And we’re so happy to reach a point where there is an “Outside” and “Inside”.
This week we worked at finishing everything we had to get done to start putting the dirt back around the outside of the house. First, we had to put peel-and-stick waterproofing around the walls, then cover that with dimple board. The peel-and-stick should prevent even more water from getting into the concrete foundation and the dimple board provides a space for water to flow down and out into the drainage board. The dimple board also alleviates pressure against the wall, ensuring water doesn’t get in.
After that, we put a Big-O around the base of the house below the footing. Since this is level (more or less) around the house, water should flow down to the pipe and then be directed away from the house and out towards the lake. Another way we’re keeping our basement nice and dry. (Oh, yeah. It’s a basement now, not a crawlspace, as it turned out to be higher than we originally planned. This means we have to put some windows in too.) The Big-O also runs through the house, under where the floor will be (as you may have seen in some previous pictures), at the lowest point for the same purpose.
After that we used some of the rock we have lying around to pin the pipe against the footing, and in some places to bring it up to the bottom of the footing. After that, we put 3/4″ clear stone on it to make the water, and the particulates in the water, take even longer to get through. We’re very serious about keeping everything as dry as possible.
Moving the clear stone was a lot of fun, as the tractor is currently at the lake side of the house with an inability to bring it back until we’re able to backfill. This is because part of the bank collapsed getting the tractor down there and we don’t have the space to get it back. Since the clear stone was delivered to the road side of the house this means we moved the stone by filling buckets and sliding them down at the north side and carrying them around for the south side. We’re not actually done this yet, but we are about 3/4 of the way around.
Which means we were not finished when the inspector came by today, but we passed the inspection anyway. He really liked what he saw, and then came up with the plan to backfill where we have done so we can use the tractor to finish the rest of the stone. This just might be the best news I’ve received all week. Except that we spent the day after the inspector left pulling very large rocks we don’t want next to the foundation out of the piles of dirt. Have I mentioned how much rock this property has? We have a lot of rock.
That’s all for this week. Sorry for being a day late yet again, but the Little One is back in school as of today so at least we don’t have to worry about what to do with her all day. She seems to have enjoyed her first day at a new school. The one she was attending only went to Grade Three so now that she’s in Grade Four she’s being bused to the other town up here. Thank you again for following along on our journey and please like our Facebook page.
See you next week!
Huron The Lake 