Howdy! So, most of the stuff I'm about to recap happened during the final stages of getting the ag building done. Particularly while we were waiting for the stucco coats to dry we worked on getting power to the land. As soon as we got our building permit which was issued Early August we went right to work on getting power setup so we could work without the aggravating noise of the 7000 watt generator running.

Needless to say, getting power up from the road to where our house is going to be was more expensive than we anticipated. We set the house as far into the parcel as we could without it being economically impossible since we wanted to make sure it was private. Of course doing so costs more all around, longer roads, more wire etc.. etc..

Anyway, we had a 600 foot trench dug and went with a 150 amp circuit and ran thick aluminum wire inside 4" PVC Conduit 600 feet from the meter post (PG&E) to our pump house. The pump house would then hold our temporary power panel, outlets and phone hookup until the main house was ready for power.





I ran some irrigation lines in the same trench and also we ran our main house drain line out to our septic tank down the hill using the same trench. As long as things were separated by a foot we were ok. Phone was also run in the same trench. We ran the water and phone ourselves and had our electrical contractor do all the power. Our excavator did the septic line installation.

After the trenches/pipes were inspected and backfilled, we had PG&E hookup our meter and we had power! It was an exhilirating feeling. We do still plan on hooking up a Solar Utility Inter-Tie (Net Metering) System later so we can feed some power back to the grid.

The building pad had already been cut last year so we just cleaned it up and started staking out the octagon. What a challenge it was to get the octagon staked out. A single octagon would have been easier but a double octagon (one on the inside courtyard wall and one on the outside) was very difficult. Especially since we had to make sure they both line up squarely! So we started with a single straight line, formed a square for both, staked a center pin and worked off of that. I won't go into the details here but there was some serious hair pulling at times.

Here is Alfred working on the interior octagon layout.



After both octagons were laid out and checked, I used some marking chalk to mark the ground lines for the excavator to do his work. Here is a view before the excavator came. It's hard to see the lines in the photo but they are there :)



The excavators job was to cut a 2 foot wide trench on the inside octagon and the outside for the concrete footings. Also he had to dig a trench for our main house drain line as well as a courtyard drain for rain runoff. It was absolutely amazing watching him work the back-hoe in the funkiest positions to get it to work without either falling into a trench of ruining his work. At one point he was suspended in the air by his arm and the bucket.



All the trenching took less than a day to complete.



Once the trenches were done, we had to set up the lines again in order to get working on our forms. We couldn't leave our stakes and lines in because of the complexity of the trenching work. We did our best to get them lined up where they were before but they ended up being a little off, which meant later on having to do some manual fixing of the trench widths in some areas. There is always the realization onsite that as perfect as you want to make things, particularly when working on paper, in the field it never seems to work out that way. Earth, wood, metal, etc... they all change according to the temperature, moisture, and mood :) so you have to be prepared to tweak things.

We got our wood forms up pretty quickly, using a single 2x12 and wood stakes. We started on the interior courtyard wall first and used a transit to level the corners as we built it up.



Next we moved on to the outside octagon wall. Same technique. It took some work to make sure all corners were level with each other but finally it was wonderful to see the house shape taking place. The top of the forms are where the top of the floor will be.





Once the formwork was up the plumbers were called in to install all the under slab rough plumbing for the drains. They did it very quickly, within a day. Since we are installing a radiant floor for our primary heating system, the slab needs to be insulated around the footings and underneath. We used a 2" EPS (Expanded Polystyene) rigid insulation which has no CFCs, is non-toxic and much easier to make than the traditional XPS insulation. Unfortunately that also makes it more fragile which we found out later. In addition, since the temperatures were upwards of 104 sometimes, the duct tape we used to install the insulation on the form boards would often times melt and loosen. Ah, some of the challenges of building a wierd house... Anyway, we figured out the best duct tape to buy and started glueing the sheets together with No Solvent Construction adhesive to get things to stay. The idea was to put in all the insulation first to reduce the amount of concrete used since the insulation acts as the form boards all the way into the trench. Also, we came up with the idea of using 1/2" PVC pipes glued in between the EPS sheets to hold the structure together and keep the insulation from coming off the wall after the form boards were removed.



Here's a shot taken from the roof of the ag building. We just finished the interior courtyard footing insulation and started on the outside.



Here is a photo close up of the rough plumbing that was installed previously:



And here is a photo of most of the footing insulation completed, the only part not done is the inside wall of the outside trench which as of this writing is completed:



Now that the trenching insulation is completed we have to take all the base rock gravel you see in stacks there and get it laid over the pad to 4" in height. Next installment hopefully I can tell you how we got the rest of the foundation ready...ie. gravel, more EPS, sand, welded wire mesh and our radiant floor tubes! We are in a rush to try to get it all done and the main slab poured before it starts raining heavily. Generally it starts around the end of October but sometimes it can be earlier or later.

Pray for no rain please :) At least until November would calm my nerves.