The foundation comes together....

The foundation is coming together nicely....

After months and months of deliberation we decided to use a monolithic slab foundation instead of pier and beam (like the model) because of the stability and location in our area.  We are going to use post-tension cables in the slab though to add more stability and try to prevent movement of the walls and ceilings as much as possible.  All those years living in Texas taught us how much we hate wall and ceiling crack repair!

First the guys dug the footings all around and laid in the concrete base.

Now you know this is not professional photography as evidenced by my fingers :)

Then the boards for the actual floor of the foundation

The rebar you see sticking up here is where we are adding an above ground safe room into the pantry area.  Living on a hill in Oklahoma it just seemed wise. :)

 Better pic of the safe room area.


The guys then laid in the post-tension cables to go down into the foundation....

Then, when we were expecting them at 6am - the sound of trucks rolling in woke us at 4:30am (I do not complain about workers who show up early!)


The guys come in to pour the actual foundation.

The pump truck setting up

It was pretty cool watching how the truck would get the concrete to exactly where it was needed for the foundation

Our concrete guys working hard to spread and smooth the concrete floor.

Then - after the concrete set a couple of days, Stress-con came out to stretch the post tension cables that are inside the foundation.  This should act sort of like bungee-cords to keep the foundation tight and together so it won't crack.  Any shifting should occur as one large plate so the whole house moves preventing cracking in the walls, ceiling, floors.

I don't know why this pic keeps rotating - but you get the idea....