Corners Finished!

Once again I saw the weather forecast wasn't going to be ideal for the weekend. Saturday looked like a wash with rain and cold, while Sunday looked better. And of course, Monday even better yet. So I decided to take off a day of work in order to make some progress on this foundation. 

I got started Sunday afternoon once the weather warmed up enough. I worked most of the day and made good progress, getting up to the fifth course on all four corners. Once I set that top block on the corner and get it perfect, I don't want to touch it. I know if I go ahead and add another block next to it, I'll knock it out of position. So it's been my method to prioritize getting a new single course block on all of the corners, and then with what time remains in the day, filling in between. 

I also need to mention that I had some great help Sunday, for the first time. Both of my kids came out and helped me out. Chelsea was able to carry the concrete blocks around and lay them around the perimeter, just where I needed them. She made sure to point out to me that she moved 32 blocks! And she did indeed. Olivia had a hard time picking up the blocks so instead she helped me keep the mortar stirred up, adding a little water as needed to keep it just right. I sure was able to keep right at the task at hand with the help I had. 

29 blocks today, 122 total, 175 to go...

Monday was a really nice day; it was a good decision to stay home and work. After taking the kids to school (hey, we get to sleep in another half hour!) and doing other odds and ends while waiting for the temperature to climb, I started off on putting down the 6th and final course of blocks. For the 4th, 5th and 6th course corners, I've been getting out the laser level and using it to make sure they all are perfectly at the right height. And by doing so I've noticed that even though my string lines are about as tight as I can pull them, there is still some droop to them. Can't be trusted! They are still very useful to finding my corner marks and parallel lines, but I'm using the laser level for the height on the last couple of courses. 

I got the 6th course blocks and then keep on moving. I finished up the corners in the front of the house and then stayed right there and started filling in. Before dark arrived I was able to have 5 courses complete of an entire wall section. I getting the hang of this. And with the help yesterday, I had most of the blocks right where I needed them. This is starting to look like something! Though I need to brush off all that dried mud on the blocks... Actually, I'm thinking about painting the interior of the crawl space walls with white paint. I think that will lighten it up a bit whenever I need to crawl in there in the future. It would be easy to do now, as there's no way I would do it once the floor is in place.

Still have a long ways to go, but today I laid the most I had ever done, 50 blocks. I can really start cruising along now that the corners are complete. 

50 blocks today, 172 total, 125 to go...