Another Footing Down!

Yesterday, despite the weather, we were able to start and finish the footing for the entire right side of the Blog Cabin! Here is a refresher course just in case anyone forgot… it has been a while since we did foundation work: “The bottom part of a foundation is called a footing (or footer). The footing is generally wider than the foundation wall and is located about 12 inches below the frost line (the average depth at which soil freezes year after year). The footing distributes the house’s weight to prevent settling or movement.” For New England, the frost line is 4 feet down from ground level and the footing needs to extend 4 inches past the cinder block on either side. So, without going into detail, P and I had to dig one, giant a$$ ditch in the ground ;) We have been working on the one giant a$$ ditch for a couple of weekends now and it was completed this past Saturday! Hooray for us! 8 O’clock Sunday morning, P and I woke up ready to work! Our Wayne met us with coffee and shovel in hand. The three of us were all geared up to start mixing cement and all of a sudden,…it started to pour. We were like "WHAT??? - it hasn't rained in like a year and it has to start now???" :( We waited inside the Blog Cabin for a while, played a couple of games of checkers - I won of course ;)ate some snacks and then, when we realized the rain was not going to stop, we all agreed to suck it up, get soaked and git er’ done! We braved the weather, shoveled the gravel, mixed the cement, carried it over to the giant a$$ ditch 5 gallon bucket by bucket, dealt with the mud, soaked our clothes completely through and in 2.5 hours and about 40 buckets later we had completed the footing! YEAH! Now we can start stackin’ the cinder block! Once we complete that side only two more sides to go and the entire foundation will be complete! Hip Hip Hooray!

Here are some more pictures!



-J