Uh oh...

We got quite a bit of rain over the weekend and now water is seeping through the foundation wall on the one side where the foundation is sistered. Sigh. I'm glad this happened now and not after we had finished everything off downstairs.

I talked to the contractor and he thinks we will have to dig up the dirt next to the foundation and re-seal it.

It's always something, right?

Keeping Us High and Dry

The city required our contractor to dig around the entire new foundation, water proof it and put in a french drain. Luckily we knew this from the beginning, or it would have been a pretty expensive shock.

Even though we abandoned the idea of sistering the foundation after the collapse, there are two parts of the house where we still have some of the original foundation. Here, they have to dig under the old foundation and support it with posts so that they can get to the new foundation to waterproof it.

And if that isn't crazy enough, he still has to figure out how he's going to dig under the front steps and under the old chimney in order to waterproof the foundation in those areas. Fun!

Steel Reinforcement...

Originally the plan was to pour a sister foundation inside the existing foundation, and bolt the two concrete walls together.

After the cave-in, that plan was abandoned everywhere that had not already been poured. I'm actually relieved that we aren't keeping much of the old, crumbly foundation.

Here you can see the steel cage that was built to reinforce the concrete.

Uh-Oh...

We had a set back here at Casa de Shithole.

The plan was to pour a "sister" foundation just inside the shitty existing foundation and bolt the two together. (See existing shitty foundation, crumbling at the left.)

Well, at about three in the morning on Rob's 40th birthday, the existing foundation gave up the ghost and caved into the trench that had been dug for the sister foundation. Those bars peeking out under the siding in the second picture were the cage for the new foundation. They had already been drilled into the new foundation.

Our contractor was uncomfortable with us staying in the house in this condition, so we moved out for a few days while he raced to get everything stabilized. More on that in my next post!