Executing the Engineering

I've heard from a number of readers that last week's post was a little dry.  Even Brenda conceded it was not her favorite entry.  I am sorry, but I'm trying to document all of the building process and very soon all this work (below the surface) will be quite literally buried, never again to be seen in any of our lifetimes.  I admit that it was suppose to be technical, but you have to remember - my background is in chemical engineering and some of this stuff is fascinating to me.

Last week's post was the plan.  This week they are executing that plan.  Next week they will encase all of their work in cement and, if everything goes according to plan, nothing will ever again move!


The plumbers came last Saturday while Brenda and I were in Austin and installed some of the drain lines.  Each place in the house with a water or sewage drain needed to be plumbed well below the slab.




With the drain lines in place and covered, the next step was to again uncover the piers and level the dirt.  The jack plate and screw assembly was glued with epoxy on top of each pier.  Then a lattice work of steel rebar was placed over the 10 inch deep footing surrounding each pier.  The tensioning cables were also laid under and over the rebar lattice.

 Finally, Brenda and I stopped by a brick showroom to check out some stone and brick colors.  Soon enough they'll have poured the foundation, framed the house, placed the roof, and be ready for the exterior.  We just wanted to be ready, when that day eventually comes.  Here are a couple of our front-runner choices (in no particular order).