Pad Prep Work Continues
Throughout the month of June work continued on preparing the pad for the pouring of the concrete for the foundation.
Things out at the site are not always build related. One day while we were out there we heard what sounded like a lawn mower above us. When we looked up the Goodyear Blimp was flying east right over the top of us!
The Goodyear Blimp doing a fly-by
The last of the utilities to go in were the water lines and electrical conduit connecting for the house and casita. Jeff got in on the action also when he installed conduit for our future solar system, a conduit between the house and casita (in case we need to run some type of wire between the two buildings in the future), and then also the pipes for our rain water harvesting system.
Water lines going to the east end of the house
Once all the underground pipes and conduits were installed, the next step was back filling all the trenches. As you are now aware, we have a plethora of rocks, so to ensure the pipes and conduits wouldn't be damaged during the backfill process we had to first do some "shading". To accomplish this, Jason built a couple of screens using chainlink fence. We laid the screen over the trench and the skid-steer would dump a bucket full of dirt and rock onto the screen. Then we would lift the screen and shake off the rocks. The system worked really well and the trenches were backfilled in a couple of hours.
In Jeff's job he rarely hears how the patients he flies end up. Well he now knows how one patient did. When he showed up to help with the trench backfill the driver of the skid-steer got out, looked at him and said, "You flew me to the hospital." Jeff asked him if he was sure it was him. He said, "It was my first helicopter ride, you said it would be a scenic flight and I sat right next to you." What a small world!
Skid-steer screening process
Everyone hard at working during the trench backfill
You look at the plans and then you look at them again to make sure you didn't forget anything but sometimes you do. This was the case with the trench for the water harvesting pipe for the garage. The excavator missed this short section of trench so they had to do a little manual jackhammering.
Luis earns his money today!
Backfill complete. The white pipes sticking out of the dirt are for the water harvesting. The black pipes are for the septic/sewer.
With the utility preparation complete the concrete team was back at it. A dump truck load of AB (aggregate base) was delivered and they went to work spreading and compacting a 5 inch layer of it as base for the foundation. It was impressive to see them work as a team. Everyone knew their role and they were done in a only a couple of hours.
Concrete team hard at work
AB spread and compacted for the house
We still don't have electricity at the site but we are getting close. TEP came out and inspected the trench, gave their approval and the trench was backfilled. The only concern they had was regarding the stability of the panel. So Tom reinforced it with some concrete and they gave us the thumbs-up. Now we are just waiting on a line-crew to actually run the wires from the transformer box to the panel and then we will finally have power and then no more generators!
Tom's concrete reinforcement
Since it will be awhile before we install the water control wall in the house, Tom rigged up a water pump system using the pressure tank and pump that were included when we purchased the property back in 2013. This system will allow us to have pressurized water during the build. Once TEP wires the panel we won't have to use a generator to power the water pump.
Tom's water pump/pressure tank system. Blue pump will eventually be installed in the house.
Things out at the site are not always build related. One day while we were out there we heard what sounded like a lawn mower above us. When we looked up the Goodyear Blimp was flying east right over the top of us!
The last of the utilities to go in were the water lines and electrical conduit connecting for the house and casita. Jeff got in on the action also when he installed conduit for our future solar system, a conduit between the house and casita (in case we need to run some type of wire between the two buildings in the future), and then also the pipes for our rain water harvesting system.
Once all the underground pipes and conduits were installed, the next step was back filling all the trenches. As you are now aware, we have a plethora of rocks, so to ensure the pipes and conduits wouldn't be damaged during the backfill process we had to first do some "shading". To accomplish this, Jason built a couple of screens using chainlink fence. We laid the screen over the trench and the skid-steer would dump a bucket full of dirt and rock onto the screen. Then we would lift the screen and shake off the rocks. The system worked really well and the trenches were backfilled in a couple of hours.
In Jeff's job he rarely hears how the patients he flies end up. Well he now knows how one patient did. When he showed up to help with the trench backfill the driver of the skid-steer got out, looked at him and said, "You flew me to the hospital." Jeff asked him if he was sure it was him. He said, "It was my first helicopter ride, you said it would be a scenic flight and I sat right next to you." What a small world!
You look at the plans and then you look at them again to make sure you didn't forget anything but sometimes you do. This was the case with the trench for the water harvesting pipe for the garage. The excavator missed this short section of trench so they had to do a little manual jackhammering.
With the utility preparation complete the concrete team was back at it. A dump truck load of AB (aggregate base) was delivered and they went to work spreading and compacting a 5 inch layer of it as base for the foundation. It was impressive to see them work as a team. Everyone knew their role and they were done in a only a couple of hours.
We still don't have electricity at the site but we are getting close. TEP came out and inspected the trench, gave their approval and the trench was backfilled. The only concern they had was regarding the stability of the panel. So Tom reinforced it with some concrete and they gave us the thumbs-up. Now we are just waiting on a line-crew to actually run the wires from the transformer box to the panel and then we will finally have power and then no more generators!
Since it will be awhile before we install the water control wall in the house, Tom rigged up a water pump system using the pressure tank and pump that were included when we purchased the property back in 2013. This system will allow us to have pressurized water during the build. Once TEP wires the panel we won't have to use a generator to power the water pump.
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