The concrete is in

When I got to the house this morning, I found a veritable beehive of activity. Or at least there were alot of trucks and alot of people. Actually I got there in time for coffee break:



Unfortunately, I arrived later than I had hoped to, and the concrete had already been poured into the basement. I'm really sorry I missed it; I guess they hose it in to different areas and then spread it. I got there in time to see them put the hoses away. Then they had to wait for it to set up for a few hours and then they could smooth it out. I got to see that part. There's a machine that does it kind of like a floor waxer going over the floor. And of course there is the old-fashioned way with a guy with a trowel down on his knees.

The new den has become a duct factory. I found Chris the HVAC guy in there insulating ducts. And they've started laying out the ducts on the 3rd floor. When I returned in the afternoon, there were already ducts up in the 3rd floor ceiling. This is another validation of blowing away the existing 3rd floor - more flexibility for designing HVAC on 3rd and 2nd floors.

I was also surprised to find Mike the mason at the house since the weather is so damp and cold. I hadn't even realized, but while we were away, they finished the bluestone terrace around the living room. It looks great. Today they started on the bluestone by the new back door entrance.

Katelyn was busy making mockups of the new compressors so we can see how to place them outside. It turns out we will only need 3, not 4, so even if they are bigger than the old ones they'll still take up less space. And Lee says they are very quiet.

I found the basement stairs lying on top of a pile of junk in the back yard. Out with the old; renovation can be pretty brutal sometimes. And here's a photo of the view of the basement from where the stairs used to be. We're trying to decide between putting in a fireman's pole or an elevator to replace the stairs. Lee suggested we just have a bunch of umbrellas and float down a la Mary Poppings.

And of course the back stairs are off limits now since they were supported by the basement stairs.

Lee is hoping to start framing in the basement on Tuesday. And he and I are going to take a field trip one day next week to check out a couple of vanities for the bathrooms.

I think the drainage system in the basement went in just in time since there are predictions for a northeaster and about 5 inches of rain over the weekend. I'm curious to see if the new concrete floor remains dry.