It's concrete day!

All right, enough of the simpering about keys and kitty litter. It's picture time!

A warning to users on dial-up: ha ha!

First up, the plumbing inspection. Our poor beleaguered plumber booked the inspector for 2:45 on Thursday afternoon, and came over a little early to get everything set up. When the inspector arrived, and they filled up the system with water to test the seals, they found a leak in one of the connections between the crappy old cast iron pipe and the new PVC. The inspector, bless his cold, cold heart, said he had another job to inspect, but would come back in an hour or so to give the plumber a chance to fix things up.

Well, the plumber scurried around the basement for the better part of an hour, getting absolutely soaked and covered in mud (the contents of the pipes were under pressure for the test, and when he attempted to let the pressure off... well, let's just say it didn't release as smoothly as he planned). Fortunately, he was considerate enough to do the mud and water spraying outside, so the basement didn't get trashed again.

When the inspector came back, they went to conduct the test again, and the bladder they were using to plug one end of the drain wouldn't work. I don't know what was wrong with it (I was getting the play-by-play third hand as I was at work), but it wouldn't inflate properly to close off the drain. So he's running around trying to get it to work (getting more soaked in the process) and the inspector is RIGHT THERE... ah, it must have been a glorious scene.

Eventually, however, they managed to plug the drain, fill the system, and check for leaks. All good - we passed the rough plumbing inspection! W00ts! Of course, we also had to pay the piper - er, plumber - for all his hard work. The War Department handed over a cheque that was five bucks south of $4000. Um, ouch. Still, the guy worked his butt off, and we're pretty sure he STILL cut us a bit of a deal as far as the number of hours he actually put in.

At any rate, with the plumbing inspection completed, we have the green light to start covering up those damn holes in the floor. Which means... concrete!

We picked up 20 bags on Thursday night and stashed them in the garage for safekeeping. After work on Friday, I picked up a half-a-yard of washed sand. We used the sand to cushion and embed the pipes, and then covered them up with some of the better quality dirt and the rest of the sand. Did I mention that all of the sand and dirt had to be passed in through the window in buckets?

Here's the result:




(Ha ha, cats can't get out the hole!)

After we were finished that, I went back to Rona and picked up another 12 bags of concrete. Of course, my back and arms started to stiffen up on the drive, so loading 12 bags really, really hurt. When all was done:



That is 32 bags of Sakrete Concrete Mix, and we're hoping it will be enough. We had to get it in two trips, because we didn't want to find out that the truck couldn't handle 1760 pounds of crap while coming back on the highway at 90kph. Oh, and by the way: picking up and putting down 32 bags of concrete means more than two "Vitamin I". I'm just saying.

All in all, it was a hell of a lot of work for a Friday night. It's worth it though: no more enormous piles of dirt in the basement:



The plan for today: pick up the concrete mixer (what? you think we're mixing 32 bags of concrete in a wheelbarrow? HA!) at 10, clean and prep the holes, and start laying concrete. Oh, joy. If I don't post pictures tonight, I'm probably stuck in the foundation.

Fortunately, Amy's done a fair amount of concrete work in her time, so once again, she'll be in charge while I do all the heavy lifting.

One last picture before I go get started:



Ah, my favorite hole. Want to know the best part? We can't fill it in yet! We have to make it BIGGER!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem.

Sorry about that. Anyway, we need to dig down some more on the right side there to expose the drain tile - that's where it connects to the pipe that runs through the front yard and out to the city storm drain. We have to expose it so we can install a clean out. Joy.

I'm going to need more coffee today. I can feel it already.