Yesterday the exavator finished the foundation dig, and Kenny just called to tell me that we passed our footing inspection this morning! The electric company was also able to come out and hook up service to our temp. elec. pole - so our foundation contractor is set. Kenny said he should have footing forms in today and we've got concrete coming tomorrow.
We're using concrete with about 20% fly-ash - a waste byproduct of coal-burning at electric power plants. (The last I heard, it was 18%, but Kenny was calling them back to see if we could increase the percentage of fly-ash). Concrete is made from Portland Cement, aggregate, and water. Since all of the electric power around here is produced by burning coal, we have plenty of fly-ash, so you can request that concrete mixers use fly-ash instead of a portion of the portland cement (which is not a very environmentally-friendly product). It makes the concrete stronger and is a much more environmentally responsible choice, but increases the curing time slightly.
Kenny is stopping by the site today after work to meet with a new plumber. Our last plumber just pulled out on us. He was kind of helping us on the side, but now his regular boss doesn't want him doing that. I guess he wants us to hire the company instead, but we can't do that because the company's not licensed in OH, just KY. So anyway, now we're getting a bid from a new plumber who also works on the side, but I think is licensed in OH. Kenny really wants to help with the plumbing, but doesn't feel comfortable doing the stub plumbing in the foundation, so we're hoping we can get someone who will accommodate how we want to work the whole thing. The rainwater catchment system is also an issue for some people, since there's a little extra plumbing work with labeling, tagging, and so on. We still can't decide between PEX or copper - I suppose we'll go with whatever the plumber we hire wants to use.
Kenny is also going to spray a portion of the lot with a short-life herbicide to kill off the existing weeks. We'll have to keep doing this every 6 weeks or so until winter, and then we'll be able to plant our new native landscaping in the spring. (Hopefully we'll be finished with construction by then!) We will be keeping the majority of our 2 acre lot wooded, and then a small portion will be a native wildflower prairie. The rest, close to the house, will be a low maintenance, low-mow grass mix that only requires mowing once or twice a season. It's a more natural, longer lawn, but it eliminates the mowing, watering, fertilizing, and so on. We will also have native trees and landscape beds near the house.
That's about all for now - sorry no pics. Kenny's taking the camera tomorrow to get some stills of the concrete pour, so I'll have some to post shortly. We'll be attending a wedding in Columbus this weekend, so we won't get much done at the site - and it's supposed to be nice weather too! I hate to wish rain on anybody's wedding, but MAN, it would be a lot easier on me if it were raining, because any nice day we get, I feel like I should be there doing something! I'm getting really restless having to stay home with the kids and work online. Kenny is seeing the progress day by day, and I only get there once a week. I guess that's why we really want to get out of our house and into an apartment that's closer. Our current house has been online at www.forsalebyowner.com for almost 3 days now and no calls yet. Although according to the site, we've had 85 hits. Hmmm, did we over price??? Too early to second-guess yet I think. Well, take care, and I'll keep you posted on all sides of the issues. Thanks for reading!
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