formwork for the walls are starting to go up. it has been a very hot and muggy week, and this tarp is the only protection while the carpenters are working.

the top of the formwork marks the top of the floor slab above, in this case in the bedroom. we are pouring the floors and slab all in one go a few weeks from now, so the formwork is going to be a little more complicated (and crowded) than ususal.

it is a bit hard to imagine but this is where the glass wall and stairs will be built ↓↓

and here the location of the sloping garden ↓↓

next is the rebar…

re-bar is nearly done for foundation walls, so insulation is added to slab underside, and rebar put in place for the floor slabs.

the opening in the slab is for the plumber and other workers to do their work later on. sewage and gas lines will be hooked up here when the time comes.

the rooms are too narrow to have proper inspection hatches, so these openings are only temporary and the holes will be filled in using chemical anchors to attach re-bar and then covered with concrete, so the finished slab will be continuous.

this is space below the opening in pic above…

re-bar going in.

the foundations for this wee house are rather complicated. and deep.

we are also building as close to the edge of the property as is physically feasible, which means the bracing for our excavation will form the exterior foundation wall. not exactly beautiful, but it works.

when we started to work on the structure for the house we took another look at the site and noticed the neighbour has a deep parking pit that runs the same length as the back of our site. the pit is to accomodate a parking space with a hybrid elevator/crane sort of machine that allows 3 cars to sit in a space otherwise only large enough for one.

this is great for car owners, but for us meant that we needed to “improve” the soil at the back of the site in case of earthquake. without the improvement there is a small possibility that our building would slide down towards the pit under lateral loads.

To do this work it is more common to mix cement into the soil with a backhoe, but in this case, to reduce costs, the contractor put in about 15 closely spaced piles. the picture shows the machines used for the job; very efficient and compact vehicles, ready made for navigation down the narrow roads that lead to our site.