On the Level!

It has been a great couple of days.

I have now received the sign-off on the structural inspection of the forms.  I had given Tacoma a heads up that Brian from Stantec was coming and needed a fast turn around.  Well within 45 minutes of getting Brian’s site report, I had Tacoma’s in hand as did the District inspector.  Tacoma have been awesome in this process and very attentive to my time sensitive questions as we proceed through the final stages of the foundation forming.  I continue to be convinced that they were an excellent selection as part of my ‘team’.

I also received the official survey yesterday and the actual data points today.  Would you believe that there is less than a 1/8″ variance between the elevations of all the corners of the foundation (and of course the elevation is the elevation we were going for).  I am very pleased with this and it shows that both the laser level and its operator are VERY accurate.  All of my corners were also less than 1º out from a perfect 90º .  My wife told me that my father would be proud if he was still with us.  He was a Master Carpenter throughout his life (long before I came on the scene), and I guess I must of picked up some of his genes as he was long retired when we met for the first time, so it was not a direct transfer of knowledge.

I have the District inspection set up for Monday and look forward to going through the forms with Richard who I am sure is relieved now that I have also provided to him the sign-offs from the Building Envelope engineer for the waterproofing (something that his boss demanded).

Today we also got the awesome news that our construction mortgage has been approved.  We were approved last March but because it had been so long, and we had not done a draw yet, we had to start the process over and now we have a considerable amount more debt.  We have over $180K into the build to date with $50K coming out of cash-flow over the last year and the rest coming from various LOC’s I have been able to secure. So as long as next Thursday’s pour happens, we should be able to get a significant amount of money before the end of the month (when taxes are due), and I will for the first time during this project, not be stressed about how we are to pay the next visa with all of the construction materials on it.

Today I finished the 10M bar around the top curb and installed the last beam pocket. Yesterday I did some of the other beam pockets and also fixed the forming on the North wall.  If you look at my S12 drawing, you will see I have three different profiles for the top curb of the north wall.  Somehow this fact escaped me while I was forming that wall and I formed it up just like the rest of the house.  Fortunately I caught it and after a couple of hours all was good again.

Even though I am basically ‘done’ with the forming, I still have a very lengthy list of items that needs to be done before the pour, so I am very happy that I delayed till next Thursday.

Thanks for visiting.