Pouring Our Foundation
We are starting to make real progress on the house and it is so exciting to have a front row seat to watch our family home come together from the ground up! As of yesterday we officially finished pouring our foundation and now we are ready to move on to the next step of framing.
Pouring Footings
The first step in pouring your foundation is to dig and pour concrete footings. We are using a full service foundation/concrete company which has been so convenient because they coordinate everything: footings, walls, and slabs.
The foundation company came recommended to us from our draftsman and the entire experience working with them has been top notch. We cannot recommend them enough!
Woking with subcontractors can sometimes be a nightmare. But our foundation company has been so responsive and communicative, showed up on time, and have come in under budget!
When it came time for the concrete trucks to show up and pour the footings, the boys were SO excited!
Not only did they get to see real life concrete trucks, but they got to watch a pumper truck in action too. This is what little boy dreams are made of.
These boys love trucks and it has been so fun getting to watch them experience this process firsthand.
That little arm around his brother completely melts me!
I was shocked at how fast they were able to pour and finish the footings. It didn’t take them any time at all.
John Davis and Fletcher watch the real trucks and then perfectly imitate them with their own toy trucks 🙂 It is the sweetest!
Pouring the walls
After the footings were inspected and poured it was time to start putting the wall forms up.
On a side note, we are using a third party inspector rather than going through our county inspector. This costs a little more out of pocket but it has been more than worth it.
We have a direct line of communication with the third party inspector, whereas with the county you have to submit an inspection request online and then just wait on them to come out. Our third party inspector comes out right when we need him and turns around his report the same day!
This was the most exciting part of this process to date because our house started to take shape.
The photo below is the view of the back of our house and will be a daylight basement.
They removed the forms the day after they poured the walls and we got to see the footprint of our house!
Rough-in plumbing
After the walls were poured the plumbing company came out and installed our water line from the road to the house, as well as the rough-in plumbing in the basement.
Waterproofing and backfilling
Before the foundation floor could be poured we had to waterproof the foundation walls and back-fill around the foundation.
So many basements have moisture problems so it was really important to us to make sure our basement was completely waterproof and wouldn’t cause us any problems in the future.
We chose to pay a little more for the lifetime warranty from the waterproofing company. This gives us peace of mind and keeps us covered in case we ever do have any issues in the future.
We also installed a drain pipe around the perimeter of the foundation to carry water away from the house.
It was covered with rock and then the dirt was backfilled right on top of that.
I’ve never seen such hard-working men. My brother has been an absolute lifesaver and has helped us out SO much. He did all of this work (with Craig and Daddy helping!) and did all of our backfilling and grading around the house.
Another thing he did for us is create a flat backyard area that you can somewhat see in this picture. Because of the slope of the land, we didn’t have any flat backyard. Brother took all of the boulders from the grading of the front of the property and moved them to our backyard. He created a “wall” and then filled the area in with dirt. I will have to share a “before” and “after” picture but he completely transformed our backyard! Now the boys will have a flat area to play in and there is no telling what it would have cost to pay someone to do this for us. We are so grateful for all that Brother has done for us.
The boys worked so hard to get all of this done in a short timeframe. Brother was out here after dark many nights working to get it done.
Pouring the foundation slab
Now that the foundation was backfilled it was finally time to pour the basement slab!
The boys were so excited to get out to the farm and watch the concrete truck. We woke up early Saturday morning, grabbed Chick-Fil-A and headed out to watch the fun! Fletcher is saying his blessing here 🙂
It’s probably no surprise that I have absolutely loved getting to watch every little step of our house come together.
The boys have loved it too!
It had rained all week before this and the farm was a total mud pit!
But they don’t seem to care! Haha!
Have you ever seen a more mischievous face than Fletcher Freeberg?!
And just like that, we have officially finished our foundation! Next up? Framing!
“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste” Isaiah 28:16
