It's a Mann's World (Let's Make a Home): Foundation For You? Foundation For Me.

As I contemplate this blog post, pick the latex from today's zombie makeup out of my hair and travel back in time with some recently downloaded music from my youth (Genesis' Land of Confusion happens to be playing right now--can you say Ronny Reagan puppet?!), the subject of foundations weighs heavily on my mind. HA! Foundation...heavy...anyway...

One interesting thing about Creede is that a substantial number of older homes here lack a foundation. They simply do not have one. You see, Creede was originally a mining camp for silver in the late 19th century. People built one room shacks and log cabins to serve their temporary needs. But most of those structures still exist today. The 100 year old cabin we currently stay in, which RJ also renovated, had no foundation when he started working on it in 2008. I remember him having to deal with the structure's extreme fragility and a particularly tense moment when he and his crew thought the cabin miiiiight actually fall over before they even poured the foundation because it was so unstable. The addition still doesn't have one and is literally sinking into the ground. There are some squishy spots on the floor and the north end of the room sinks down about an inch or so each year.

Fortunately, the house we bought had a foundation added to it in the late 1990s. Since we'd like to keep our house indefinitely, it's obvious we would create a foundation for the addition. And, in modern times, a foundation is actually required when building any new structure. Little did I know how much goes into this. It seems simple, but requires many steps.

First, RJ built a wooden frame around the edge of the huge hole he dug.

RJ using his special tool. (no, not THAT special tool)

Then, he added these steel poles called rebar. They stick straight up and when you pour the concrete they keep the foundation from cracking. Genius!

Rebarrrrrrrr!

We did the first "pour" last Friday. You then wait for it to dry (about 24 hours), remove the wood frame and build another level. Once the additional levels are poured and dry, which we did yesterday, you can start to build the "deck", which seems to be a fancy word for floor. Maybe because it's not yet closed in...anyway, not my area. In fact, none of this is my area, but is endlessly fascinating to me. Because it's MINE.

Also in boring-for-you-exciting-for-me news, the concrete is officially the first thing we have used our construction loan for. Since it has to be paid in cash on delivery, a reimbursement check should show up early next week. Word.