Hope is only a vehicle for inspiration

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With the lower footing forms set and ready to pour concrete we concentrated on the upper half of the footing. I contacted a friend who is a geologist when we worked on the basement footings. His input was again pretty valuable on the upper footings. Knowing the settlement rate for the basement (where a house once stood) would be less than the upper half (which never had a house on it) we needed a slightly wider footing to compensate the upper half. We added a couple of inches to the width and set those forms accordingly. What to do with the separated footings though. I would have to table that problem for now, because the weather was going to turn bad again. I wanted to get the concrete all down before the rains came. First order of business was setting the upper footings on the compacted ground. Remember that tree I said was particularly stubborn trying to push out? Well it wasn't quite done with us yet. It had began to sink in a little where the stump was, so we added more fill and packed it down again. This would be a spot in the foundation I would pay particular attention too from now on. A good friend (Biff) had loaned me a DeWalt laser level for teh upper footings. It made the work much faster. We used it to check the lower footings we set with a hand level, and it confirmed that we had in fact built a perfectly level form. Brad and I spent Saturday and Sunday finishing the upper forms.

By the end of the weekend we were almost ready. Now back to that pier issue I put off. I had two separated footings that we had to connect together some way, but I wasn't sure how. I did a mountain of research on structural engineering, concrete strength, re-bar placement, pier building, and anything else that I could get my hands on.  I finally settled on a method used to build bridges. I would set a pier at the ends of the basement walls, and attach the new upper footing to that pier. The re-bar should hold the concrete in suspension like a bridge. I made a quick drawing and sent it to the kids at the shop with some basic instructions on how to build the piers.

This is the sketch I sent with the instructions:

This is what they built:

We could now pour concrete and when the basement walls came up, they would tie directly to these two massive piers. Michelle had been talking to the concrete plant and had arranged for concrete to arrive at 9 on Saturday morning. Rain was coming so we couldn't wait for another weekend. We had to do it now. Regardless of how tired and soar we were we had to get these in. By 2:00 that afternoon we had the foundation for what would someday (hopefully soon) be our new home.

Footing as poured on 5/14/13:

The last thing we had to pour that day was the pads that the floor beams would set on under the new section. Those went pretty fast and with the kids new found excitement at what they say as our first tangible step towards a new home, I was more than happy to let them. Even though I knew the concrete piers would cover up most of what the did. Regardless they are still setting under the house, and will be there for as long as it stands.

So we had finally something to look at. Something we could walk on without wallowing in mud. The kids and Michelle finally had something to point to that was a measurable marker of accomplishment. They had hope now, real tangible hope which is what we all needed. Hope by its self doesn't get you anything, it's only a vehicle to inspire the heart and mind. That inspiration creates the drive that you have to have in a desperate situation that causes real action and real results. If you have hope, you are halfway there.