Well, I think I've kept you in suspense long enough so I'll tell you about the rest of my move weekend...
Day 3: Sunday
After two days of moving and a night sleeping on the floor, my body and brain needed somewhat of a break. So instead of making an effort to continue to solve the jack problem, I decided to move my personal belongings to my house. Luckily, most of my things were either still in boxes or arranged in neat piles since I never really had time to unpack at my last place. Starting my build, work and moving had all coincided at the same time in May and unpacking had been the lowest priority. I managed to get the majority of my things in my car once again without much of a tetris game. It still amazes me that I always seem to fill the space with my things regardless of the continual process of letting things go.
Once I had my car packed, I drove to my new home and started unloading things. Space filled up quickly since I still had all of my tools and materials inside too. And I wasn't doing a great job a organizing since I knew I would be moving things around often to be able to work on different things. In addition to my bed, I put all of my outdoor gear in my loft until I could build some shelves on the opposite wall. I also had stashed most of my tools and some materials in the bathroom since I knew the next steps to living in the space would be creating storage spaces for my things so that I would have space to plan out electrical and continue working on plumbing.
I spent most of the day moving things, taking some breaks to imagine spatial layout. Finally, I called it good and went back to my other place for the night.
Day 4: Monday
I took the day off of work since I wasn't feeling all that well the day before. And I felt like tackling the jack situation. I slept in, packed the remainder of my things and headed to my house. Eric was ready to help dig into the project which was awesome because as much as I enjoy working solo, I really needed some moral and physical support for this project. Eric and I had come to similar conclusions as to what needed to be done so we got to work.
Eric dug out a rectangular hole near the rear front corner of the trailer, then we put down a piece of 1" plywood, a layer of CMU blocks (left on site from a former gardener), another layer of plywood, CMU blocks and then plywood. We cut some shims to put on top of the plywood since it was a low spot. With the car jack in place, we slowly lowered it onto the foundation stack.
It felt solid once in place so we decided to use that method on the other three corners. The front corners needed a third layer of blocks and plywood since the ground slopes down there and we could tell from the level. Eric needed to leave so I finished the last stack solo. Once in place, the house felt so much more solid than it had on the scissor jacks. It was also very close to level all the way around so I didn't feel the need for any interior leveling yet. With everything on the floor, that would have been difficult anyway. I'm sure the house will settle some this winter with all of the rain and the soil gradually compacting so I'll likely have to add more shims. I also dug out the wheels so they wouldn't be in contact with the ground and deteriorate over time. I am still thinking of getting wheel covers to protect them more as well.
You can imagine my happiness at getting the house feeling stable. If I can help it, I will not be moving it in the raining season again though it probably would have been just fine with this last week of cold temps hardening the ground. I was so excited to spend the first night in my own home!
For more photos, check out my flickr move album.
Day 3: Sunday
After two days of moving and a night sleeping on the floor, my body and brain needed somewhat of a break. So instead of making an effort to continue to solve the jack problem, I decided to move my personal belongings to my house. Luckily, most of my things were either still in boxes or arranged in neat piles since I never really had time to unpack at my last place. Starting my build, work and moving had all coincided at the same time in May and unpacking had been the lowest priority. I managed to get the majority of my things in my car once again without much of a tetris game. It still amazes me that I always seem to fill the space with my things regardless of the continual process of letting things go.
I spent most of the day moving things, taking some breaks to imagine spatial layout. Finally, I called it good and went back to my other place for the night.
Day 4: Monday
I took the day off of work since I wasn't feeling all that well the day before. And I felt like tackling the jack situation. I slept in, packed the remainder of my things and headed to my house. Eric was ready to help dig into the project which was awesome because as much as I enjoy working solo, I really needed some moral and physical support for this project. Eric and I had come to similar conclusions as to what needed to be done so we got to work.
For more photos, check out my flickr move album.