June 2019: Concrete, "Legos", Go-cart, Bikes

June 1st arrived, and with it, some Brandt helpers!

Teddy thinks Uncle Andy gives the best go-cart rides.

Then Teddy gave Uncle Andy a go-cart ride. 

He was done after that.

June 3* 

One of the first things they helped with was 

unloading our ICF blocks on Monday morning.

Thankfully MOST of them came in "towers" and

we didn't have to unload them one brick at a time.

Some stacks were hollow enough for Andy to handle.

Andy getting a ride on the forks. OSHA approved.

There's all the house walls! In the yard! 

Lunch break: Andy and Steph try to get the screen door 

sliding better, OPA rests under the "shade device."

June 4*

The next few days were focused on the tedious task of building the rest of the footings. The top of the long stretches of pink foam were all on the same level, as they were to be used for leveling the concrete floor (we borrowed a "Smart stick" from a friend!), the sides were in line with the future exterior of the house and garage, and the bottoms were also at a uniform level (enter smart stick again).

Working our way around the garage... 

Floating down a lazy river....

What? Oh. Bridget had opted out of having a 

birthday party (February) in order to go to a water 

park with Oma. Hence, water park with Oma. 

We combined the trip to the water park with a trip

to Menards AND a delicious dinner at Poncho&Lefty's.

Bridget and Oma weren't the only ones who benefited. :)

June 5*. Back to work!

The "first" concrete pour was split into 2 days.

HUGE thanks to everyone who showed up. It

was a great turn-out, and good thing too, 

as that first half involved a lot of 

wheelbarrow-ing the concrete around.

Started around 9, ended around noon, if I remember correctly.

Below, you can more clearly see the "orange snake" 

manipulated into position, and here I will also note 

that part of prepping for our first concrete pour was installing 

all the iron rebar in a grid pattern over the top as well as 

some sticks in the footings. More rebar = more strength in 

your concrete. Teddy taught Oma how to tie rebar intersections 

together, and she and the kids helped on that a LOT.

Randy putting the initial "smooth" onto the floor. Andy and 

myself pulling foam supports from the central footings as the last 

concrete truck of the day emptied itself there. 

 About every 30 inches around the perimeter, we stuck a piece of rebar into 

the concrete. All those sticks were to end up inside

 the concrete walls. Just to tie the floor to the walls a bit better.

Randy is here operating the Power-trowel, to get the floor 

as smoooooth as possible while it was wet enough to work it but 

firm enough to walk on.

June 6

Day 2 of the first concrete pour. The first truck came at 7ish this 

time, and without all the wheelbarrowing, it was much 

more comfortable working conditions! Done around 10am.

Good ol' Chas helping with the finishing. 

Audience of 3.

Making our way around the garage footings. Pulling out pink 

foam supports AS the concrete goes in, so the sand on the 

outside doesn't collapse the footing first.

Concrete trucks right past the "LR" 

window of the pole barn!

With the extra concrete, we got a "stoop" for the entry 

door into the pole barn living space! It was a new luxury!

With the concrete needing to set for the rest of the day

and Andy's new mountain bike needing to be broken in,

we headed over to the Cuyuna County trails (~45min east of us).

The mountain bike trail system has become the #1 

rated in the midwest in the last few years, and we get to enjoy it!

Behind Andy is a new addition: the "novice" trail 

(you can see the whole thing while standing by the parking lot) 

and even Andrew on his little Strider can enjoy it. 

Oma and Opa tried it out, too! :)

These 3 and I went on a more challenging ride around 

one of the lakes that used to be ore-mining pits and up 

some of the mini mountains. Preeeeetty nice views from up 

there. The lakes are very greenish-blue due to all the minerals.

While the "big kids" were adventuring, Oma, Opa, 

Bridget and Andrew enjoyed a picnic in the (same) park.

 June 7

The next day we could set the first row of bricks. This is the 

corner where the main septic line leaves the house AND 

one of the zones in the floor pops up to potentially use the 

heat from the wood stove.

Teddy pulls his weight...

 By the end of the day, we were working on the 2nd row!

ICF goes FAST.

June 13

The Brandts have gone home and we're left to play with Legos 

alone. It's really quite a simple process at this stage. Once 

you establish window and door openings, the bricks in the 

seceding rows are simply cut to follow, with a hand-saw. 

There are vertical lines every 1" on the sides of the bricks for 

near-perfect vertical cutting. We acquired a free bunk bed 

frame on craigslist and it's been a nice piece of scaffolding 

throughout the build.

Before getting TOO high with our walls, we had to take a break 

and build our window and door "bucks." (The bucks stop 

the concrete from pouring out the openings.) We opted for 

a green-treated wood DIY variety. They're basically frames 

to which the windows and doors can be fastened securely.

Because screwing into concrete is NO FUN. Also 

not recommended for installing windows and doors.

This stack of buck pieces (hopefully) shows how the concrete in the walls, 

once it has filled in those little cavities, creates a dove-tail action 

and holds everything tightly. 

The view from the top of our driveway

June 19
All window and door bucks have been installed here,
and super-braced, ready for the pressure of concrete.
Note the "bulge" on the left wall.

On the outside, the wall is tied to the ground.
Handy scaffolding built into the braces.

The "bulge" on the left wall.
It's called a brick ledge, and it's a form that
was designed to support a brick finish on the exterior
of a house, but LOTS of ICF-builders use it to hang floor
trusses on the inside of the building. Randy bent a piece of rebar to
put in each cavity (we have a handy field manual to follow
for technical things like this), tying the straight rebar
together. Strength!

June 21
Concrete truck dumping his load into the
concrete pumper truck, dumping his load
through the tube and into all the walls.

*Photo credit to Sue Brandt