The Foundation Kings Play Songs of Cement

It's 6 a.m.Saturday, and quiet for a while. But I'm expecting the Foundation Kings to come rolling in soon for their third day on our house project.

They came on site 10 a.m. Thursday, dropped off two flatbeds of stakes, boards, panels, rebar, module ties, vents, shovels, floats, tool belts. and a wheelbarrow. "We'll be back in two hours," said Cory, the Foundation King himself. Four hours later, no Cory. I assumed there had been a palace coup in Foundatia. But, at 2 p.m., they came back - Cory, Sam (the Foundation Prince), and Henry (the Foundation Jester - a small, lazy blue-heeler, who spent all of his time under a flatbed.

It only took a couple of hours for them to lay out the footings forms and rebar, and ready the foundation panels. Break for the day.

I woke early yesterday, waiting for the Foundation Kings to ride up and build the footings forms. Suddenly, a Knife River cement truck appeared at the bottom of our driveway, and I panicked. Hopping on my ATV, I raced up the building site - and there they were, the king, the prince, and the jester, and the footings forms were all built and ready to go. Somehow, they'd gotten past me and done their job quickly and efficiently. Knife River Brian maneuvered his truck into place, dropped the cement chute, and started pouring mud as Cory the King scooped it into the forms. Prince Sam was a master with a float, filling, smoothing, and transferring excess to the next form in line. Henry stayed in the shade.

The rhythm was impressive: move the truck, swivel the chute, scoop the mud, float the cement, insert rebar, start over in another spot. They worked around the perimeter of the house and the garage, leaving the center piers until last; the chute couldn't reach these, but a wheelbarrow could. Sam got wheelbarrow duty (well, he is just the prince). Pour, load, dump. Cory was on float. Henry didn't move. With five feet to go, it became clear that there just wasn't enough mud in the cement mixer. Knife River Brian shut down the truck and started hosing down the chute using the truck's internal water tank. Sam began shoveling over-pour, into the empty forms. Still not enough.

On Monday, the empty footings forms will be filled through the foundation forms - to be erected today - and the foundation work will be done.

More good news yesterday. Materials aren't yet available for a commercial job just before us in the queue for factory construction. If things go right for us, work on our house proper will begin mid-May rather than early June. If that holds, we could take possession in late July rather than mid-August. Wow. Time to start ordering flooring and lighting and, not much farther down the road, appliances.

Moving right along.