Basement Complete

On Friday, Isaac and Lige came up to Becida and we finished building the basement. We put a layer of poly sheeting down on the sand as a barrier against radon and when the concrete truck finally arrived, we poured the floor. We put on rubber boots and used long-handled tools to pull the concrete all around. Lige and Isaac leveled it off using a screed board and I helped move concrete around as needed. Then Lige left to a different job and the real work began for Isaac. I had no idea the finishing of the slab would take so much time and labor. Isaac spent hours smoothing the floor. First he got down on his knees and meticulously hand-troweled the entire edge. Then we let the concrete set up a bit before lowering the motorized troweling machine into the basement. That sucker was heavy! Isaac took the heavy end as we put it in the building, and then later as we took it out, but I took the heavy end when we walked it up the ramp into the trailer at the end of the day. I bent my knees, kept my back straight and lifted with my legs and holy moly, my quads never felt strain like that before!

Isaac made at least a couple passes around the whole building with the machine, and did some more hand-troweling as well. Though we started in the morning, we didn't leave the work site before 5 PM. I've never seen such a smooth concrete floor!

Isaac troweling by hand


Nearly finished floor


Joel and Dustin came by for a visit with their family. Kadie was so excited to see that I have pink walls! We discussed leaving the insulation exposed for aesthetic purposes, but in the end I think I'll paint it some other color.


There have been various reports of tornadoes and funnel clouds since I've been here. According to the information I've gathered, a good strong basement is the safest place to be, should a tornado be imminent. Soon after my basement was finished, I saw this cloud protruding below a towering cumulus as I drove between Backus and Becida.

One characteristic of a developing tornado is clouds moving toward the ground. Another is cyclonic rotation of cloud mass. This looked to me like a funnel cloud, not that I've ever seen one before, but it didn't have any apparent rotation to it, so I didn't totally freak out. Any tornado experts out there have an opinion about this cloud? Leave a comment...