in the afternoon, which leaves short days to do the work.

However, we had a cloudy, not-too-hot day and we were able to finish hauling the rest of the sand out of the leach field.

The other bonus was that the Cornish Code Officer was able to come by as soon as we were finished. He has inspected the leach field, which passed with flying colors. 

Now we get to buy drainage pipe and order gravel to be delivered.

Sand, sand everywhere

The leach field needs to go in this area. To put it in, we need to have it dug out. 

We are getting there, slowly.

We have hauled sand out by the bucketful to level the basement floor and to mix the concrete.

As you can see, we have managed to remove some of the sand.

We still have a long way to go - we also still have the slab in the barn to pour.

barn to workshop conversion

Martin emptied out the barn of his tools and the lumber that was stored in it to prepare for pouring the concrete slab.

He sprayed the interior with a wood preservative.

Then he prepped the floor. He needed to take out a layer of the sand floor that had nails, broken glass, sawdust, sharp stones, etc. in it, and then bring in "clean" sand to bring the floor to the correct height and level.

Once all of that was done, we tacked heavy plastic as a vapor barrier to the east and west sections that we were going to pour first, since we decided to pour the slab in three sections.

When the east and west slabs were done, we prepped the middle section by putting in the plastic for a vapor barrier and putting in wire mesh and rebar.

Then we poured the middle section.

We are done mixing and pouring concrete. I am almost going to miss the cement boogers I got every time we made concrete. I won't be able to add a bit of water to my cement dust covered hair to be able to sculpt it into artistic creations. Plus, I won't be adding to the bruises to be counted everyday after lifting buckets of sand and gravel which are so heavy that just resting them on my arm makes a bruise.

Basement concrete work is done

We mixed and poured the last section of the basement slab, so the basement concrete work is done.

No more hauling buckets of sand and gravel down into the basement.

Now we move onto the slab for the barn.

filling in the hedgerow on the other side

There is a gap in the hedgerow on the west side of our property. One of our new neighbors offered us a couple of lilacs, so we decided to fill in the gap. I've dug a trench and added manure. Now all we are waiting for is a good time (meaning no concrete work to do) to transplant the lilacs from the neighbor's yard to ours.

Floor slab in the basement

After two more days of mixing and pouring concrete, we have the floor slab of the basement done. 

We still need to do under the bulkhead stairs and the second half of the wider, stepped section.

walkway is done

 Martin allowed me, without supervision, to lay the last few pavers to finish up the front walkway.

The walkway is now complete and runs along the whole front of the house, from the driveway to the bulkhead doors.

Belgian block

On the way back from my family's Fourth of July family reunion, we stopped at Martin's brother's house. He had some left-over Belgian block that he didn't need, so we confiscated it.

The plan is to put it along the edge of the front lawn at the edge of the walkway so we can haul in composted manure and raise the front yard, improve the soil, and plant a flower bed.

We have water

As soon as Marin set up an account with the Cornish Water District, Rodney dropped off our "horn" and meter.

 We are a little tired of hauling water down from the rain barrel, so Martin got everything hooked up and we have water.

slab in the basement

I'm Martin's mason tender again. We are making slow steady progress on the concrete slab in the basement.

If you remember, our basement is stepped. Along both the east and west walls, the foundation comes down about 3 feet, then there is a "shelf" that steps the basement into the center that is full height.

Martin made sure that the sand that back filled the two stepped sections was level and tamped. Then he insulated them. The rebar and metal mesh went in next.

I had the pleasure of filling the holes in the cement blocks with sand, since we have lots of sand and we didn't want to fill them with concrete!

We hauled in buckets of sand from the leach field and buckets of gravel from the pile of gravel that we ordered and had dumped in the driveway.

Don't forget the buckets of water that we had to haul in from the rain barrel.

The cement mixer is ready to go.

Then we got to start mixing concrete. Which gets shoveled into buckets and dumped where it needs to be.

We got half of the east shelf done and all of the west shelf done.

Next we had to prep the floor to be insulated and ready to take concrete.

First we moved the bags of screened sand. (We are planning on using it to make mortar for the brick hearth and wall for the wood stove we will be putting in.)

Next we brought in buckets and buckets of sand from the leach field to level the floor. Because the sand was dry we had to wet it down so it wouldn't shift around under foot.

The basement stairs had to be supported so they wouldn't be in the way or put pressure on the concrete.

Then the insulation was put in. Martin decided the best way for us to approach pouring the floor slab was to do it in sections. He built forms a few feet out from both walls and built a suspension screed.

We hauled in our buckets of sand

and our buckets of water.

We had our supply of Portland cement

and our buckets of gravel.

The mixer was set to go.

We started mixing, pouring, and screeding.

The basement is more than half done. We need to bring in more sand and level the last section of floor and start the process over, but first we need to wait until the current slab sets up so we can work off of it.