How to build a foundation

Cornerstones

Our project at DRF was on the calendar for just shy of six years.  And lemme tell you…it is ooh soooo sweet to see the footprints of the new foundation finally popping out of the dirt.  We should never have worried about getting cable or TV here at the farm because all we do is binge-watch construction.

The guys at M.M. Foundation are squared away. Their precision and attention to detail made me think of quilting. All the measuring, re-measuring and adjusting they did, reminded me of piecing a complicated quilt block — albeit a big-ass, industrial quilt block.  In fact, Mike and his crew are so good at precision with an already packed schedule, that he was a little concerned this tiny shoutout to him would be equal to advertising.  He didn’t want any. (I assured him no one important reads this and it would not result in any inquiries for new business. In other words, you did not hear anything about M.M. Foundation from me.)

This last week has been a whole new world of stone shooters, plumb bobs, footers and forms…and rebar.

Boom

Then lots and lots of concrete.  One hundred and sixty thousand pounds of concrete to be exact. Brought to the site via 4 1/2 truck loads.  Yes, four and a half truckloads worth of stone, sand, gravel, cement and water.  Directed and deposited down into the aluminum forms through a 28 meter boom.

Just amazing.

Not exactly how the original farmhouse was built, huh?

That’s Mike mastering the boom. (Not that you’d ever need to contact him.)

So now we let it cure and the forms come off Monday.

Mushy Reflection Part…

Consider yourself warned if you think mushiness has nothing to do with construction.

Because it is such a significant thing, this beginning of a long awaited dream, I am feeling more reflective than I’d like to admit. There are so many things I could say about all a foundation requires, but I would embarrass myself.  So, I’ll leave you with this…

I took it as no small gift to find this heart shaped stone on the morning they poured the footers.  I cleaned it up, carried it around the worksite for a bit, but knew immediately what I would do with it.

Right as they were feeding the concrete into the corner of the house, I chipped it in the form.  It now rests just a tad bit inside the corner of the new cornerstone.   Perfectly imperfect, just like us, the success of the foundation now depends on love.  And that goes along way with this girl. Just sayin.’

Lord, let our house be built on love.
Let grace, mercy, and joy, always be the framework for our life here at the farm.
We love you so.
Amen.

xo