Author: AC Priest

As Summer winds down, the C.H.O.I.C.E. House team is heading into Fall with a shiny new slab, but how’d we get here?

Picking up from our last post, we trenched for plumbing and put a pipe puzzle together, making sure that all of our pieces were properly placed before pouring concrete. A big thank you to this week’s guest stars on site, our friends Elisia and Caitlyn.

In the past couple of weeks, twenty new faces arrived in Newbern signaling the start of a brand new academic year. With the new year comes “Neckdowns,” and our team was lucky enough to have a whole crew of helpers throughout the week. Continuing with our prep for “The Big Pour,” our new 3rd and 5th-year friends showed up to place rebar and grout our CMU cells to further strengthen the foundation.

After the pipes were buried, we brought in gravel as the next ingredient in our slab sandwich.

Vapor barrier and mesh then followed, as well as formwork for the showers. Because the shower needs to slope to drain water, we built formwork that will allow us to do the showers as their own pour. The maintenance closet also gets its own pour, so we prepped for that too.

Once we got everything placed, plumbed, and tied, we were ready for the main event: “The Big Pour.” Once again, thanks to the crew from Crosby Carmichael for the concrete. With the help of our concrete finishers, we got the whole pour done in a morning, and we were able to use the extra concrete to set anchor bolts for the porch.

Who knows what these next few weeks hold? We do, actually.

Our trusses are ready for delivery, and by the time this is posted, our lumber package will be on site. We’re also taking some time in studio to explore new details for the windows and the porch, so we’ve got plenty to nail down before our next post, literally and metaphorically. 

This Summer has flown by for the C.H.O.I.C.E. House team. Good news! We’re officially up and out of the ground! A few rainy weeks put block laying on the back burner, but thanks to local mason James Harris, we’ve raised the slab (and the roof will soon follow)!

While block laying was in progress, we continued working on the third volume. The main house units are built on an elevated slab foundation, but the third volume is designed to be on a slab-on-grade foundation, so no need for any concrete blocks. With the help of a few of our fellow “leftover” students, we knocked out the small slab pour in under an hour and got it finished up and ready to frame.

Building the small walls of the third volume was a great way to knock the dust off of our framing skills before we tackle the main units. With the help of professor Steve Long, and a much appreciated guest appearance from our colleague Caitlyn, the walls were up and braced in a morning. Framing the third volume first was also a great way to test our strategy for connecting the porch header to the wall. It looks like the “notch” in the framing was successful! Soon, we’ll assemble the third volume’s column and header to test the entire detail assembly, almost like a second mockup!

Now that the CMU walls are up, we also backfilled the footprint of the units with dirt. Next up is setting up plumbing, adding a layer of gravel, building some formwork, and then we’re off to the races for our final concrete pour!

Until next time, we’ll be keeping our hopes high and our trenches dry.

Man oh man what a month it’s been. Last post, our team was preparing for a fast approaching dig day, and dig we did! After many batter boards and much anticipation, we were happy to have Tyler from T & C Excavating come out and help us officially break ground! Over the course of one morning, Tyler and crew managed to dig up a literal mountain of dirt to make way for our driveway and footings.

After a couple days of placing and tying rebar we followed fast behind with an early morning concrete pour. All of our fellow leftovers showed up to help us out, and we even had a special guest star all the way from Project Horseshoe Farm! A couple truck loads (from the generous Crosby-Carmichael Inc.) later, and we found our footing(s). Nothing says “no stopping us now” like a few thousand pounds of concrete. As the concrete set, we also placed vertical pieces of rebar for the block mason to tie into as he builds our block wall. (Thanks again to Crosy-Carmichael Inc. for their donation of concrete!)

Since then, we’ve turned our attention to the driveway and third volume. Steve stopped by to give us a quick Bobcat tutorial and Toews Brothers brought in new red dirt to replace the old topsoil. This allowed us to start building our driveway. For now, the goal is to get a gravel surface suitable for delivery trucks. Keeping the gravel just below our desired grade will allow us to come back later and either pave or add a finer layer of gravel. Over at the third volume, we hand dug our trenches and prepped the area for plumbing and formwork. All in a month’s work!

Spirits are high here in Hale. Next time you hear from us, we might even be raising the roof!