So, with the beams in place under the house, the workers were ready to continue the process of digging and supporting, and they could begin lifting our house. It was a delicately orchestrated dance with heavy equipment. It was amazing to watch them remove earth from beneath our home, but only in the exact places that would be necessary, nothing more, nothing less. Eventually what you would see, is the house setting on large metal beams whose ends are supported by earth, and nothing in the middle.
In this pic, you see Mr. G checking to make sure everything is in order as it should be. You also see a stack of cribbing (looks like large lincoln logs or jenga blocks), that will be placed in stacks under the house to support the beams.
Once the dirt is removed under the house, they begin to place the cribbing (see above pic) on the ground, and place a large jack in the center of the cribbing. They did this in four (maybe 5) areas of the house.
Then it was time to start lifting! It was a fairly slow process. It took a few hours for them to raise the house. They would use the jacks that are hooked up to a special trailer with a sort of compressor and all sorts of instruments on it, to gently raise the house very slowly. While I watched and video taped, the hum of the machine was loud. Through the loud hum I could hear voices yelling, "yup", "yup" signalling that their jacks were doing what they were intended for. Then I would hear "whoa", indicating that the pressure needed to be held, let off, or increased on that particular jack. Then guys (there were three of them) would then take shims, some just 1/4 of an inch thick, and slide them into place between the cribbing and the house. Once all the shims were in place, they would back the jacks down, and check things over and start to lift again. This was a lengthy process, and very detailed. I cannot begin to claim to know what exactly was all involved, but this is a recount of what I saw, and interpret it to be.
This is the trailer with the control panel for the jacks.
In this pic, you see the cribbing, and the jack in the center that is pushing up on the big blue metal beam. He will then add more cribbing, set the house back down, shim what needs to be shimmed, and then raise the house again. Like I said, its a rather extensive process!
Once the house is up on all the necessary cribbing, they move onto the next phase...more digging! LOL
This pic shows the cribbing, and them starting to dig out the rest of the space for the basement. You can also see the remnants of the original Michigan-style stone basement and foundation, and the old box windows. See how high the house is already? It's not up as far as it goes yet!
The dirt piles kept getting bigger, and bigger, and....
BIGGER!!! It's kind of funny, because some people didn't know what we were doing, and I would get asked, "What are you doing with all that dirt?". I would expect to get asked about why our house was up on stilts, but most people didn't know, and they couldn't see it from the road because of the huge dirt piles..it just looks like a house on a hill! hehehe
This picture still takes my breath away. This is when they were finished digging the basement, and the addition. The house is resting on the cribbing approx. 15ft in the air.
This is just another view. I have to tell you, throughout this process, Steve and I have shared some really special, spiritual moments, and when we stood in front of our home on stilts, we just stared at it...and when we glanced over at each other, our eyes filled with tears, and we were overcome with emotion. It was if we had been holding our breath all that time, and we just had to breathe, but weren't sure if we should. It is a very crazy roller coaster of emotions when you stop to think about all that is happening. At this point, we had only been "camping", without modern conveniences, using the laundry mat, and taking cold showers for a week. There is still a long road ahead of us at this point. All we have worked for, all we have prayed for, all we have endured as a family, and as individuals, all rests on stilts 15+ feet in the air!
No comments:
Post a Comment