We finally poured the other side of the basement!

This past weekend, we had six yards of concrete delivered to our house for the final installment of concrete in our basement.

And it is a fact that...

we have the

greatest friends in the world!!

Seriously, can you count on your hand the number of friends who would help you pour concrete on a Saturday...oh yeah, did I also mention how hot it was this June weekend?

Here was our Saturday, June 16th roster:

______________________
Lars Anderson

Seth Burroughs

Andrew Dohrmann (V)

Jeremy Haldeman

Katy Quinn (V)

Alison Walsh

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*V for Veteran of Concrete

We appreciate all of their help!

Specifically, we want to honor our veterans...

Katy Quinn - I can't believe Katy Quinn came over practically every weekend for the past two months to help us dig out this basement. I personally like to call her the Foreman. She's always in control - calm, cool and collected. This girl knows where to direct the next wheelbarrow and has a keen eye for the leveler. You should read the previous post about her driving the mini excavator!

Honorable Mention : Andrew Dohrmann, or Team Captain Dohrmann for those working outside delivering the concrete. This was his second round of concrete, a true veteran who should be respected, no matter how much you can carry in your wheelbarrow. Check out those hot yellow gloves man! A true utilitarian player, he can work outside delivering concrete or inside moving it over the forms. He's a real champ!

We probably could have poured concrete the weekend before, but we would have cut it really close. Plus, our friends didn't have adequate time to make plans, so we took it easy last weekend to get our house back on-line. Construction can really tear your house apart!

After working all week to prep the basement for concrete, Saturday rolled around and we both started the day pretty laid back. We had all the pieces in place. We rented a few wheelbarrows, borrowed a few too. We prepped lunch and even bought breakfast items.

Now I know that our friends drive up Rhode Island to come to our house and when it's that early in the morning, they will stop at Dunkin Donuts, especially those who stayed out late at the Cap Lounge...ahem. We gave them so much business that day...seriously, everyone stopped there to grab coffee and donuts or a breakfast sandwich. We would all be working hard that afternoon, so who cared about eating that key lime pie donut.

When the concrete arrived, we had the truck pull up in the alley and we were routing the wheelbarrows through Tony's backyard.

Our theory was that we would allow gravity to help move the concrete to the basement.

While the guys were setting up outside, we were getting ready inside for the concrete to get poured down the ramp and delivered to each corner of our basement. Joel finished up the forms Saturday morning. As "screeders", it as our job to use the forms as the top line of the concrete.

Last time, we didn't use enough force to level the concrete and there were significant differences in the floor. Joel also had ready the three foot level so we could measure our progress.

By the way, I swear I didn't buy the yellow gloves on purpose to match the yellow boots. But they do look nice together, huh?

The concrete was much thicker this time, which made for a really tough screeding process. The first few wheelbarrows of concrete seemed to get delivered pretty quickly and soon the first form was full and they moved onto filling the second. By the time we had finished the first form, the concrete guys in the basement were already delivering the concrete to the other side of the basement. The screeding time was definitely running behind.

The guys moving the concrete in the basement were working extremely hard. At some point, they gave up on the plank to move each wheelbarrow between the forms. Once a wheelbarrow was filled, two or three guys would lift the wheelbarrow over each form and then dump the load on the other side of the basement.

It was really warm in the basement. We used to say that it was ten degrees cooler in our basement compared to the first floor. Not so today. Poor Andrew, he was working so hard that when we lifted his hands above his elbows, the sweat collected in his rubber gloves came trickling out.

After much work ensuring that the floor was level throughout the basement, it came time to finish up the last concrete form in the middle of the basement. The ramp was pulled out and the final concrete was smoothed out. We worked to ensure a smooth and clean connection between the two floors. This was tough because the forms on the second side were actually higher than the other side.

In the end, we had about five buckets of extra concrete,

so three buckets full of concrete went along the water heater and two more outside.

After about two hours of hard work, we finally finished

with the concrete and began the process of cleaning up the tools.

And then it was time for lunch!!

Joel made pulled pork sandwiches, pork ribs with dry rub, homemade BBQ sauce, potato salad with lots of hard boiled eggs, corn on the cob and baked beans with bacon slabs. The crew was so tired afterwards, I can't say they ate as much as we expected. We had enough leftovers to feed five of our neighbors for dinner on Sunday night!

It was a success and Joel was very pleased with the results.

My only question now is: Will anyone ever appreciate these hot yellow boots? Will I ever get another opportunity to wear these again?? I hope so, but then again, that might mean I have to be pouring concrete to be wearing them. I'll pull these out for the next thunderstorm that comes through DC.