May

May 5:  Footings poured.  The individual in the picture is Steve Roberts, our primary contractor.  Steve's a great guy to work with!  I can't believe 24 cubic yards of concrete went into the footings alone!

May 9: Trench for water line. Steve is going to town digging the trench all the way to the water meter.  I'd guess it's about 270 ft worth of trench...

May 9:  Slab base laid.  The fine gravel for the slab base is placed and leveled.  The person in the upper left corner is Terry, Steve's helper.

May 9:  Power pole installed.  Entergy erected our power pole and installed the transformer!

May 23:  Forms for main slab placed.  Gabrielle sits on her mother's window seat!

May 27:  Grade beams dug.  The grade beams support the interior loadbearing walls.  The concrete guys sure did a nice neat job of it!

May 28:  Under-slab plumbing installed.  Lyle Teague (the plumber) and Terry spent ALL DAY trenching and installing all the lines.  There was quite a bit more than I was thinking at the time.

Note the Insul-Tarp in the background.  That will go on next, below the wire mesh and the concrete slab.

May 30:  Mesh and rebar placed.  Kenny Wray Concrete Company is handling the slab work for our house.  Keith, Dave, and ? are laying the wire mesh over the Insul-Tarp.  Little do they know that the first concrete truck is showing up in 5 minutes...

May 30:  Pour starts.  First bit of concrete comes off first of 5 concrete trucks.   You might notice that the hay field has been freshly mowed...

May 30:  Main slab poured.   Keith and Dave are doing preliminary edge finishing before bringing in the power floats.

40 cubic yards of concrete went into this slab, in addition to the 24cubic yards in the footing.  I never realized so much concrete was required to build a house!  And the porches and garage aren't even done yet.

It was a very warm, windy day, and the water meter hasn't been dropped in the hole yet, so I couldn't spray the slab to keep it moist, so I covered the slab with plastic sheeting to retain the moisture while the concrete cures.

Unfortunately, Mr. Wray says he won't be back until June 4 to set forms for the next pour.  This hurry up and wait is driving me bananas!  I guess that at least gives me a little bit of time to install the slab edge rigid insulation before he comes back and pours the surrounding concrete...