CHAPTER 6 . . . The Quarrymen

In April 1981, a quirky sidebar to the project

Paul Yemma (left), and Mark Sims (right), take turns helping me operate a 90-lb. jack hammer.

  

While designing the concrete foundation in 1980, I realized that the hillside grade of the lot would cause the front-door inset to be quite high off the ground. 

Anticipating the eventual need to build a concrete porch so high off the ground, I built a "slab key" into the forms before pouring the concrete in January. (The "slab key" is the slotted inset, left, with all the rebar protruding out of it. The basic idea is to build another small concrete slab that ties into this slot to form the porch floor.)

Once all the forms were removed, I came to the realization that if I were to dig down a little deeper, I could create usable storage space beneath the porch. The room could also be used as a tornado shelter, and it came in handy for that purpose during a bad set of thunderstorms in the mid-1980s.

Of course, digging through limestone is easier said than done.

The foundation inset for the front-door and porch.

Above and below:  The Quarrymen, Paul Yemma and Mark Sims, rocking to the scratchy sound of AM radio and a compressor as they took their licks on a 90 lb. jackhammer.

As good as it gets: digging though Texas Hill Country limestone.

Archeological dig? Once the hole was deep enough, I built "suspended forms" that allowed the first batch of concrete to flow into a contiguous, seamless block that formed the floor and lower walls. My hope was that the seamless concrete would help repel water seepage, but that proved futile. A few years later I was forced to put a drain in the floor.  My sister, Mary, told me that the project looked like an "archeological dig."

Above and below:  A maze of forms, removed to reveal a bathtub-like foundation for the underground storage room.

Hard mileage on the Vega:  Since I didn't have a truck, I improvised to carry these sheets of particle board. Plywood would have been a more desirable material to use in constructing the forms (below), but I was on an extremely tight budget.

Creating a "bunker":  This cube of particle board forms the inner walls and ceiling of the store room. The rebar ties into the "slab key" slot at left.

All formed up: With the outer walls in place, this little project was now ready for concrete. The top will be the front porch.  Below, a storage room.

Late May, 1981:  Brother Billy and Jimmy Long came out and helped me mix 44 batches of concrete in the electric mixer to complete the "cube." Just as we were finishing, a massive thunderstorm rolled across the job site and we took shelter in the tool-storage shed / temporary bathroom.  The storm was but a preview of two massive systems that would roll through Austin a few weeks later causing flooding and death.

With the concrete partially cured, we removed the outer forms to reveal the cube. As for the timbers and forms supporting cube's ceiling, I left them in place longer to make sure the concrete reached its full strength. (It takes about 28 days for concrete to fully cure.)

In the background, Billy works on removing forms. It was about this time that he named this underground storage room "The Pig Hole."

Clearing brush: Not having had quite enough fun with mixing 44 loads of concrete, Jimmy and Billy returned with a chainsaw to remove the scrub cedar and poison ivy. (As for the latter, they only discovered that they had cleared it a few days later – much to their discomfort!)

What do you do with the brush? Well, of course: You build a bonfire. The boys built this one so high that the flames singed an old overhead phone cable. Fortunately, it was an abandoned cable.

Final days of spring: With the approach of June – the month that would see walls begin to rise – some final preparations included rough landscaping. I had some loads of "sandy loam" delivered from the Colorado River bottoms (below).

Sneak Preview of Chapter 7: Framing the house 

Using 16-penny nails made in Poland, Billy attaches the top plate of a kitchen wall. The large header creates an open space for a bar seating area.  Why Polish nails?  Because that's what they sold in bulk at McCoy's.  They were quality fasteners, but every time we bent one there was some kind of joke made about them.

CHAPTER 5 – Spring, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Regrouping, and planning for the summer

For seven months I had worked toward the singular goal of constructing a strong foundation for our home. With that foundation finally planted in January, I experienced the euphoria of a major accomplishment.

More importantly, I experienced a huge feeling of relief that I could slow down, regroup – and simply think things through.

As the concrete cured in January and February, I was into the project to the tune of $9129.43, about a third of which was the cost of the land. In addition to a big 'ol block of concrete, I also had a caved-in septic tank to repair and a number of other projects to tackle before the summer-1981 push to frame the house.

The first order of business following the concrete-

truck mishap was to fashion a new concrete lid

for the septic tank. Fortunately, the tank had

never been used – it was clean and dry.

Above: I designed a temporary support system

of small pieces of wood that could easily be

removed through a hatch – once the new concrete

lid had cured.

Not the least of these spring projects was the successful completion of my second year of teaching journalism at Travis High School. Spring was the frantic season of completing the yearbook and competing in scholastic contests, along with publishing the monthly student newspaper . . .

. . . Oh, and I had one more spring project! Our child was on the way – I was to become a father in June.

This is a photo of Anne and my Mom, Lee, in a field of Texas bluebonnets about three months before Anne gave birth to Chris.

As corny as it sounds, we were building a home for our new 1981 family.

All of the wood for this project was recycled from the slab foundation forms. These planks are supported by the posts shown in the first photo.  The box-like structure forms the "hatch." These square forms were designed to create a portal through the concrete that would allow me to crawl down into the tank and remove all the supporting wood – once the concrete had cured.

In addition to providing access to haul all this wood out of the tank, the hatch would also allow for future septic pumping/cleanout when necessary.

A wider view of the septic-tank forms with square "hatch."

I placed plastic sheeting over the wood forms prior to installing rebar.  This would make it easier for me to remove the forms from below once the concrete had cured.  The sloped indentation in the center was designed to provide extra support to the back-side wall of the tank, which was slightly bowed by the cement-mixer truck that caved into it in January. 

On the left side: At the last minute, I came up with a brilliant idea.: install plumbing for a temporary toilet to be used during construction.   I would need to build a tool shed, anyway, so why not build the temporary shed directly over this tank and put a potty on it?

My Dad helped me mix the concrete.  In the foreground you can barely see the top of the square wooden "hatch" that would provide a portal to beneath.

This is the flange and water-supply pipe for the temporary tool-shed toilet.

Anne checks out the work on the new septic-tank lid.

Recycling wood like crazy: I built the toolshed using some of the same boards that began their journey on the walls of Perry Rose Firestone in Downtown Austin – sometime the mid-20th Century.  When they tore down that tire dealership in 1980, I bought a load of scrap wood and hauled it to the lot.  My friend Dave Mosteller came out one afternoon and helped me pull all the nails out of the planks.

These boards went from the walls of the tire dealership to become the formwork on this slab foundation. Then I recycled them again for the septic forms; and finally, for this toolshed.

The toolshed with some paint.  In the foreground, scrap-lumber fire.

This was the first delivery of "sandy loam," a soil that comes from dredging the Colorado River bottoms east of Austin.   In future years, such deliverys of dirt were sometimes big events for my son, Chris, his cousins Zach and Adam, and neighborhood kids.  They would spend endless hours sculpting the mound with toy trucks, building tunnels, and generally amusing themselves in those early 1980s days of no electronic gadgets, no Internet.  Just good, clean dirt!

Later in the 1980s, fire ants decided that they just loved building their beds in this sandy loam.

The hatch.  I crawled down into the tank and removed all the supporting formwork for the septic-tank lid through this portal.

A view of the toolshed/potty with an authoritative no-trespass sign.  Part of my Texas birthright! Actually, the sign was meant to deter some of the neighborhood kids from vandalizing things. Shortly after I poured the slab, some kids spray painted graffitti onto the side of it.

Though the photo is a bit fuzzy, I believe this is my brother Billy, who came out to survey the operations while on a break from Stephen F. Austin State. He wanted to see exactly what he was getting into. In a few months he would partner up with me on our 2-man framing crew.

Sneak Preview:  Below, ten years later.   Chris, flanked by cousins Adam and Zach, helped me build these backdoor steps in August 1991.  Having lived in California since 1988, the long-distance hassles of trying to manage this property became too much. We finally came to the conclusion that it was best to sell the house and buy into the California real estate market.

Zach and Adam lived in Urbana, Illinois, but were in Austin for a summer visit.  To reward them for their hard work on the steps, I took them to breakfast at Jims on Highway 71 in Oak Hill.   Mmmmm.

Above:  Adam, Chris, and Zach, who finally graduated from "Transformers" to real tools!

Below: The news steps, and lovely live oak trees, in 1991.

TO BE CONTINUED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 6:  "The Quarrymen"

CHAPTER 4 – Jan. 16, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pouring the concrete slab

The foundation forms . . . ready for concrete.

For a number of years after this cold, January date, Anne and I celebrated our "Slabiversary." It was a long, hard day of work. A day of near-disasters. But also a day of success.

Five cement trucks from Centex Materials – carrying a total of 44 cubic yards of concrete – made their way to the job site. That was $1663.20 worth of concrete.

Almost from the start, the day took an ominous turn:  A cement truck sank into the septic tank.  One of the forms on the highest corner of the foundation began bulging out with concrete because I had forgotten to drive a couple of nails. 

But meltdowns were averted and it all worked out.

Thirty years later, some members of the volunteer brigade still carry scars. Cement burns, for example. There were five of us in the work crew: Dominic (my Dad), Jimmy & Glen Long, Dave Mosteller, and myself. Joining us later in the day to bear witness and provide good cheer were other family members.

I tried to plan for everything – I even rented a gasoline-powered trowling machine, not realizing that a person actually needs a lot of experience using such a machine. I had watched laborers use such a machine and they made it look easy!

Glen and Jimmy Long were among the first to arrive. It was a cold morning so we built a fire out of scrap wood. Glen warms himself by the fire (left), while Jimmy prepares to don rubber boots.


Below: A brief video of slab-pouring day. The original Super 8 home movie was filmed by Mary Yemma Long (my sister). I constructed this narrated version in May 2011.  Yes, there is footage of the cement truck collapsed into the septic tank!

Forty-four cubic yards of curing concrete.

Chapter 6 sneak preview:  The Quarrymen

Rocking to a 90-lb. jackhammer, Paul Yemma and Mark Sims help dig the "pig hole."

TO BE CONTINUED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chapter 5:  Repairing the septic tank that the cement truck crashed into.



CHAPTER 3 – December 1980 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Getting by with a little help from my friends

Actually, help from my family.

With the Christmas holiday season approaching, I was blessed with a ready-made pool of volunteer labor as several of my brothers returned to Austin. Amid the beer, bonfires, barbecue and bottle-rockets, rapid progress was made on the house foundation.

Billy was on semester break from Stephen F. Austin State University.  Andy came down from Des Moines, Iowa, and loaded up with firecrackers and bottlerockets for the holiday.  Paul was on break from Austin Community College. And Jimmy Long, a brother-in-law who is a brother, took time out of his busy schedule working on a PhD at the University of Texas to help shape the dirt.




Now that the big dirt pile was gone, I could get clear lines of sight from corner to corner. With my Dad's help, we patiently squared off the lines so that we had a rectangle rather than a parallelogram. We managed to get the diagonal lines to measure within 3/16 of an inch – almost perfect.  It is important to start out as perfect as possible with the geometry at the base because any errors are compounded as the house framing goes up. By the time you get to the roof, any major error on this geometric dirt pile would mean rafter angles that don't match up.

Once the rectangular lines were up and leveled (we rented a builder's transit), we could start building the outer forms. These old boards came from the demolished Perry Rose Firestone in downtown Austin.

 



Rebar in the internal footings. With Jimmy's advice, I used #5 (5/8") steel along the bottoms of the footings and #4 (1/2") along the tops.  The steel is tied into the 4 piers that go down to the undisturbed limestone.




Along the front edge of the future house, I inserted large bolts through the forms – to be used to attach a wooden deck to the concrete.

 


Detail of the internal-footing reinforcement tied into one of the piers near the downstairs bathroom.



Billy and I dug out this footing at the back of the house. The white pipe is the main sewer drain that runs out to the septic system – repaired after a backhoe mishap.

Below: Forming around the front-porch inset. This part was a hassle.



Front corner. At left, some of the bolts that a wooden deck will attach to.

New Year's Eve: During the day we made a party of the work. Billy, Tracy, Andy and I came out early and grilled hamburgers over an open fire. While 3 of us bagged dirt, Andy shot bottlerockets at us and "tended" the hamburger fire and cooler of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Later, Anne, Mary, Jimmy, Zach, Paul, Dave Mosteller, Mama and Daddy all came out to join the festivities. After pigging out on burgers and drinking a few dozen beers, Billy put everyone back to work filling sandbags. That included Zach, who wasn't quite 2 – but it excluded Andy, who was still shooting bottlerockets.

Together, we filled about 150 bags – about 15,000 pounds worth of dirt and sand.  In the evening, we all went back to Havenside and Mama fed us.   (I didn't record in my journal what she fed us, but I'd bet good money it was spaghetti and meatballs.)





Billy working on the back footing – and the job-site Chevy Vega.

Wooden boxes cover plumbing pipes – these will form voids in the concrete so that I can connect the bathtub and toilet drains at a later date.

Early January: After Billy's help digging out that back footing, we made the final push and completed the forms around the foundation.

Below, Jan. 15, 1981:  One day before the concrete-pouring.

On a cold, clear Texas day, Dominic came out and helped me put the final touches on the project to get it ready for concrete.  For a living room that would be slightly sunken, we formed a 7" step-down all the way across the foundation.

Next, we installed a polyethelene vapor barrier over the dirt to keep moisture from coming up into the house. After that, we affixed steel re-mesh over everything.  (At top-left is the board that forms a step-down into the living room.)

Final prep: We added a couple of leveling boards down the center of the foundation so that we could screed the concrete with long boards.  The leveling boards would be removed once the concrete was fairly level. We were ready to pour concrete the next day.

BELOW:  Sneak preview



Billy works on 2nd-floor joists.  Ask him why I covered the lower left of this photo with a post-it note.

TO BE CONTINUED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chapter 3:  Pouring the concrete