Day 29

We have just started week 4 of the build, and we met with Laurel and Angelito, our designer and builder yesterday to talk about the new developments.

First of all:
Ta dah!  We have foundation walls.  It’s kind of interesting how the forms were built — first of all they put up the outside of the forms on top of the footings, with horizontal pins running through them.

Then the inside walls were attached with wedges attached to the pins.  Then the concrete was poured — in the rain.

Then the forms were removed and we have foundation walls!

Ang showed us the features: — those vertical white pipes are set into the foundation for drainage of the flat roof.  They will divert the rainwater from the living roof down into the separate rainwater drainage system the city has running in conjunction with the sewage system.

There’s a connection already in place for the electrical power for the main house and the laneway. Right now the power is connected to the main house by a  big cable running diagonally across the yard.  We really don’t notice it — it’s necessary and ubiquitous.  But the new power connection will be directly to the laneway house, then down under it and underground to the main house.  That big cable will be gone.

Those square holes in the foundation are for plumbing connections.

Next the foundation will be sprayed with tar and will have dimpled membrane attached for waterproofing.

Ang expects to start framing soon.  They will be following a TJI layout from the engineers.  TJI is a type of joist — very strong.

Needless to say we are pretty chuffed about the way the build is going.  Nice and smooth, with no ugly surprises.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed about that!