We're back!

After a two and a half week wait, Southwest Gas finally got the gas line disconnected Monday, so we're now finally able to move forward.

The rebar was finished on Tuesday and we passed the inspection for it Wednesday.

Today the concrete contractor will start preparing to shoot the basement walls (they will be created with gunite, similar to how a pool is built). The preparation will take two days, so the gunite should be going in early next week, followed closely by the basement floor, which will be poured.

I'll get some pictures of the prep work for the gunite later today.

Oh, and here's a link to recipe that I highly recommend.
(editorial note: I had to double the recipe)

July 12, 2009

At this point most of the rebar is installed in the basement. The only part that isn't in yet is in the back corner where the gas line cuts across, and we're still waiting on Southwest Gas to come out and cut the gas line so that we can remove that section of pipe and get the rebar in place.

The green liner is a moisture barrier. For those of you keeping score in the home game, that's three layers of barriers. Seems a little overkill for Phoenix.

The concrete walls are scheduled for Wednesday, but that may well get pushed back if Southwest Gas doesn't get out on Monday to cap off the gas line.

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Renovation - 7/6/2009

Today the moisture barrier was installed in the basement. Tomorrow the rebar should start going in in preparation for the gunite walls to be shot.

A PVC drain was also installed along the lower perimeter behind the moisture barrier to catch any water that might get down that far (which just seems silly, considering the miniscule amount of rainfall we get in the Phoenix area on an annual basis).

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Renovation - 7/2/2009

No new progress in the past few days. Southwest Gas should be out in about a week to cut the gas line.

In the meantime, the liner and rebar will start to go in, and hopefully the gas line will be re-routed in time to shoot the walls (they're going to be shot with gunite) next week.

In the absence of progess pictures, here's a picture of a sharp-dressed llama.

Excavation - Day 8

The excavation of the basement is complete and the digging equipment has left the building. Here I am enjoying the new basement with a coworker.

I'm meeting with the engineer from Southwest Gas tomorrow at noon, so hopefully we'll get the gas line re-routed quickly and it won't slow up the overall schedule by much.

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Day 7 continued...

Here is our sad tree, which is now about a foot away from a giant hole in the ground. It probably had enough of it's main roots cut to guarantee it's demise, but so far it seems to still be surviving.

Day 7 continued...

Here's the back corner of the basement with the bump out for the window well/emergency exit. You can also see a cross-section of the original footing for the back of the garage.

And just in case anyone is wondering, the reason the exterior garage wall frame is still there is because we have to leave it standing in order to maintain the setback from the original house. Current code requires a minimum 10 foot setback from the property line. When our house was built the setback was only 6.5'. If we tear down the wall, we have to rebuild it 3.5' further in, which would make parking a car in the garage difficult unless you drive a Honda Z600.