“Living the Dream” – Year 2, Day 120, Friday, August 26, 2022 – The cement arrived a little after 8am and the footings were completed in about 1.5 hours. Justin came by to assist with the heavy work. When you are pouring concrete, you have to work quickly to level it out. It is almost impossible to do it alone. We used a different Concrete place this time. The one we used a year ago was Pyles Concrete and they closed all their plants. This time we called SRM Concrete. This is a really large company in many states with their headquarters in Tennessee. They came out very quickly from their somerset facility. We were very pleased with their excellent service, and product.
One thing to note when you get concrete you need to wet your wheel barrel and the truck chute down before the driver starts the cement flow. There is a water hose on the front of the cement truck you can use for that.
The concrete will be poured level with the rebar sticking up out of the ground in the footer holes. This is what Steve used the laser level for yesterday. Everything needs to be level, or you get a crooked garage.
If the concrete doesn’t have enough water, it doesn’t flow well and is hard to pull down the trenches. The driver can add water as needed. It was way too thick in the beginning for our pour.
While Steve and Justin finish the leveling the driver cleaned up his chute of all lingering concrete. Steve and Jutin will also do that with all the tools and wheel barrel. If equipment is not thoroughly cleaned before the concrete sets your tools/equipment will be ruined.
We then headed to Lowes for some Type S mortar. We were able to get our own bags loaded so there were no issues like the first time with the house. If you didn’t read about that fiasco, here are links to those days:
- Living the Dream Day 42 – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count
- Living the Dream Day 43 – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count
- Living the Dream Day 67 – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count
Tomorrow Steve will start laying the 8-inch block. The cement has to harden and dry before the block can be put down. We have 100 block left over from the house and another 280 more are being delivered on Monday. The excavated dirt still has pieces of the old house mixed in. At some point we will probably have to handpick them out.
We don’t want to go anywhere near Somerset tomorrow. The Somernites Cruise is going for a Guiness book of world records for the Longest Ford Parade and the longest Mustang Parade. The town will be mobbed and route 27 will be closed for a few hours. https://www.somerset-kentucky.com/…/article_94cefb06…
Today’s product recommendations are traveling essentials. 1) Luggage hand cart – we love this cart for easy rolling for easy cruise carry-on bags. Even when you can’t go to your room right away this is so easy to walk around the ship with. Here’s the link https://amzn.to/3s37EOw
2) This large toiletry bag is the best. Steve has the black and I have the pink. We both absolutely love them. Here’s the link https://amzn.to/3v1p6ok and picture
