READY FOR CONCRETE! ｜ A-Frame Cabin Addition Build

Previously, we broke ground on building the addition to our original A-frame home. And it's pretty much game on. We've got the entire backside of the house to build in the springtime, it's right around the corner. We completed the excavation, poured the footer, and began building forms for the foundation walls. So we're pretty much going to pick back up where we left off. We are now days away from pouring concrete for the safe room walls and knocking out a major chunk of this step in the new build. Oh! I forgot how heavy that was. Yeah, half a mile is a lot of ground to cover when you're doing this. But when it's all said and done, it's going to be worth it. It's been the bane of my existence. Yes, it has. I don't know what's worse, this or the stonework. Or shishigi bonding. I'd rather shishigi bonding. Don't worry, I've got more of that coming for you. I know. Today, we are going to complete one more piece of this never-ending puzzle. And this fine man right here is going to hang me a gate. One of many, many, many, many gates. That are going to be installed all the way around this property. We're going to be putting a 14-foot gate up right here. We want easy access for a truck or a tractor with some implements so we can make wide turns to get through the area. So we want to make sure we keep all access to all existing portions of the property. We don't want to pretty much barricade off a trail. So where there's a trail out, we're going to put a gate. Depends on what part of the trail, what size gate it's going to be, I tell you the truth. Every single chicken followed us down here. That's right. Good girl. Pick it up. A little bit more. Something like that. Great, put it down. Good. One more gate down. Yeah. Nice. Let's push it. Two closed on Shane. Girl, we're good to go. Do you know? That's a good feeling. I know. Looks good too. It does look good. And it's just a farm gate. So we already have the footer poured for the A-frame addition build. And where we last left off was forming up all of the foundation walls. We're getting close to being done with the safe room. We were working from the inside out so that we're not hopping over the walls. So we pretty much just need to get in there and put up the rest of the plywood because we've already got all of the rebar in there and then we can pour concrete on Thursday. And it's going to call for rain I think. Yeah. So the way it works out, whenever we order concrete, we order concrete and it says no rain. Now we're a few days away from concrete and it says 40% chance of rain. Yeah. So it's just, it always rains when we do concrete. It does always rain but we also always pull it off. Every time. Maybe I shouldn't be saying that. If it rains, the 40% chance of rain, we'll see. We can pour that. We'll just finish it off and be okay. Right? So the footer's cleaned up with all the debris. The rebar's been in place. So we're pretty much going to pick back up where we left off and start this corner behind me. We're going to build the entire corner and set the entire thing in place and start screwing things together. I forgot how heavy that was. She forgot how heavy it was. We're attaching several 2x4s all the way down the exterior of the plywood and that's just for like the structural integrity of the forms and to help them not blow out, fingers crossed, when we get in there and pour the concrete. So keep in mind, once we get all of the forms up, we are going to come back through and be putting in vertical pieces and also ties between the forms. So there's still more to do, but this is the first step. We're going to put it together and drop it down to the footer and hopefully minimize the amount of crap we're going to knock into the footer. Hopefully. Where's the broom? That's not my specialty. I'm aware. I got a broom and a leaf blower. Maybe I should have dug these back a little bit further, you know? Not quite as graceful as you were hoping. I was in a tight spot. That's all it is. Clean up. Reset. It's a little bit heavy and awkward to move around and it's an awkward corner, so. Take your side straight up. While you're doing that, I'm going to put mine up near too. It's going to probably move. You're going to have to walk your back a little bit. I'm going to turn mine in. Three, two, one, pull. I'm moving it. Oh. OK. One, two, three, go. OK. Keep it right there. Yeah. Oh, it's a reverse. Pull. One, two, three, go. I'm holding it in place. It's not in place. It went back three quarters of an inch. It went all the way back. Come on, girl. One, two, three, go. There you go. Hold it. Hold it, OK? Hold it. Yeah, it's up this time. You've got to hold it. Just hold it. That's all you've got to do. If I'm trying to talk and start laughing, you let go. On three. Three, two, one, go. OK. Hold that, OK? Hold that. Woo! OK? You good? Told you that would work. The hard part's done. You missed doing concrete with me, didn't you? I did. The corner is done. It's a very time-consuming job making sure everything is straight and fitting everything together. But now we should fly on this next portion and we'll be done. How you doing, buddy? I wonder if that thing even starts. We're about to find out. So before nightfall, we have a very important task for our best girl that we have been meaning to get to and have needed to get to. And luckily for us, we have the best daddy in the world who's going to take care of this. Yeah, battery's dead. Let's grab the anchor so we can get it charged up. Anchor has long been our go-to power station. We have numerous different power stations of theirs for a range of different projects we do needing different capabilities on our off-grid property. We are so thankful to have them again this year as a sponsor on our channel because we love their products, we believe in their products, and they have never, ever let us down. And today, again, this is another scenario in which our Anchor 767 power station is here to save the day. We live on an 80-acre completely off-grid farm, so we need to have access to portable power when we need it, where we need it, across a vast amount of land. Having this 767 on hand, which is easily able to be moved, is super important to us. We've used Anchor's power stations for so many different projects across our property, from staining our fence, to drilling holes for gates, running air compressors, putting air in tires, recharging batteries, using Sawzalls. We're able to do everything that we need to do thanks to their long-lasting LFP batteries, and we have peace of mind with their 10-year lifespan and 5-year warranty. Best of all, we're able to utilize Anchor's solar charging capabilities so that we never run out of power no matter where we are on our property. So if you're interested in checking out Anchor, now's the time. Anchor is having a winter flash sale on portable powerhouse units from now until February 19th. With all of the weather people have been experiencing, now is the right time to make sure that you are prepared, and with all of the projects we all want to complete over the next year, now's the right time to make sure that you have the right power station in your corner. Be sure to check out our link in the description box below. Let's get back to the build. Go! You ready? So we got started. The battery's definitely dead, but I also suspected it might have some old gas in there. So I drained the carburetor, drained the little bit that was left of gasoline out of the tank, and she's running. I put new gas in there, and it fired right up. So she's running. Hey, Ellie! Good to go, girl! Yeah, she's excited. It just made her entire day. I hope you guys know this. Look, hold on, check it out. Yeah, they're running. I'll wave you down, and we're done. Thank you so much! We're down at the lower pasture, and this portion of the property actually came with an existing fence line, and it's not really up to par. We've been putting a lot of band-aids on it the past few months to keep the cows in, and if we're back down here again, we've got to do the same thing. All right, so I need you to pick that side up. I'm going to pull this one off. This is existing. This is a tree, knocked everything over, but I've got to pull this top portion off. Re-hit this one in the ground, because it's not in the ground properly. These are the kind of posts that a portion of the original fence line was attached to, and you can see that they're just completely rotted out. They're waiting to snap and be an issue, so it's not really surprising that this happened. I have no idea how long these things have been here for. I think another proper tool is to get this fence and pull off this old post. I'm going to miss it when they're older and they're not out here riding while we're working. Yeah, we don't have much time left. Maybe then we'll have grandkids here that are doing it. So we won't get a break then, huh? You literally just did the same thing. No, I didn't. That isn't working. This is dead. That's dead. I'm not done. Look. I'm not done. I just put it there to hold it there for now. I forgot where it went down. She got it. She's so cute. I know. Go, girl, go! She's so freaking cute. This morning, I've been working on all the vertical bracing around the entire safe room. And yesterday, we had to abandon ship to help Ellia get her four-wheeler started. And this is all we have left for the safe room. I think it's like 11 or 12 feet. And then once that's done, get the vertical bracing on this side, put a few rods in there, and we're ready for concrete. So we are on to the last final chunk of forms for Josh's safe room. How does it feel? I'm excited. It's going to be for all my stuff. A lot of my pew-pews, all my good stuff, you know? All his hobbies. All the hobbies. So. I'm excited for you. Let's see. I have a small safe. Now I have a massive safe. A massive safe. It's almost there. Everything's up and the corners are square and stout. And those corners are not moving whatsoever because they're pretty much locked in place. But these long 30-foot walls, there's no kickers on them. So you can push them back and forth. So the plan is to take some kickers off the side and get them pretty much in location and stout with some rebar going down there to hold the kickers in place. Great idea, Aaron. But what we're also going to do is come through and drill three-eighths holes through the plywood itself and run nuts on both sides. So when all that weight of the concrete comes through there, it's not going to, with all that weight, push out because it's going to want to with all that weight. But we have rods going through there with nuts and washers. It's going to help lock everything in place. And everything shouldn't move at all when it's all said and done. Fingers crossed because it's almost concrete day. Yeah. In two days.