With concrete trucks due to arrive at 7AM tomorrow, we spent the day putting finishing touches on our workshop form. Somehow, the final details always seem to stretch on forever! The first job of the day was to snip all the ends off the zip ties holding our PEX tubing down. I felt like I was harvesting vegetables as I shimmied across our foundation with a pair of scissors, collecting the bits plastic.
Next, I wrapped the radiant heat tubes with protective foam where they exit the slab. That way we'll have some leeway to bend them without kinking after the concrete sets.
The list of little things continued like this for ages. We cut our floor drainpipe to the proper height so we could install a cast iron cover that will be recessed in the slab. We removed various screws and nails from the form, so nobody would get snagged on them during the pour. We rasped some high sections of EPS foam around the edges so it wouldn't get in the way of screeding. We laid a run of PEX to bring hot water to the shop sink. The list goes on and on.
Meanwhile, as we worked, Rick hung out with us, doing some much needed maintenance on his excavator. While he was busy changing a myriad of fluids and filters, we swapped stories, and heard lots of exciting tales about his life as a young man in the 70s. As always, it was nice to have him around to answer our many questions.
His willingness to offer a lifetime of building wisdom and advice freely has been hugely integral to the success of our projects. It's going to be strange when all the road-building, tree-clearing, site-grading, and foundation-building is complete. Then, Rick will take his excavator and be gone from our land, and this chapter of our lives will close.
Though I am excited about moving to the next phase of our homestead, I've grown accustomed to Rick's company, and I deeply appreciate all the work he's done here. Earlier today, Tyler joked that he would keep calling him at 7AM every morning, just for old times sake. In short, we're going to miss him!
