Building the foundation wall

Don began by having the backhoe dig a trench.

Then he had to build forms for the footings.

In places, the trench wasn't straight so he had to dig on the sides.

Here he is laying rebar in the trench.

 Here Don is building a form for the new foundation wall.

 This picture shows vertical supports for the form.

 It was necessary to build three separate forms for the wall.

 Here you can see the vertical and horizontal rebar very well.

 All the forms are complete.

 Supports had to be placed so the pouring of the cement would not cause the forms to bow.

 Looking down on the rebar in the form.

 It's hard to tell from this picture but Don is holding a tie down which will be placed in the cement.  Tie downs attach the house to the foundation and prevent it from blowing away in a strong wind.

 The cement pouring beings.  Rocky in the green shirt is tapping the form to prevent air bubbles from forming.

 Now Rocky is guiding the cement and Don is tapping it as it goes in.

 Pat and Harry are smoothing the newly poured cement.

 Jayme and Ryan are carrying shovel loads of cement which spilled over to the outside of the forms.

Here you can see the tie down in both the new and old foundation.  The plastic was used to cover the cement because it rained before the cement was set enough.

 Don is removing the forms from the now hardened cement.

 One form just wouldn't come out.  Cement had hardened on both sides of the form.  Don was saying never to use inexperienced help (the two young men).  One good whack knocked it off.

The last step was to fill back in around the foundation.

 The wooden blocks are surrounding a pipe for the water.  Later, we learned the waterline has to be deeper so it won't freeze.