Guest House Construction: Part 7

SLAB!!!

Branelle and I were out of the country for a couple weeks and I was sure we would come back to a completed slab.  (I was really looking forward when people asked if the slab had been poured to being able to say "Yes - They poured it while we were in Paris" in my most pretentious voice).  Alas, weather and schedule issues meant that virtually nothing happened while we were away. We got home late Friday night and at 7:00 Saturday morning I heard the familiar sounds of "beep...beep...beep", followed by Tejano music, that could mean only one thing:  stuff was about to get done.

  
The boom truck sets up first.  These things are cool.  The guy in orange has a remote control and he can drop concrete exactly where you need it without having to haul it out there.

The concrete trucks just back up one by one to feed the boom truck all day long.  

The boom getting ready to make it rain!

Finally!  They started at the back and worked their way to the front.

They were in a race against threatening skies all day long.  Rain after a slab is finished is fine, but it creates problems if it comes down before you can smooth it out.

Samantha came out to investigate.  She thought the trucks were neat.

Now pouring the front porch.  These guys are really artists.  It's not just a bunch of guys moving concrete around.  Each person has a specific job and they are like a well oiled machine.

Sam, Nel & Grandma supervised from the playhouse.

So close!  They got the living area and the front porch finished and were working on the garage when it just started pouring rain.  They waited it out a couple times but it would just start up again so they finally gave up.  If they had waited another 15 minutes it stopped and never started again.  As a result, the garage floor looks terrible.  Bill says there are options to fix it so we'll have to do something to it later.

The girls inspecting the final product the next day.  Samantha approves.

The only real casualty was the driveway.  It's not a surprise - those cement trucks weigh tons!  It's also not a big deal as we were always planning on redoing and widening the driveway anyway. There's no point in doing it until the end of the build so it will have to remain like this for the time being.

Before

After