Second Pour

This weekend, Christian and Leif mixed another 16 bags of concrete to pour the second new crawl space wall under the dining room beams here. The first wall form was slid up to complete this side with more rebars, although the corners will have to be re-pointed with stones and concrete by hand. The closet to the left of the chimney extends behind the wall and will hold many dishes etc. on shelves behind an old plank door. Nice!

Already the house feels much more comfortable and less damp.

This is the view below which shows the full basement wall opened up into the new crawl space. There is a dehumidifier (found on craigslist) now running in the full basement constantly as we build more dirt up around the exterior foundation and dry things out. The old opening to this space was about 18" square and the dirt nearly touched the beams. Some stones will need belts to be lifted out.

All of the old furnace and most duct work has been taken out of the basement areas now, and I am recycling it all in and on my Volvo wagon! Soon we plan a new Hy-Vac heating system for this old house.

Digging out the opposite crawl space side is next, which has much larger stones to work around it seems.

Ready to Pour

The newly dug crawl space under the old house beams, has one side ready for a concrete pour behind a plywood and 2" X 4" lumber form built to move along the old exposed rock foundation for reinforcing. This first pour took several 1/2" steel rebars and 16; 80lb. bags of concrete mixed in our old cement mixer which has now been moved to Christian's old farm.

There are three piles of what was excavated so far; big rocks, sifted rocks and mostly clay dirt. The clay Bill will try to make pottery from when he's much less busy.

When we are all not too busy, a walk to Christian's stream through the meadow is a nice break.

At the end of the day, a climb on the old combine to view the fields or fireflies at night is what Christian and Leif like...

Excavating An Old Farmhouse

Christian's old farmhouse needed a crawlspace dug out from under the oldest (1780) section of the house which is the dining room now. This will be dug deep enough to put in a layer of gravel, a vapor barrier on top of that and then concrete will be pored over both. The finished space will also allow for new heating and air conditioning ducts to be installed and the dampness in this area of the house will be eliminated.

Lots of terrific rocks are coming out of this dirt and being used to more define the planted bed around the sun room; outside. Some rocks are four or more times this size.

While Christian and Leif dig out and sift dirt, Bill is busy breaking through the adjoining full basement wall to open it up for easier crawl space access. The beams are currently reinforced with expandable steel columns and are in exceptionally great shape for being so old.

Above are the things Christian has found when sifting the excavated dirt.