It's been a while since the last update, but I wanted to wait until there was actual progress to write about. I've been working mostly on the foundation over the last month. It hasn't been an all day / every day thing, but something I've devoted maybe 1/4 of my free time towards. I might be more motivated, but at this point the heat index has been over 125 degrees more days than I can count and I don't really enjoy being outdoors when it's that bad out.

This is the start to a pretty normal day of pouring footings. For some reason I thought I was going to be able to haul all those cinderblocks under the house to where they belong. That's one of those things that didn't happen... I also ended up using another 7 bags of concrete that day. It takes a lot of the stuff to fill holes that are 1 foot deep x 2 feet wide.

 

Here's the work environment. Not a fun place to be, but at least there are no bugs.

I didn't take any more pictures after pouring concrete all day. For some reason my motivation to do that kind of thing disappears when it's hot out, and when I manage to somehow get a sunburn while working under the house. Although, I dd discover that it's not that uncomfortable under there when you have a fan pointed at you.

The last few pictures are from this last weekend, and the rest from today. This is where I cut everything and pre-assemble the beams. They're made from two 2x8 layers with 3/4" plywood in the middle. Everything is glued and screwed together. The only problem with that is the weight... the first beam is 13 feet long and there's no way I could move something that heavy on my own - especially under the house.

 

The way around that was to make tooling holes, and hold the beams together with some long bolts I have. It's also important to remember which way everything goes back together so it was all marked before being taken apart. I put a link to this site on both ends of the beam. Who knows - maybe it'll be of interest to someone later.

I don't have any pictures of the beam going together because I was more concerned with building and raising it than anything else. Here's how the first one came out though. 

A three ton truck / SUV jack works great for lifting the thing and getting it in place. At this point everything is as level as the joists allow and the floor in this area is MUCH more solid. It feels loads better and I really can't wait to get the second footer and pier finished so I can put that one up too. Then there will only be one more beam left to be built while underneath the house.

I can't make it run the width of the living room because the old patio is still there (sort of). That'll need to be broken out because airflow under there is really bad. The joists are in bad shape over there and the only way to make things right is to get that brick and fill out of here. Think: 2013 here...

The next update will hopefully have pictures of the second beam in. One of the in-laws is coming over in less than a month and there are a lot of other things that need to be finished first though...