Consider Giving to the Mt. Pobre Foundation

Get it?  Foundation?  

You'll be helping support long-term affordable housing for minorities (Pacific Islanders - Whidbey and Vashon) in the City of Seattle.  Give your time, or money, or just attend a party when it's done.

Albert finished up his initial dirt work by hauling a number more loads of dirt off site.  We were fortunate enough to get a number of responses to our Craigslist add, and delivered 6 or 7 loads around the area. We'll still likely have more dirt to get rid of, but it's not as pressing.

After finishing digging out the slopes around the house, laying down black plastic over the exposed faces, and piling a huge mound of reserve dirt for backfill, Albert worked with Steven and Larry to dig out all of the foundation "footings".  I'm sure most homeowners know what footings are, but I had no idea.  They're basically huge blocks of concrete under which your foundation sits...almost like stilts under the foundation.  And they're not square.  They're designed to stick out a bit (4-10 inches, depending on the footing) so that the dirt that fills in behind the wall grabs the wall and holds it in place.  

So the footings were dug out, and Albert used his machinery to crane-lift some foundation materials (rebar and form boards for the foundation) up to the site before hauling his equipment back to Whidbey for a much deserved break...from our project, at least.

The concrete contractor, Kurt, has been on site since Tuesday, putting the footing forms together.  Albert and I helped out as much as we could, fine tuning the depths of the footings (read: digging by hand) to make sure the forms are in the right place.  

This week brought three inspections related to the foundation.  First, Marc McGinnis from Geotech Consultants came back out to inspect the stability of the dirt under the footings and gave his approval.  Today, a City inspector came out to approve both the location of the house, relative to property lines, and the footing forms themselves.  Both of these passed just fine.

The concrete pours go in three phases:

   (1) Pour the footings.

   (2) Pour the walls on top of the footings, then backfill a little bit (read: fill dirt in behind the walls).

   (3) Pour the "slap" or floor.

Kurt suggests that if the footings are poured on Monday, we'll be pouring the walls next Monday, and the slab perhaps the following Monday.  This is really good timing weather wise.  If you had to pick a time of year to be waiting on concrete to dry, you'd probably hope to choose June-August.  So beginning pouring late-June is probably a good thing.

Finally, wanted to let you all know, if you didn't already, that we've been keeping a (semi-) day-to-day log of the view of the site from the street.  If might be a little boring for the next week, until we get some walls in, but you can already see the transformation of the site with all the work that Albert's done.  

Up Next:  Foundations Poured

Dirt Rich

We knew from the start that this house project would make us dirt poor, but we never thought it would make us dirt rich. Over the course of the last two weeks, Albert has hauled away over 70 dump truck loads of our brown, sandy dirt in order to make room for the house. We have posted ads on Craigslist and hung signs on the property offering free dirt delivered. Many, many loads of dirt have been hauled to family, friends and strangers in West Seattle, Green Lake, Ballard and Vashon Island. Albert has visited parts of Seattle he never knew existed. Still we have huge mountains of dirt piled in every corner of the property. If only there was gold in that dirt to pay off the house!

The first phase of the project is drawing to a close. Albert, Lori, and Steven have been on the property six days a week working long hours to wrap up the site prep work. We lend a hand before and after work, but it's a small contribution compared to their labor. One of the neighbors commented that the amount of progress that has been made over a few short weeks doesn't add up when you look at the size of the crew. They obviously have never experienced the pace of Albert's work.

Albert and Steven have carved the footprint of the house out of the side of the hill. Our perch on top of the property where we used to watch the sun set is now 20 feet above the bottom of the hole. We feel like we have our very own canyon now. In addition to the house dig-out, they installed a new utility ditch to make restoration of power to our neighbor possible.

Despite being busy with hauling and digging, Albert took the time to teach John how to operate an excavator. When John sat down in the seat of the huge machine and took those joy sticks in his hands, his smile was reminiscent of a giddy six year-old playing in an oversized sandbox.

This coming week, Albert and Steven will dig out the footings. This is the first step for pouring the foundation of the house. As soon as this is complete, there will be a changing of the guard on the project. Larry and his crew will move in and begin building the forms for the footings followed by concrete being poured into the forms. It's starting to look like a house project instead of a mining operation!

And, because Jennifer commented that there haven't been any pictures of Lori yet, here's her very own set: