Basement Stage 2

I'm back!!! So sorry for the delay in posts lately. Renovation has officially consumed our lives. I am so eager to share our progress with you, so I'm going to continue with the basement and hope to post something new each day until you are up to speed.

I left off with showing you the sexy new sewer pipe. Well, once the cement dried the next step was to set new posts and beams in the basement to ensure the house would remain standing with the additional level. Our home is fully brick, however, I'm not one to test the whole huff and puff theory with my family inside, so, we contacted an engineering friend who now has us built to withstand the next midwest "hurrinado."

We had five new holes to dig and posts to set in the basement. It started out like this. Ignore the extra lines Contractor C got a little spray paint happy!

Then the boys got to work cutting and digging up the concrete AGAIN! I must say the dedication and hard work ethic the men in my family have just blows me away. They dug all these holes and had to remove all the cement/rock/mud in buckets out a tiny basement window! Unbelievable! Then the rebar was set.

Does this help put it into perspective? I couldn't get hole number 5 in the shot.

Then they had to fill the holes with cement. This job was so big that we rented a little Bob the Builder "Dizzy" cement mixer (it was really cute) and they built a shoot to drop in from outside. It was also quite impressive. Shout out to our friend Matt in Mobile, AL whose in the yellow. He and Chad had a very dusty and dirty job of mixing the cement outside.

Here's what they looked liked filled with the first layer.

Here is the finished product. Now just picture it with a black pole in the middle of the square. My father brought in a welder to weld the posts to the ceiling and I'm relieved to share that he managed to not set my house or storage items on fire. He did have one close call though, and the fire alarm let him know about it! He tried to deny a problem but the smell of smoke gave him away!