A Family Cottage
July 8, 2018 – Today after the clean up from the concrete pour we covered all the footings for the week, packed up and headed home.
Next weekend we will begin forming up the piers.
Decided to celebrate a very good weekend with a sushi dinner at Sapporo East on the Carlisle Pike.
July 7, 2018 – Up early this morning. Double checking all the footers, putting in grade stakes for the concrete elevation and de-watering where necessary. Checked the inflation on the wheel barrow tires and we are all ready for the concrete pour.
Had a little coffee time before the concrete truck rolled in at about 7:30 AM.
Everyone took turns on the wheel barrows and we had 2.75 yards placed in the 19 holes in about 25 minutes. Not too bad. The yardage worked out perfectly.
After we cleaned up it was off to Shy Bear Brewery for a celebration dinner.
After we cleaned up it was off to Shy Bear Brewery for a celebration dinner.
The new addition is well underway! Tomorrow I think we will take a break.
July 6, 2018 – I was up early and out to purchase reinforcing bars to place in the footers in preparation for the concrete pour.
Wolfley Excavation was on site early this morning to continue spreading stone for the new expanded parking area. He was able to get 4 more loads delivered and spread before the quarry closed. It’s looking pretty good. The concrete truck should have no problems getting in and turned around.
At noon I confirmed the delivery of 2.75 cubic yards of 3000 psi concrete with Juniata Concrete out of Mifflintown for tomorrow at 7:00 AM.
Tied up and placed rebar all afternoon waiting on my help to show up. Left the footers uncovered all night to try and dry them out a bit.
Preparation looks good. Big day tomorrow!
July 4, 2018 – Today was the start of the footing excavation. We hand dug the first three footers 2′-6″ × 2′-6″ × 3′ deep. Two of them are in close proximity to the underground plumbing. One footing is close to an existing pier that is slightly tilted. We did not want to risk damage to the plumbing or the tilted pier from the digging auger.
All of the old wood from the porch roof was relocated. It was moved from the front of the cottage and put in a neat stack by the old shed. We took the rotted picnic table over to the fire pit. There it will await the return of the #arsonsquad.
We turned over the old wooden platform that the picnic table sits on. After a brief inspection we decided it is in great shape. There is no rot at all, so we relocated it close to the fire pit. It will serve as a stage for future nonsense.
It rained for several hours jeopardizing tomorrows planned parking lot installation. Hopefully Wolfley’s Excavating & Septic Pumping will be on site tomorrow to get it started.
Luckily we had covered the footers prior to the storm. Hopefully the covers will keep them from filling with water so that they can be prepped for the concrete pour.
July 1, 2018 – Today was footing layout day. I cut my footer guide from a sheet of plywood and laid out all nineteen footers. All locations are marked with orange marking paint.
We are ready to dig!
At the end of the day, sitting in the front yard with a cold beer, looking over my surveying work, I realized that I made a 6 inch error in the layout. Dam it…! More stuff to worry about! Anyway, here’s what it looks like.
June 30, 2018 – Before I could put up the batter boards I needed to backfill the plumbing trenches.
After I put up the boards I pulled some string lines off of the existing cottage walls. I determined that the cottage is officially 4 1/2 inches out of square. We had to expect that after almost 70 years in the damp river environment. Well, as Troy says, “We gotta build to what’s there.” So on with the show!
With the string lines in place we can proceed with the footer layout.
June 17, 2018 – Wolfley Excavation & Septic Pumping was on site today to remove, load up and haul away the remains of the concrete porch.
river During the excavation we discovered the removal of the frost wall sections under the kitchen and living room doors had the potential to damage existing piers. In light of this discovery we decided to leave two sections of frost wall in place. The section under the living room door seems to be backfilled with quite a bit of large river rock.
With the removal of the porch complete I can begin layout of the new kitchen and porch addition.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkxXAd6A7gY/
May 12, 2018 – Completing the porch roof demolition allows us to remove the concrete porch slab. Today we began this process with an electric jackhammer. Very quickly we discovered that there were actually two layers of slabs.
The first slab layer is inside the frost wall. Because it is not attached correctly to the frost wall, over time it settled. To overcome the settlement a second slab was placed on top of the first slab. This second slab contained chicken wire which proved more difficult to remove.
At the end of the day the only remaining concrete slab was a section located at the living room door. We will remove this at a later date.
Next weekend the plan is to remove the wood stove from inside the cottage. Hopefully, our demo subcontractor can be haul it away with the concrete rubble pile and the frost wall.