Day 16

Friday, May 29, 1998

    Today was the day to put the sub garage roof on.  We lifted each slab from where they were poured (as shown above).  Then we had to use our massively powerful well (seriously) to hose the dirt off the bottoms.  Then dad placed the slab in the flat area inside the garage where you see the blocks sitting in the sand above.  For the first slab, Rich & I 'rode' over on it, in order to properly balance it.  The second time, only I rode over.  Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of that, since we were all working.  Anyways, Next he would move the excavator and repick them up to put them on the garage, our neighbor Bill came over, and took some pictures for us when we were moving the second slab.  They're coming up next.     Here's what the subgarage looked like with the first slab on it.     In this picture you can see the chains on the slab, and the blocks on the right corner to balance it (so we could help rather than ride).  You can also see the bucket of the excavator, with its hook on it.  Before we could start moving it though, Dad had to put morter on the top of the wall to seal the slab to it.     Here we are attempting to turn the slab.  That's me on the far left and mom in the middle, you can't see Rich or the bucket of the excavator (with dad running it) because Bill was standing close to watch the action.  But believe me, it is a lot harder to 'turn' this slab than it may look.  Things that heavy have a mind of their own.     Next came the REALLY hard part.  There were two pieces of 're-rod' in the wall of the sub garage.  We had to line up the holes dad had drilled in the slab, with the rerod.  Dad had made the holes in the exact places, then it was our turns to line them up right, and man was that difficult for us amateurs!     Once we had it lined up, Dad jumped in (literally) to check our work.  All in all we did pretty good.  Bill was impressed to say the least.     Now, after we had that done, Dad laid a course of block, and 2" solid block spacers.  In this picture you can see, from the top down:  8" block course, 2" spacer blocks, 6" concrete ceiling slab, I-Beam, Garage Door opening.  Pretty good huh?  Dad is amazing sometimes with how accurate he is!     In this farther back photo you can get an idea of how the 'grade' of the slope will be.  Where you see black on the walls is tar, we'll be contouring the terrain to follow that grade.  At the top of the tar is where the garage access door will be.     Now, here is what the ceiling in the sub garage looks like.  There is still a bit of 'sandy' look to it, some of it is color stain, some of it will come off once we attempt to get it off.  The whole process was pretty exciting.  Now dad says its his favorite room, our own little 'root celler'.  Definitely won't have to worry about a tornado, even with a normal garage door.  Most tornadoes in Michigan travel West to East, and the opening is in the east side of a hill.  And believe me, its SOLID.     Here's what it looks like on the top of the garage now.  Tomorrow we have to fill in more dirt in the garage itself, not to mention the basement floor and the subgarage floor.     As you can see from this picture, we still have a lot of dirt to move to fill the garage.  After all, we dont' want any gaps in between the ground and our actual garage floor.  That will be poured on TOP of the subgarage floor.     The other major thing done today was that Dad laid a course of block where the wood walkout wall will be.  We have to put that up tomorrow or Sunday.  On Monday they are going to start the rest of the wood.  From there it is going to MOVE.      If you haven't looked at the plans... go here:  PLANS Or see another day's activities: Day One - May 12 Day Two - May 13 Day Three - May 14 Day Four - May 15 Day Five - May 16 Day Six - May 17 - NOTHING (no work done) Day Seven - May 18 - NO PHOTOS Day Eight - May 19 Day Nine - May 20 Day Ten - May 21 Day Eleven - May 22 Day Twelve - May 23 (May 24-25th Vacation - days won't count) Day Thirteen - May 26th -& Day Fourteen - May 27th NO PHOTOS Day Fifteen - May 28th Day Sixteen - May 29th Day Seventeen - May 30th Day Eighteen - May 31st Day Nineteen - June 1st Day Twenty - June 2nd Day Twenty One - June 3rd Day Twenty Two - June 4th Day Twenty Three - June 5th   We've begun buying tile and have our carpet picked out:  INTERIOR