A day off

Summerford:

Today is a holiday, as it were. Nobody working at the house.

Yesterday the fellow from Lewisporte arrived with his digger. Of course, this digger has a name - maybe a Cat? a mini-Cat? a kitten? I don't remember. It's a smaller version of the ones you see working on the roads. It has a shovel and stands on legs that come out of the body of the machine to give it support. The shovel part is quite small and the whole thing can work in very tight spaces, a definition that fits just about any part of our yard.

Along with Jody the digger, there was Keith, one of the lifting crew from Glenwood. He was sent to take direct Jody where and where not to dig, to warn him if he was getting too close to the cribs, as well as to take care of any hand digging that had to be done. And there was a fair amount.

The south-west corner of our house is on sheer rock. Rock that is older than the dirt that is under the rest of the house. Can't be moved, this rock. So the trench that Jody dug was all around the house except where there was rock. Keith hand-dug the soil that clung to the rock. He suggested that we clean the rock off with a water spray to get the remaining soil off and allow a clean surface to put mortar on. Poor fellow had to dig from a tough position. He couldn't stand up straight there [see photo at left] and had to dig with a permanently bent back. He was diligent and the bottom of the trench there is as clean as a whistle.

The trench is (I would say) about three feet wide, maybe wider in spots. And John says it all worked out very well because the bottom of the trench is solid rock. Anything built on that ain't going anyplace. It's wet though. There is a boggy area back of the houses across the road. The moisture seeps through the soil under the road and because we are below road level, around our house. It was what contributed to the rot at the back part of our house all these years.

The plan is to put crushed gravel at the bottom of the trench along with weeping tile which will feed the water around the house instead of under it.

Up until yesterday, John was able to get into the house whenever we realized we had forgotten something. But not anymore. Now we will have to borrow a ladder just to reach the door.

John called Robert Coates, the lifter, last night to find out when he expected to resume work on the house. Turns out it won't be today. Today he and his men are off to Trinity to move a house from one location to another. John and I would have loved to head out there and take pictures of this but it's three hours away by car and with the cost of gas here (over $1.45 a litre, we think today), we just can't justify this expense for a day trip.

So. Instead John has gone up to the house to have a look around. He says he'll probably measure for the plumbing refit he will have to do once the house is on a foundation. He would start now but can't because there has to be work done under the house which would interfere with pipes if we put them back now.

Coates will be installing two built-up beams under the house from side to side under the main house, and from side to side under the back extension. These beams will provide the support that was previously provided (ha!) by shores which were under the middle of the house. From what I understand, we can have this built-up beam put in without any additional approvals being required. If we were to have an I-beam or a laminated beam we would need the involvement of an engineer or something. We don't need any more delays, hence the build-up beam. (For anyone not familiar with this term, I think a built-up beam is a bunch (3 or more?) of 2x10 or 2x10 lumber nailed together. A laminated beam would have this lumber glued together and would look like an I-beam. And if you don't know what an I-beam is, look it up! It's metal.)

But I digress. Coates told John last night that he will be back on site tomorrow, building the foundation forms. Yay.

It's interesting what you hear when you least expect it. The fellow who was on site yesterday (the hand-digger) told us that he was surprised that they were doing the foundation for us since they are trying to get out of that business. They have enough work just doing lifts all over the province. He made it sound like they had just the other day decided to do the foundation, that they had not planned it for this summer's projects. Say what?

I said to John that this is one of the costs of doing business the Newfoundland way. Without anything in writing. You heard me right. We have absolutely nothing in writing for this project. Of course, we wouldn't dream of doing this if we were in Ontario. Hire a fellow whom we don't know to lift our house without a written contract? Never. But here, that's how it's done. Coates and probably every other tradesmen in the province would be astounded to be asked for a written estimate, never mind a written contract. I think they would be highly insulted and might not even do the job. Perhaps I'm wrong. But I have to say the relationship between us and the workmen would not be the same if we were to do it the official way. I'm sure of that. And I like how we all get along now.

Did I tell you that our house is now insured? Yep. We couldn't get insurance before because the house had only 60 amp service, was build on wooden shores and was more than 10 km from a fire station or some such. Now, it appears that our house is completely insured as long as it's up on cribs. That's one way to get coverage.

The pic to the left shows the bits of the side bridge that we want to save along with the fence boards that I lugged up the hill to save them from being damaged during the job.