The Concrete Framing Done & Movement Happening

It was warm again this Sunday morning as I left for the property.  The weather predictions said overcast and a slight chance of rain. I was welcoming the overcast as it would cut down on the heat.

Lots of things had transpired during the week. The concrete guy and his team had worked more on the framing and had finished redoing it to fit the plan perfectly.  The week before his team had not done the job properly so he had now redone it per plan. They finished on Thursday and Nair, my GC friend, had called the county and set up an inspection for Friday AM.  Friday Am she drove and hour 1/2 from her place to the property to be there for the inspection so she could answer questions, etc.  As she waited she got an email notice from the county.

It seems they had already been there (obviously at the crack of dawn before she arrived) and they decline to do the inspection!!  WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??? Well it seems that the printed plan that had been placed in the contractor box was not BIG enough!!! Now, please note that nowhere had it said it must be a full size plan ( approx 24″ x 34″).  Nair is a GC in multiple counties in Florida and no other counties require this so she didn’t even know this.  Most counties just accept the plan printed on 8.5″ x 11″ paper – as they reference the full sized plans electronically. Not my county. OK, so big ol’ facepalm happening here.

So Nair tried to get it printed at Office Depot and their printer failed. Rather than go all over she called the architect draftsman and he said he would print it full size for her.
So she picked it up on Saturday and Sunday AM before I went to the property I drove first to her house and grabbed those printed plans. We put them in a large clear plastic bag … because gawd forbid it rained & they got wet.

So my first stop, upon arriving at the property was to replace old smaller printed plan with the new large plans in the contractor box and thumbtack it in safely. With that done I headed over to the garden area to check the rainwater collection tank, the birdbath and the framing for the slab for the storage shipping container.  The rainwater collection tank was great still, topped up again with the little bit of rain that happened this week and the birdbath was still full enough that the little solar fountain was still working!  Yeahhhhhhh, Victory! Now it is confirmed that it will last at least a week in these high 70s temperatures. 

Then I turned to the slab location.  Last week no work had been done on this but this week it was all done!  Soooooooooo, exciting! the framing was complete with all the rebar in place and ready for the cement to be poured.  I was dancing all around it.  It now was looking like a slab!  Hard to imagine that I could get so excited by a wood frame with rebar around the sides … but I was … progress had happened.  That was all I cared about!

In the middle of all that excitement, I jumped back in the Jeep and headed over to the house area to see what the framing looked like there.  Last week it was definitely not right.  The angles had been off and the holes were spaced in a weird way – even I knew something was off LOL. I pulled up and the excavator and heavy machinery was gone and as I hopped out of the Jeep I could already see that something had changed.
As I got closer it NOW looked like I imagined it needing to look. 

The wood frame was all straightened out with perfect grid strings and the holes were not only there but they were lined up perfectly. There they were: 10 pier holes for the residential shipping container home and 6 smaller ones for the piers for the deck out front. The 10 large holes had all the rebar set in them at the bottom and running up through the holes and to a level approx 2 ft above ground. OMG, it looked just like the plans! 

WhoooooooooooooooooooooHooooooooooooo!  I could now “see” it all! Like there will be the kitchen and the bathroom and the windows and french doors leading to the deck, etc.  Literally I could now see the whole thing.  It was like magic. My heart was pounding … in a really good way.  Gracie and I walked around inside the frame and took a tour of our new home that would be delivered and set up on the piers. Gracie frankly did not care … she just sniffed all around & I made sure she didn’t fall into any holes as I told her what room she was in each step she made LOL.

With my heart fluttering I remembered that I had another chore for the day.  There was one stump fro my Pine tree removal, with chainsaws, that was still up a little high near the double gate where the trucks needed to come in.  I needed to take that stump down further to the ground so it didn’t cause a problem with any truck tires as they drove in.  I hopped back in the Jeep again and went to the entrance gate where the stump was.
I surveyed my work from the last two weeks.  I had chainsawed down the two Pine trees that were in the way and taken all the branches off and sawed up the trunks.  There they all were …. the branches in 3 big piles and everything clearly off the path. The stump from the smaller Pine tree was out of the way and wouldn’t be a problem I decided but the stump from the bigger Pine tree was definitely a problem.

I had no idea how to go about this so I loaded the two chain saws (a 12″ & an 18″ inch) with batteries and began to tackle it. It required me sitting on the ground at a weird angle to try to saw it all the way through.  That wasn’t going to cut it as I held the 18″ chainsaw with the heavy battery in it.  So, I just got creative.  I sawed it into “pie” pieces all the way down from the flat tow to the ground.  Then I could saw through the bottom near the ground a small piece at a time which then gave me some leverage, with the saw to cut off each wedge one at a time.  It took me almost two hours believe it or not LOL. And I got it done!  I felt both silly for how long it took and grateful and kinda’ proud that I got it done.

Now it was time to just take a drive down my other windy path and check everything before I left.  First thing I noticed was that some greenbriar vines had been popping back up. Damn if I could let that happen … so I began walking down the path and snipping them back down to the ground with my pole trimmer.  An hour later I had made myself all the way down the path and removed the new greenbriar growth.  I would continue removing it throughout the property next week but I had a feeling satisfaction as I left the path to collect all my stuff and head back to where I am living.

I posted videos, on the Freedom Acres YouTube Channel, of the rainwater collection tank and birdbath weekly update again along with the removed stump and a few videos of the framing done in both locations. Of course, there is a Gracie video and a short exciting end of the day report.  Feel free check it all out by clicking HERE.  Also, feel free to subscribe and you can get notified when new videos go up! 🙂

We are now moving into the third week of April and things are moving along.  On Monday we can call the county and schedule them to come back and commence their inspection with the big plans in place. The new things we have to handle this week is that the cement trucks will not come on the property it seems until I gravel the pathway in and around the slab and pier areas.  They are afraid their trucks will get stuck. It seems the price to do this gravel for this whole distance will be around $10K … yep, I freaked out. But, I will calm down and we will figure it all out this coming week.

As soon as we can get past the concrete part of the development then the residential and storage shipping containers can be delivered and the siding can be put on the residential container. I am waiting to hear back from Tankabox about when they can deliver the residential shipping container.

The Game is still to be living on the property by May!! We now have 5 weeks.  I am trying not to be attached but it is taking something from me.  Ultimately, I know it will happen when it does. I absolutely will keep praying, chatting with and trusting the Universe.  Time will keep rolling and I will be back next week ready to play again and do whatever needs to be done!

As always, I send you LOVE and FREEDOM until then!