From the Barn to the House
There is still a need for volunteers of all skill sets: labourers, trades people, and food prep people. Please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected] if you have the time and interest in helping out!
The outhouse was finally placed close to the work site, and we had our neighbour Randy over with his backhoe to dig the hole as well spreading some gravel from our gravel pit, on the short access road to the new power pole. Once the house is lowered, we’ll be able to bring power to the house.
Ran into a bit of a hold up lowering the Barn, as we neglected to build pockets into the walls which would allow the I-Beams supporting the barn to sit below the top of wall and thus drop the barn onto said walls. It took a couple of volunteers a few hours to cut and then jack hammer out the pockets. This kept the house from being raised until the following Tuesday so it set our schedule back several days.
The last of the fireplace was removed from the living room by renting a jack hammer and knocking out the pad. When a house is moved, there’s a concern about the structural integrity of brick fire places, and to save on cost and space, it was decided to remove the chimney. We always have the option of putting a wood stove in at a later date if that is deemed appropriate.
As the footings were built before the house was raised, the walls were plumbed down and a plate secured to the footings from which the wall forms will be built.
The house was raised in a couple of hours and it shifted just 1.5 inches out of it’s final resting place. Cory from Belton Bros. explained that it’s very easy for them to lower a building into a very precise location. The barn was an exception to this as there were no floor joists keeping the walls from moving around as the building was lowered. As it sits now, it requires a bit more attention to get it in it’s final resting place. Several ways of attending to this have already been discussed, but the job is, as yet, not completed.
Building the forms were almost finished by the time Benjamin, Wade and Keith arrived to take on and oversee the next few stages of the project. A last minute change to the bearing wall design saw Carsten and Wade building forms for pads to support the laminate beams that will carry the 2 x 12 beam running most of the length of the house. This was in place of having a 2x 6 wall sitting on the existing footing.
The pour went off without a hitch and a good start was done stripping the forms over the weekend, so work could begin early Monday morning with a sling truck arriving to deliver crush to the interior of the house.
Many of the volunteers over the past several weeks were visiting Dhamma Modana for the first time. A comment shared quite frequently by pretty much every new arrival, was how wonderful the property is and how much they appreciate having a Center here on Vancouver Island. Both the convenience and beauty of the location is always mentioned.
A Trust Meeting was held on Sunday after a well attended Day Sit on Saturday. Several Trust Members and other volunteers participated in both, and enjoyed camping overnight on the property. 21 participated in the One Day Sit.
