A Two-Story Addition
The Beisler house has embarked on a huge project, one that will change the house profoundly. As I understand it, Nephew is building an addition that will extend both his kitchen and the second floor. I have to tell you - I have never undertaken such a large project so, kudos to Nephew!
The Project Has Begun
It's fun to follow the progress, and I love that Nephew is a man of the same heart, with a desire to, in his own words, "do our best to make an old house to our dream house, a combination of old, new and some Fränkischer Tradition." It'll be interesting to learn which traditions will be evident in the addition! And so the project has begun and as with any other job there was prep work:
The Footers
Because of the frost line in that part of Bavaria, the footers were dug to a depth of 90 cm, which is roughly 36 inches for us Imperial types. Conversely, here at House 173, footers must be minimally 48 inches, or the equivalent of about 122 cm. The footers are also 60 cm wide.
German Stahlbeton
In Nephew's words, the foundation was made of our German Stahlbeton (steel-reinforced concrete), which required 6 cubic meters of concrete (again the Imperial equivalent of 212 cubic feet).
Foundation Work
Then the foundation blocks were laid. It looks like the skim coat has already been applied too, but it looks so smooth I wonder if it is some kind of sheet product? Also, I'm not sure what the dots are, but they seem to be on the seams, which makes me think maybe this is a sheet product and perhaps the dots have some kind of mechanism that locks them together (?).
Then the subfloor for the extension's first floor went in. This picture really gives a sense of the scale of the addition's footprint:
And the supports in place, while all that dries.
Amazing Progress in Nine Days
It's clear this is going to be a great project, and so far all this has been done in 9 days! Apparently the project will be complete by July of 2020. It's funny, with as fast as this is getting done, I wondered why it would take til next year. Well, for someone accustomed to wood houses, the answer didn't dawn on me...all this concrete and mortar needs to dry well before adding things like windows, etc. They've already accomplished much more, but that'll come in the next post! Here's a sneak peak:
Stresses me out just looking at it all! Anyway, here are some bonus pictures:
Fantastic!