Let’s Pour a Hobbit House Slab Shall We…..Fun Opening the Family Pool!

The Hobbit House has changed… Yes fans of Middle Earth we’ve finally got a slab to stand on. Praise the Lord!…and welcome back to another edition of the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog.

Getting it done wasn’t easy though. We had to kick it up a notch Friday night and Saturday morning but we got it done. It really was a question of just pushing through it all and setting a deadline. I’m so glad it’s finished. It looks really good as well. But before we begin just a word or two on the opening of the family pool.

I don’t know how many of you out there own a pool but if you do you’ll know where I’m coming from. If not skip ahead. Anyway I’ve been quite busy at work and it’s been rather cool for the most part as well. So I haven’t really even thought too long or hard about opening the pool. Usually I have the pool opened by May 1st. We still had snow on the ground just a few weeks ago so I think that threw off my pool opening senses. Okay, so I’m a little bit behind schedule. I’m gonna give you the short version here cause there’s just way too much to talk about.

Jude’s home from college. Hey, great timing I’m thinking. He can open the pool for me during the week and that’ll be one less thing for me to worry about. First things first. Scoop out the excess leaves out of the pool that are on top of the pool cover. Pretty simple first task. Apparently not though. I mean I’ve been scooping leaves out of this pool for 19 years to be exact and I still have the same pool pole I started out with. Check out the pool pole after one day of leaf scooping from son numero dos!

Bent pool pole.
Bent pool pole.

Is it me or what? ….and you know what his response was. There were too many leaves and it just bent the pole. What? Yeah but I juast kept bending it back. Jude apparently thought it was some sort of a weight lifting contest. I guess??????

Pool opening task number two. Take the pool cover off let it dry in the sun and then fold it up. I come home from work that day and the immediate question that hits me when I get out of my car is, “Why is there a huge rectangle of dead grass in the middle of our yard?” I’m not even going to go into responses with this one. Just take a look.

Jude's wake leaves a field of dead grass.
Jude’s wake leaves a field of dead grass.

So there is a lot of clean up out at the pool so we figured we’ll go out there Mother’s day morning and hit it a good shot. Check out the hired help.

Editor takes care of the hammock. That's huge as far as the opening is concerned.
Editor takes care of the hammock. That’s huge as far as the opening is concerned.

Okay, she gets a pass because it just so happens to be Mother’s Day. But this guy.

Relax dad it's all gonna get done.
Relax dad it’s all gonna get done.

Jude’s got his game face on. Can’t you tell?

Terence was like a whirling dervish. I couldn't even get a front shot of him he was moving so fast. Atta boy!
Terence was like a whirling dervish. I couldn’t even get a front shot of him he was moving so fast. Atta boy!

 

Thank God for my boy Terence.

So enough about pool openings Jim let’s get back into this slab pour already.

So the pressure was really on me this week. I mean big time. I had to get the inspection done and then see if I could get a couple of concrete masons up there as well. In addition to finding a concrete plant that was open on Saturday. We also hadn’t run any of the electrical home runs to the panel box. I had also wanted to run some conduit throught he slab for telephone and cable TV. On top of that I still hadn’t boxed out any of the plumbing. Hmmm. Bit off a little more than I could chew. Yet hope remains…..while company is true.

There was a lot going on this week so I’m going to have to give you a shortend version. Friday I got audited by an insurance company so I had to leave work early and meet this guy at like 12 noon. He was there for all of 15 minutes. It was great. Jude was home so we meet at the house at  1PM. We started to rock and roll. (Side note: The bugs were out of control. I had Jude pick up some bug spray that worked pretty good. Never had a problem like this before at the house but people are telling me it’s a really bad year for bugs around here.) There are two bats in the bat house! Joey must have gotten married over the winter. His wife’s name is Josephine. These two are gonna be huge if they eat all of these bugs. Like vampire bat size.

I worked on boxing out the plumbing while Jude started running the under slab electric. It really wasn’t fair. The electric is really a two man job. He did about 7 or 8 home runs as we call them but it was a struggle. We went back after dinner Friday night with Terence and did the other 12 in about an hour. It doesn’t seem like much but if you don’t put the wires in the slab you have to drill holes through the stud walls and snake them through all of the framing. We definitely saved a few days work by doing it this way. A couple of pictures.

Jude looping the wires over the panel box. we labeled everything.
Jude looping the wires over the panel box. We labeled everything.
Panel box before the pour. a spaghetti western if ever there was one.
Panel box before the pour. A spaghetti western if ever there was one.

If you look close you can see the flexible conduit we installed Saturday morning. On the left hand side in the above picture it’s the  looping conduit to the left. So I got this flex conduit years ago after we had finished up a job. So it has been sitting in  the garage at the Hobbit House for going on two years. So I pick up the conduit to install it Saturday morning and it smells like a dead fish. I look at Terence and Jude and ask do you smell that? They’re both looking at me like it’s coming from me…but it”s not. We cut the first piece and out falls a dead mouse. Disgusting. Really disgusting. Good thing I had a meager breakfast!

So this pour is a little different than the other ones. We’re not going to use a pump. We’re doing it the old fashioned way. Wheelbarrows. Yes, concrete in the barrow push it along dump it and go back for more. The concrete supplier was Bulldog concrete. The truck he has mixes the concrete as it’s coming out of the truck, so you are always getting fresh concrete. ( A regular truck mixes all 12 yards at once so by the time you finish with the wheelbarrowing the concrete could be setting up which can make things difficult.) So Bulldog’s concrete was fresh right to the very end which was great. We didn’t have to rush….oh, and by the way he did have his bulldog with him in the truck. He had a special seat for him so he could look out the window too.

So I had Sean and Jeff the masons come up to help with the pour and TJ the laborer to help with the concrete placement. So it was TJ, Jude, and Terence on the wheelbarrows Sean and Jeff on the pullup and me kinda overseeing the whole thing and helping where it was needed. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Getting started.
Getting started.

 

We did the two shower stalls first and the depressed slab at the mechaical room first. Then we hit the main slab.

Getting going. Jeff and Sean.
Getting going. Jeff and Sean.
Concrete truck
Concrete truck
The Editor stops buy to check up on things. Flip flops and all.
The Editor stops buy to check up on things. Flip flops and all.
TJ showing the boys how it's done!
TJ showing the boys how it’s done!
Terence getting the hang of it. Only lost one wheel barrow.
Terence getting the hang of it. Only lost one wheel barrow!
Terence and Jude taking a breather.
Terence and Jude taking a breather.
The pullup crew. Jeff Sean and TJ.
The pullup crew. Jeff Sean and TJ.
The finished product.
The finished product.

Sean really did a hell of a job finishing the slab. He worked till 5:30 that afternoon.

The crew having lunch. Terence, Jude, TJ, Jeff, Sean.
The crew having lunch. Terence, Jude, TJ, Jeff, Sean.

It went really well. We finally have the structure finished. Now onto waterproofing, insulation, and backfilling.

Side note: Got started on Mother- in -Laws retaining wall. Check it out.

Retaining wall removal at you know whose.
Retaining wall removal at you know whose.

Summer’s here. Enjoy the heat! I love it. see you all next week!

Hobbit Hollow Jim

2 thoughts on “Let’s Pour a Hobbit House Slab Shall We…..Fun Opening the Family Pool!”

  1. Hi Mike that was some delayed response. Sorry about that, things have been a little crazy around here and at work. I think it’s actually starting to look like something.

    Take care!
    Jim

    Reply

Leave a Comment