Our new swimming pool!

The foundation walls have been stripped of their forms and now make a great swimming pool!

In the lower pix they look like a fortress with a moat around it...

As you can see, it's been really wet on Cortes and we have not yet sorted out some of the drainage issues on the site.

Nevertheless, the foundations are done and they look good.

Pouring the Foundations

On December 21st Mike and his team successfully poured the concrete foundations. Here is David Rousseau's report on how it went...

Your foundation walls were poured successfully (in heavy rains) on Tuesday. By now the forms are stripped and it's mostly cleaned up. Mike, Noba, John Hayes (English stonemason living in Moreka's cabin) and I did the pour. The truck couldn't get as close as Mike would like because of mud. But it wasn't much of a stretch. Took about 3-1/2 hrs to unload and place the concrete, and another 3 hrs to set bolts and cleanup. There was almost an extra yard (this is inevitable), so it went under the kitchen area as a thin slab.

Looks like a wet and very muddy scene. I feel a bit guilty about enjoying the comfort of our condo in Burnaby while others do the dirty work. But maybe I'll feel better when I get the bill!

Anyway, we are delighted it all went well and we are now close to being ready to start framing the house. Meanwhile, Danielle and I are planning a visit to check things out between Christmas and New year.

Forms in place

Here you can see the wonderful Mike and Noba working on the forms for the foundation walls for our house. Mike is the guy who built the workshop this past summer and who tolerated me as his helper.

Noba Anderson is his partner and also happens to be the Regional Director for Cortes Island. I first met Noba when I sold her my baidarka (kayak) a few years ago. She is a remarkable young woman with a serious IQ.


These forms will contain the concrete as it is poured and then be removed once it has set. The floor joists will sit on top of these walls and there will be a crawl space underneath.

This is a critical stage of the house construction because everything rests on these foundations. It's very reassuring to have Mike's expertise combined with David's on-site involvement while this work is being done.



Once the foundation is completed, it will likely sit until April when I plan on returning to Cortes to start building the house, hopefully with Mike once again playing the role of construction boss and me as his humble helper.

Footings

Over the past couple of weeks Mike has been working on the foundations. Here are the forms for the footings
Island Readymix provided the concrete.
I wasn't there for this part of the project but from what I hear the site has been pretty muddy. Mike has been running a pump to keep water away from the newly poured concrete.
The poured footings with rebar sticking up for the next stage, the foundation walls.