A little slab'l do ya

First this big dog pulled into our driveway:



Jacob loved it! Then they started pouring the concrete, which was much rockier than I thought it would be, and all the guys started shoveling it around and spreading it out.



Then they got a big stick and levelled it out.



Then they got a special kind of stick, called a screed, to smooth it out. This also made the big rocks sink to the bottom and the finer stuff move the top.



Then they threw some brown coloring on (for looks) and smoothed it all out some more. Once fairly dry and hard, they got on hands and knees and created some sweeping texture (for effect). They thought we were awful silly to ask for a perty slab, but there you go. : )



Now we're going to hurry up and wait for our slab to cure. Meanwhile we've got 50 billion other things to do ...

Rebar - what a word

These are our slab guys, Chris and David. They are hard workers - man! This first picture is from yesterday - they worked all day in drizzle, spreading out all the dirt/sand and making it flat. They were very good about humoring Jacob who talked to them constantly from the window.



Today they put a ton of reinforcing rebar on top in preparation for the concrete tomorrow! I will be heading to the airport in the afternoon so my husband will be taking pictures for the blog. After the concrete is poured it'll have to sit for a while to cure.

Must be a boy thing

Today the slab guys brought in two huge loads of dirt and sand and dumped them inside the forms. My son watched the entire thing with rapt attention.



We even put his highchair in front of the window so he could eat and watch. After this they smoothed all the dirt out and put huge sheets of plastic over it "so your floor doesn't sweat," our slab guy said. We wouldn't want that.

It starts with a misunderstanding

Well, apparently I heard wrong and they aren't pouring concrete today, they're laying out the forms today. Heh heh. They'll pour toward the end of the week.

Let me explain here that the structure we are building is going to be a garage and a studio. They won't share any space - the garage will be in "front" and the studio will be in "back", where I will get more north light. The whole thing is 40'x18', and my studio will be 16'x18'.

Here is a photo of the space next to the house where the building will be.

Here it is again after the side and back forms were put in.

And here's colorful pile of wood the workers left behind that I couldn't resist photographing. : )

more to come...