I convinced my hubby to go to work late today because...the cement trucks are coming again today to pour our basement slab! They brought back the pump truck - and man is that thing cool! Plus, there was a chance one of the trucks would get stuck in the mud since yesterday we found out the UPS truck got stuck in the mud at our house and had to get towed out. How could Tom miss a chance like that, right?
So, after breakfast we bundled the kids up and headed down to see it all take place.
It's a little crazy down there. Not only are we getting our slab poured, but the lumber was also delivered last night, so they are working on creating the headers for the walls today. Tomorrow they plan to start building the walls. CRAZY FUN!
They laid down wire mesh to firm up the cement.
Our beautiful model Becky.
Then the kids and I took our seats to watch the pouring begin.
Nikki was a little too excited and decided to pretend to be a mountain goat/jaguar.
Then they began. The cement truck backed up to the pump truck and dumped cement into the loader.
First the cement shot out. Next they started spreading it out and smoothing the edges. Finally they pulled out a larger version of their smoother and smoothed out a HUGE section at a time. That thing has a motor that pulses it just enough to knock the large rock chunks down and bring up the smoother particles of the cement. It was so cool to watch.
While this was taking place, Mike had his guys building headers and a storage box for nails and other misc. things. So there was a lot of cutting, nailing, measuring, and cutting again.
Unfortunately, it was time for Tom to head off to work, and for the kids and I to head inside to do school & have lunch. So, after gobbling down lunch, Tommy and I ran back out to see what had happened.
They were almost finished pouring the last of the cement.
So we watched them finish it up...
and smooth it out...
and then they were done.
Isn't our slab beautiful??
View from side of basement.
Screwing down the boards.
I don't know why, but I LOVE this shot.
Our slab from above.
Then they brought out the polisher and polished it up all pretty.
I actually don't know what it's called, but it buffs the cement up nice and smooth, making it all pretty.
Tommy's getting better with his smiles at the camera! Yay!
View of the tar on the front of the house - never saw it from this angle, so thought I'd show it while it was still free of dirt.
French drain in the Main Garage.
Now that the cement had been poured, it was time to cleanup the pump truck. This time we stuck around to watch the cleanup process. They dumped the remaining cement from the pump truck into our garage - trying to be useful with where they put the cement.
Then the driver got out a large sponge. The sponge is soaking wet and they just squeeze it into the end of the pump pipe and then reverse the suction and VOILA - clean pump truck.
Well, as clean as that thing can get. It is cement after all. But the inside is cleaner - right?
We waved goodbye to the pump truck, and then...every man-who-owns-a-truck's dream came true. The pumper truck got stuck in the mud.
So everyone ran to their truck to grab chains and ropes and whatever else is manly and needed to pull a truck out of the mud.
Then they hooked the pumper up and pulled...and pulled...and pulled...and NOTHING.
So they tried again, with wheels smoking...
and tires spinning...
And finally...
Success!!!
Bye Bye Pump Truck! We'll miss you!
Well, maybe not so much, seeing the mess left behind.
At least that's fixable when Clint comes again...next week, we hope. :)
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