Hi all,

A lot has happened since my last report!

Just before we left for California for Thanksgiving, Steve and I were talking about the drainage provisions.  The rear wall's footing was about the same height as the house floor.  This meant we could not slope the ground away from the house all the way to the wall.  We would have had to have the drainage channel part way between the wall and the house.  Steve said there was another option:  We could raise the house!

After mulling it over and checking the slope of the driveways I decided it was an excellent idea.  Actually, I had previously thought about it myself, but did not dare suggest it to Steve.  We agreed to raise the house 6 inches.  This is going to be more of a task than it would have been before marrying the two halves and building the footing wall 2/3 of the way around it.

We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving in Ridgecrest with Dave and Carolyn, Kylie and Rebecca and Carolyn's parents at Carolyn's parent's place.  Upon returning we had to wait for them to finish setting another house, as we needed all the jacks for our job.  In the meantime, Steve graded the back and east side yards to approximately their final contour.

First thing Tuesday, there were 8 hydraulic jacks strategically placed under the house with 8 workers to man them.  After a lot of preparation work, the gathering of extra stands and careful instructions, the command was given to raise 1/2 inch.  Each person had a stand next to his jack that he would not touch.  This would give a fairly accurate measuring point of just how high his station had raised.  It took only a few seconds for everyone to raise his jack the specified 1/2 inch.  Then there was a general scrambling as all the remaining stands (except for the reference ones) were raised tight to the frames.  For about 20 minutes there was a lot of scurrying around adjusting the stands and replacing the ones which would be out of range.  There is an adjustable top which can be raised only two inches.  Beyond that, you need a stand that is two inches taller.  When all was well, they raised it another 1/2 inch.  This process was repeated over and over, with an occasional change in the blocks on the jacks to keep them within range,  When the house was nearing the 6 inch height, Steve and I looked around the house and did some quick measurements.  Things looked quite good, but Steve asked if there was a problem going another inch or two.  I replied that there was not, and we continued on up to 8 inches.  This gave us a little margin, and allowed for an additional course of 8 inch blocks on the top of the existing foundation walls.

After the house was all the way up, the final stands were all in place and adjusted tight, and the workers all had a chance to crawl out from under our house, they were ready for the final leveling.  For this they set up two transits, one directly in front of each half, and had workers under the house to adjust stands, and a man on each transit.  After cross checking the transits, they started at the back of the house shooting in the stands and adjusting them to the exact value.  As the house had been raised very carefully, and each jack had a reference for measurement, the house was already within 1/4 inch of level.  It took less than an hour for them to work their way forward getting all the stands adjusted exactly.

The house was now raised 8 inches, it was leveled for the final time, and it was still before noon!

Wednesday morning, I went out to the house and found that an additional course of blocks had already been installed under the west side of the house.  Steve and I talked about some of the details of the RV garage.  That afternoon he dug the footings for the RV garage and laid the rebar.

He had called for a footing inspection on Thursday morning.  They were still finishing the digging and then they ran out of rebar.  As it turned out, the inspector arrived just as they were placing the last bars, and signed off the footing for pouring.  At 4:00 the concrete truck arrived and poured the footings.

When I arrived Friday morning, Fermi and Felix had already placed a course of block almost all around.

Steve and I discussed several more items.  The most satisfying one was a question of running water to the RV garage.  I have talked to Ernie, next door, and he has had problems with his RV garage water.  The water is fed from the house, runs through the attic of his car garage, over the RV garage, and down on the inside of the outside wall.  In spite of insulation on the pipes, they still freeze in cold weather.

When I introduced the subject to Steve, he said he did not want to run the water over the garages, as they had a lot of trouble with Ernie's!  After discussing several possibilities, we decided to feed the water underground, below the frost line, go to a self draining valve (stop and waste) underground, then feed the outside hose bib and the RV utility water supply all underground.  This should work great, and if I do have problems, it is a simple matter to drain the lines during the coldest weather.  This works especially well, as the water meter is right alongside the RV driveway.  We can feed the RV garage with its own separate line.

Today at noontime, everyone was at lunch and the transit was all set up in the middle of the RV garage.  I rigged up a measuring stick and took readings of the curb at several places, the house floor level, and the back wall.  These numbers all agreed within less than an inch with the values I have been using to calculate my driveway slopes, grades, etc.

When they finish building the block wall around the RV garage, up to the surrounding ground level, they can backfill all around it.  Then they can dig and pour the car garage and shop footings, pour all the floors and part of the driveways.  At this point, they can start framing everything.  Steve expects to be framing within two weeks.

I'll send more info as it happens!

Dick