James' New House

Well, we've finally done it.


We got the permit, and we've started working on James' new house. Right now we're digging the footings. We started out with a little (tiny) backhoe, but when it broke, we sort of decided to do it the cheap way. So, every day, we work a little on James' house.



We discovered that in Tennessee, it's not common to build forms for footings, as I'm accustomed to doing. Folks here just dig a trench, put in "grade stakes" to show how high to pour the concrete, and then they pour the trench full, up to the top of the grade stakes. It beats building forms!



In Shelby County, we have to treat for termites before we can pour footings, and we also have to put in various features to deal with earthquakes (since that's a huge risk here).