Building The Chirping Frog- Part 3

Our newest adventure:  The Chirping Frog, an antique, collectibles, vintage, home decor, furniture, artisan wares and more shopping mall in a great location right off a major interstate is well underway.  I also plan to host classes in a variety of fun topics; such as mosaic, hypertufa, jewelry making, paper arts, etc.  I am so excited and a little terrified all at the same time.  Here's the links to Part 1 and Part 2 in case you're interested in following our progress.

The First part of the week was a muddy mess, we were laying out the building in the muck.  Don't know exactly how this thing works but its a nifty little tool for figuring out level.  If you look closely at the concrete wall in the background there's a couple boards, the top of the board is where level is for the top of the foundation wall. 

 
These are my new best friends for the week.  Lots of compacting to be done.

On Friday, 27 loads of rock for a total of 715.49 tons were delivered and we got a little more than half of it compacted and the rest is still in loose piles around the interior of the building.

Caleb (my youngest) worked with us all day too.

 Mid-Afternoon my husband looks at me and says, "should we start digging footings?".  He never quits before dark so of course we're digging footings.

We (Caleb and I) also got the disclaimer:  "It's going to start raining.  If I open up this ground we're not leaving till the rock is in and its compacted.  That means you'll be standing out in the rain and I don't want to hear any whining!"  There was plenty of whining we just kept it between us.

This was my job, holding the stick to make sure the footings were deep enough.

Multiple layers of rock, compacted between layers went in.  As the night wore on Caleb and I became just a tad bit slap happy.  At one point he looked at me and said,

"I'm Compacting....  Did you see me?  I Compacted.  It's really pretty easy, you just let the Compactor do all the work!"

I busted out laughing (he's always quoting "What About Bob",  eases the tension and makes us laugh, great movie, and we really needed a laugh about that time).

 Saturday, just the two of us today, Caleb had to work and what a day it was.  I ended up adding rock and compacting on my own while hubby continued digging the footings out on the other side of the building.  We needed to get all the rock in and ready for rebar tomorrow (so we could pour on Monday).  What a mess.  I can run the bobcat but am not good at judging how much rock I've dumped.  I bet I shoveled half of what I put in on down the line to get it leveled off.  Ugh!

On Sunday, hubby dug footings around the perimeter of the bathrooms (that's our storm shelter) while I laid out brick and placed rebar.  He followed up tying rebar and spent half the night with his headlamp out there getting it all tied off.

Monday we started adding the wood pieces you see in the picture.  The rebar coming up out of the footing connects to the future foundation wall and ties the two together, but they won't stand up on their own so hubby devised this wonderful, yet time consuming plan to hold them up and add some protection from the rebar jutting up all over the place.  Worked like a charm.

Thankfully hubby called in reinforcements and I gotta say, when Chad (and Lee) pulled in Caleb and I did the happy dance!  Don't think we could of gotten everything done without them.  Thanks so much for the help guys.

First truck.

Footings are done, foundation wall is up next and then the floor.  It's going to be a long month but hopefully we'll be on schedule to start framing the first of May.  Very exciting!