The Deck

Despite all of the rain, we went up to check things out. The deck is on! It's covered in an electric blue tarp to keep out the ever present rain. I'm surprised anything could be done this week, given the daily showers. We descended below the blue tarp, under the deck, to view our new cavernous basement and found it has headroom! Above, on the first floor, we got a glimse of the pond with new headroom as well. I could use some additional head room myself these days, hopefully we'll get it here.

Unwrapped and Cured

Now it looks like the beginning of a house. The cardboard forms are gone. The large crane is gone and a backhoe sits patiently at the far end of the site. The sand is filled in all around the open foundation. We know it is safe to walk around because the telltale ridge footprints of the backhoe decorate the ground around the house. If the ground can hold a backhoe, we’re no problem for it. The crushed stone floor of the basement is in, as is the sump pump in one corner. This was Phil’s idea, and a good one, because if we get water it will be necessary to have an easy way to get it out. Under the floor, PVC piping was laid. If a torrential spring rain comes along and water decides to run into the house, it can easily get around it and under it. The French drain will provide a place for the water to run, rather than sit against the house. The exterior of the foundation is painted with black tar as waterproofing. It smells like a city street on a hot day here now. The tar is just very thick oil. Clay found a bucket of it and started to paint the shed with the black oil until I discovered him, and tossed him into the bushes. On the foundation, the tar paint looks like the house is wearing the kind of black dress knee socks my dad wears. The jet black is a contrast to the light gray cement. The knee socks come just above the ground line. Our house’s socks are pulled up and the house is tucked into the ground. No doubt, it will rain, maybe a lot. With these precautions, the house can’t help but remain dry.

A small, fluorescent green sticker decorates the cement just below that black sock line. The sticker is right by a gap in the foundation that will be the door leading into the basement through the stairwell. The sticker says “Approved”. Certainly, that is good news. Adrien can build.

A Foundation

A Foundation
A huge crane truck greets us in the driveway. What we see beyond it is a 6 foot deep chasm. Steep sand is piled up on all sides. Tanner called it active sand. This is sand that can bury a man quickly if he steps into the pile at the bottom. Indeed it did, and recently. Tanner told the story of a local man buried alive when he was shoveling sand at the transfer station recently. Apparently, the man did not heed the warnings of the locals to beware of the active sand. At our pit, we kept the kids and dogs away from the sand piles as best we could. The last thing we wanted was to cave the sand in on the foundation before it was finished, or bury someone.

In our large pit, lies a cardboard wrapped cement foundation. It is a lovely shape, a perfect square, 24 feet by 24 feet. On the side opposite the pond, there is a 7 foot square protruding out. This is where the stairs will go. From the sky it would resemble a square pumpkin with a square stem on top. A twenty four foot square does not seem very large. It easily swallows up the metal racks inside it where the cement forms are stored. Later this week, the crane will lift its large, drop forged hook, and lower it into the basement foundation to pick up the racks and return them to the truck. Their job to hold the cement in will be done, and the foundation will be left to cure.

It is great news that the excavator did not hit any water while digging the pit. Tanner was sure that an underground stream was directly below our house site. After all, he showed me the divining rods and we slowly walked all around the property finding water veins. We watched while the rods bent mysteriously at different times, and followed the bending down to the pond, along what we imagined was a stream making its way to the source. Adrien had a scientific attitude about the basement. He said he went by the perc test, the test hole and the recommendations prepared by the septic design person. It was a contest to see who would end up being correct. I believe both Adrien and Tanner are right.

When the backhoe dug its trenches, it went deep. It went deep enough for a full basement, with headroom. It was not deep enough to hit the stream that is maybe 18 feet below the ground. After all, our well point is 18 feet down. That is 11 feet below what was dug. Eleven feet of sand lie between the basement floor and the “surface water” that we tapped for the well point. I like thinking of all the activity under the ground. It reminds me of an apartment that I once stayed at in Somerville, situated over the subway. All night I could hear trains far away, rumbling deep under the ground below my bed. I imagined the people who were traveling somewhere at night, while I was asleep. Similarly, I can lie in bed at night and imagine the ancient water that is traveling below me. Most recently, it was last night’s rainfall. Tomorrow it will be our swimming hole. Long ago, it was the ocean that covered the sandy floor beneath our house.