August 1st - Complicated Walls

Today we began laying out the out lines for the foundation walls on top of the footers. Double D uses some clear lacquer to spray our marks on the concrete footings so the rain won’t wash them away. Willy, the surveyor, had set our corners and they are remarkably accurate, except for one wall which is slightly off (I probably mismeasured).

The walls are fairly complicated with a tricky layout zig-zagging back and forth. Luckily it won’t cause a problem with installing the wall forms. The footing forms were stripped today and wall forms delivered. Chip has a large truck that delivers the forms, with a neat crane on the front of the bed of the truck. The forms are vertically stacked in steel racks that would normally take hours to load and unload. With the crane, in a matter of minutes the racks of forms are set in place and his crew begins installing the forms for the walls. Even with experience, it is obvious that setting these forms will take a few days.

Fabian is back from his trip and we use his forklift to finally unload my trailer and make room for the old cabin which is bundled in 4 bundles and sitting in front of the existing cabin. I’ve purchased extra tarps and we move bundles of lumber closer together for ease in cover. Some of the lumber has been exposed to the weather and I see how important it is to keep stuff covered in this rainy climate. I have a ton of bungee cords with me to keep the tarps fastened down.

Once finished I go back to the cabin and move all the sheets of old tin that have laid on the north and south side of the cabin for years. Some of them are destined for the dumpster out front.

Pepe the concrete foreman and his helpers have the initial form panels up.

Today is also the day that Lynn leaves Iowa for Rico. I expect her to arrive on the evening of the 2nd. The apartment is not quite ready for her but we'll have to complete the rest of the work after her arrival.