Two Headers Are Better Than One

The basement walls reach their full height: next stop concrete

And slowly, brick by white brick, the basement walls rise to their full height, and the lower level structure nears completion. Happy days.

Around the perimeter there's a boatload of gravel, to provide much needed drainage and move water away from the house and down the hill.

One day this will be a beautiful walk-out patio with a view

The framing for the header of the basement sliding doors is almost complete, and it's braced to provide extra support for the weight of the concrete that will soon be poured. The bottom of the header has a plank of pressure treated lumber, which will stay in place after the concrete cures.

Similarly, at the front of the house the garage door header is now also in place, although it's not yet braced.

Looking down the driveway towards the garage

Now it gradually gets more and more exciting. Tomorrow the steel for the lower retaining wall is due to arrive - again. It was actually delivered on Monday, but they mysteriously delivered the wrong sized I-beams and we had to send them back, which was a major blow as everyone was ready on site: excavator, welder, framer and assistants. Ken the Excavator will place the I-beams in the piers, and Hector the Framer will level them off before the piers are filled with concrete at the weekend. At the same time, the basement walls will be poured right up to the top, and then we'll finally be ready to remove all of the bracing and begin setting the sills. Once that's done, it's TGI Monday! The TGIs are the big beams that will form the sub floor structure, and when they are all in place and the blocking is complete we can finally think about starting work on the second floor.