Planning

I Drilled over 20- 3/4×8″ holes in concrete tonight. Progress at last 🙂

Rebar pins will be epoxy’d in place next, and then we start setting forms.

The well we had drilled is an Artesian well!!!! Pretty rare.
Thanking God for that unexpected blessing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artesian_aquifer

The well is 45ft deep with 30 gallons per minute. The natural pressure in the well actually lifts it to within 2 feet of the ground level.

Our soon to be castle now has a well. I have known the gentlemen that own the well drilling company for over 20 years.

They are masters of their craft. If you know anyone needing a well in the area (greenbrier, summers, monroe, pocahontas county) they will do a great job.

The really unique thing about them is they use the time-proven method of “witching” or “divining” for water. It is amazing to watch. I shot video of them doing it on our property. Unfortunately yesterday and today I was at a conference we helped one of our clients put on, so I wasn’t able to get any footage of our well actually being drilled.

The excavator started his early work today, rough grading the home site. A major milestone. Next comes the well, and then the foundation.

Our engineer said we are looking at only 7 day cure time before we can tilt up the walls. That’s great news.

At best, I was hoping for a 14 day cure time. We are poring 6bag mix with #5 grade 60 rebar 12 inches on center horizontally and vertically. 1 extra rebar around all openings. Wall thickness 8″ for concrete +1 for the stone protrusion.

1st wall forms = stripped
2nd wall forms = 60% complete (built on top of the 1st wall to save time while the first wall cures.)

(this post was delayed by a tech glitch)

The very first wall I made using my tilt up monolithic stone masonry method was intended to be used as a flood wall for our bridge. Yesterday I placed it and today I plumbed and levelled it.

We (my dad and I) poured the first wall of the carriage house today. I figured for 3.5 yards which involved a bit of guestimation, given the fact that the stones we were pouring the concrete on were all varying sizes. In the end we ended up with about 5 wheelbarows extra. Plenty of margin.

It took me right at 3 hours to finish the concrete once we (dad) floated it. I did a border around the windows with some stone finish mats I had made, and the rest of it with a rock salt finish. (Not sure how the transition between the two finishes will look, but this carriage house is the experiment to prove and improve the methods.)

more later….

Electric meter base inspected and approved for installation. next they set the transformer and turn on the juice.

I started building the stream crossing around 5 pm yesterday, and as of 8 pm today, it’s done. Now we can have our well put in, electricity activated, and provide access to the job site for ready-mix trucks and the 90 ton crane we’ll need to lift our walls. This was the last major hurdle before actual construction begins.