Pouring The Foundation

One after another we are checking the last few things off of our punch list. All right, what's next? This week the foundation work begins at our vacation rental. So the concrete should be here now. The fence gets transformed and we bring the A-frame build closer to the end. This is going to be one of those projects where you get instant gratification from. We are counting down the weeks until we break ground on phase two of our off-grid home build while simultaneously celebrating the birth of a new house. We have the beginnings of a house. I need to get some PVC from the barn real quick, I forgot about something. We're headed over to the trout pond property today to get everything laid out. They're going to be digging and pouring the footer today. So we've got to get over there and make sure that the house is positioned exactly the way that we want it to and that everything is moving along smoothly. You guys? Hey, how are you? Hey, how's it going Josh? We have a whole bunch of people that are going to be out here today. Two of them are Sarah and Jacob. I'm so excited for you guys to get to meet them. They are the entire brain behind the design for this trout pond tree house. Thank you. And I'm sure they're excited too to be able to see the house go from, you know, their creation on the computer and on paper to actually real life. So it's neat to have them. Which town do you guys have? So it's Homestead Life. Homestead Life? Yeah. We'll show on there what we're doing like with you guys and our business and the design work. We're also showing what we're calling Project Homestead, which is a kind of spinoff from that. Taking the tools we use for design and building and site planning to helping people work with homestead building and project planning on the homestead side. Property planning, yeah. And the other part we'll show is... Our own homestead. Yeah. So we'll start piecing together footage from our own homestead and how we use some of the tools that we're talking about at home and also just our adventures there. Cool. Yeah. And I will link their channel so that you guys can find them and follow along because they're going to also have footage of what's going on here from their perspective as well as ours. So it's kind of cool to see it all happening together. So dig the footers in and just pour it all at once. It'll be a slab. Come in, pour the footer, and then it's all good. Curious to come up and do kind of walls. Then we'll do walls on top. Okay. Turn down. These right here. Right here? Yeah, right around this area right there. Yep. So pour the foundation first. We're going to work on this right here. It's going to be the mechanical room. Once that's all laid out, they're also going to come through and dig out the 36 by 36 inch footers. Also, original plan was to do a block going up or concrete. We decided to change that out and raise the footer up to a few inches above grade and use 22 inch cedars to come up. So it has a tree house feel to hold the house up. And they're also going to do the little pier footings for the deck. And there's, I think, like 16 or 17 of those things around there. They're going to be a 16 inch. We might build that deck around there too. I got this. You know what I mean? Okay. 35. So layout is in the works right now. They're working on getting everything squared out and making sure that there's the correct position for where the house is meant to be. I guess a little bit of the tricky part here is working around all the trees that we wanted to keep because obviously the house is supposed to have a tree house feel. It's the trout pond tree house. So we wanted to maintain as many trees around the actual house as we could. And right now they're starting with getting the entire perimeter of the deck that's going to wrap all the way around the house laid out. And then the actual house itself will sit right in the center of that deck. And the plan is to have some of these trees actually coming up through the deck. So I think they've got it all under control. Just going back and forth, making sure that the house is in fact facing the proper direction and that we're able to work around all the trees. Ellie's the project manager. Doors here. Part I was thinking about was the retaining wall is right on here because the grade, if the grade is coming down here, you're still probably, you know, say four foot. You're trying to four foot high here. That's how close we'll be to the house. And we're considering wrapping the deck around that tree. Correct. Yes. So everything's fine. Yes. We're going to need to get some of the comp trees and probably top it a little bit. Getting the branches off. We do want the deck to wrap around that tree. It is a tree house. So why not? The higher we get over here where this corner is, dirt coming out. Yep. You can flatten out in there probably. Okay. Because you want to have that space usable. So I think that that's going to be located and slide it up a little bit. It won't be as high. Yeah. That's the bottom of the grade. That's what he'll start forming off of. The deck has to be right here. It's going to walk out that way. The high end on this side, obviously. Where he's got that. Is that how high the deck's going to be? Oh yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. That's going to be pretty cool. You like it? Yeah. I can't wait for it to be done. I know. So everything is now laid out. They got the deck post footers laid out. The pier footings are 36 by 36. And the footer walls for the mechanical room. It's all laid out. They're starting to dig right now in these 36 inch footers. And it's getting late. They're saying we can get concrete done today. I'm not 100% sure of that. We'll see. It's getting late. He's looking at like three or four o'clock for concrete. Three or four o'clock? Perfect. So the concrete should be here now. I got to put my U for ground in the rebar. With the rebar. Real quick. Got 20 feet of wire going in that footer. If we take our number four bare ground. Put it in the footer. I'm going to tie wire to the rebar. Because if they don't have 20 foot lengths of rebar in there. If they had 20 foot lengths of rebar. They're continuous. I could just take this. And attach it to the rebar. And it's good to go. But they don't have that. So I need to put 20 foot of cable in the footer instead. So once they pour this footer. We're going to come back in a few days. And do the footer with the concrete wall coming up. I'll put a sleeve on top. So when they pour the forms off. There's a sleeve going through. We can pull our wire line through here. All right. U for ground is done. That simple. You ready for concrete? I am. Concrete's here. They may want me to step in and operate the truck. You know. Just a concrete guy. That's why. I believe he's sunken to the bottom of the driveway. Probably because I wasn't driving. The problem is this. Pretty much dirt there this morning. Getting everything ready. Um and tamping. That's the issue. So that big truck coming through here. With all that concrete in there. A lot of weight. And he's sunk down and can't get up the hill. So trying again right now. Round two. Joshie, we have a problem. It's definitely not our problem. For once. I know. They're gonna. They're gonna get the concrete in there. They're gonna use a bobcat and they're gonna do it. Been in the situation. We were in a rain. Yeah. And they couldn't get up our driveway. We had to put it. It was actually when we were pouring the foundation for our A-frame house. We had to put the concrete in the bucket of the tractor. And take it up there and shovel it all in. And that's when I so gracefully knocked. Like maybe one or two of the piers. Just put a little personalized touch. Nobody's holding you accountable for that. The good news is we have the beginnings of a house. Once it's done it's gonna be balls to the wall. Going. Oh yeah. You know that right? Yeah. Because we don't stop. I know. We go, go, go. It'll be fun. Good times. So once it's done baby. Me and your. Like I said balls to the wall. We're getting it. Put me in coach. Delivery. Every Plate sponsored today's video. Delivery man not included. Every Plate cuts out trips to the grocery store and stressful meal planning by taking care of the planning and shopping for you. Tonight we're gonna be cooking sweet potato pepper quesadillas. It's actually one of my favorite meals from Every Plate. With Every Plate everything you need to cook a delicious meal at a delightful price is delivered directly to your door. So you can enjoy cooking and get dinner on the table in just about 30 minutes. All the ingredients are pre-portioned and the directions are so easy to follow that I know dinner is going to turn out great every single time. Choose between 17 recipes that change each week and swap proteins, veggies, and sides to your liking. I used to think meal kits might be expensive but after having used Every Plate for almost a year now I'm convinced you can get the same deliciousness at a much lower price. Try Every Plate for just $1.79 per meal by going to everyplate.com and entering code wildwonderfuloffgrid179. That's everyplate.com code wildwonderfuloffgrid179 to try Every Plate for just $1.79 per meal. Let's eat. Josh is just finishing up cutting the fence posts at an angle rather than leaving them flat and tall. Are you not going to cut all those ones? No. All the ones. All the vertical pieces. I don't think we cut all those down there. Oh you're right. So you're right. I cut those first and then come a chance on angle cut. Okay. But. So the exciting part is that we are going to get this entire fence stained today. And I think it's going to be make a huge change. I mean it's going to be going from yellow to really really dark like black. The black or very dark brown. Yes. Whatever. It's going to blend with the muddy lot we our house sits on. So that's next. Not for much longer. Landscaping. I'm telling you guys the grass is starting to turn green out here. It's not all dead. It's coming back to life and there is grass growing on this mud. So one day it's not going to be a mud lot. And the cool thing is that this is going to be one of those projects where you get instant gratification from. Because it just happens and it's done. It's not it's not a process. It's just done. So I'm quite excited. I can tell. That's good enough. It's very dark. It's gonna look good on that fence I hope. It's like it's almost purple. It shouldn't dry purple though right? I would hope not. Maybe stir some more. Darkest night. So it's black. I got it all over my hands. This is not my job. This is your job. I spray you stir. This is what happens to me. Yeah. I don't get paint all over me like that. You do. Oh my gosh your new sweatshirt John. Is that my sweatshirt? Yes you just wiped it all. What do you think? You just wiped it all over your beanie and your sweatshirt. I'm not wearing a beanie. My hoodie. Whatever it's construction work. Locked up. We got 35 feet of hose. I can go 25 feet this way. 25 feet that way for 50 feet total. It's in the back of the buggy. So we are going to roll. You're going very fast. You know. Do you like it? I do. We got to stand back. I already did. I cheated. Did you? Yes. That's not fair. Let's do it together. I know but I have the excuse of filming the video. So I get to stand back and see it. And it looks great. It matches the house. Like all the shows. Shuggy gone on the house and everything. I wouldn't do it. One. Two. Okay. Come on. You already saw. Oh wow. See. Dude. Yeah. It's really good. Yeah. It blends in. So it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. Like when it's the yellow color. Yeah. Do you like it? Yeah. I'm pretty excited about this. Y'all see Leon? He has passed out. He's soaking up the sun. Stones we carry. Clothes we lived in. All the tales we will tell our children. I need to get a mask. We're going further. I need to take the door off. And the latch. Because if I don't. We're gonna get overspray over everything. Parts away where the sun is swollen. Rest tomorrow. The ways unfolding. We're taking the high road. This is great. I do too. Do you like it Ellie? It looks so good. It was definitely worth it. It was. So I grossly underestimated how much stain I needed. But what I do have is all the materials that hang this last gate. So we're getting ready to put the gate up. I don't have the automatic arm yet. But we're gonna go ahead and put it up now anyways. Because with it being up. It's actually safer for the kids. Ellie and the boys. With Leon out there. He's getting a little squirrely. No offense Leon. And here he comes. I take it you approve of the new stain color huh Leigh? No you're gonna scratch it Leon. He's wagging his tail. You're stepping on my tools and stuff. Leon come on guy. He's a sweet boy right? Yeah. But he doesn't know that he's almost 300 pounds. It's not his fault. Yeah. Making sure that gate's up to the standards. He's very disappointed. Yeah I can see. You can tell right? What do you think of the fence? So what do you think Josh? Are we getting stuff done or what? Yes and I'm glad it's done. You know? From out there I think that the fence looks amazing. Being black. I agree because you look. You don't notice it. You look past it. Instead of being bright yellow. It's the first thing you see. It just blends in. It blends in with the deck rail. It just all blends in with the side of the house. The windows. Looks great. So let's recap. Okay. All we have left to do at this point. Stone. The door. Landscaping. And the soffit. And then paint the other half of the fence that we didn't have stained for. Over there. Which is going to be easy. And then we're calling it a wrap on phase one. Phase one. And phase two starts with a foundation and a new drawing. We didn't have a drawing for the first one. But we're going to have a drawing for the second one. Thank goodness. Hopefully it gets easier the second time around. I'm sure it will. We've done it before, you know. We'll have something to go off of instead of just winging it. What's next? The dreaded wall. I know. I feel the same way. Okay. Let's do it. Let's just get it over with and be done. And it's done. Yeah. Okay.