The Supports

May 1st, 2020

Boom, boom, boom... the whole house was shaking with what felt like someone using a sledge hammer to try and huff and puff and blow the house down. Over and over and over, the banging came making the coffee on my desk tremble and my cats cower in the corner of the room, a wide eyed expression on their bewildered faces and they looked from side to side. What was that awful noise? Each bang felt like a massive death rattle, a trembling of the house as it struggled to stay upright. I went down into the basement to investigate. The source of the disturbance was a tremendous relief as it came from workers hammering in supports under the house.

The week before had been worrisome, without a foundation for the house, I felt naked, exposed, and vulnerable. Once while sitting at my computer, I felt the house shake ever so slightly. Was it an earthquake? Fearful images of the house caving in without its foundation came flooding through my mind. Then I heard the washing machine click into another cycle. The shaking was only someone doing laundry in Black Thorn. I breathed a sigh of relief; my muscles relaxed and my fist slowly un-clenched.

I've always been anxious about earthquakes knowing we are long overdue along the Hayward fault for another "big one". The Hayward Fault is 40 miles long and about 8 miles deep and trends along the east side of San Francisco Bay. The last earthquake along that fault line was October 21, 1868 and is estimated to have been between a 6.9-7 on the Richter Scale, which had not been invented yet. There's a walking tour of the fault line which takes you from the broken, uneven asphalt and concrete of roads and sidewalks to grassy soil ridges raised along dirt trails.




Updates

The Permit
March 13th, 2020
The Complaint
March 26th, 2020
The Cave
April 14th, 2020
The Supports
May 1st, 2020
The Rebar
May 21st, 2020
Volunteer Work Day 1
June 7th, 2020
First Inspection
June 29th, 2020
The First Pour
July 3rd, 2020
Volunteer Work Day 2
July 12th, 2020
The Bamboo (fun video)
July 22nd, 2020
Second Inspection
August 15th, 2020
The Second Pour
September 9th, 2020
Volunteer Work Day 3
October 10th, 2020
Volunteer Work Day 4
October 11th, 2020
Volunteer Work Day 5
October 17th, 2020
Video Tour
October 18th, 2020
Volunteer Work Day 6
October 18th, 2020
More Rebar
October 23rd, 2020
The Staircase
October 29th, 2020
The Steel
December 21st, 2020
Final Pour!
March 13th, 2021
Second Entrance
June 15th, 2021
Bathroom/Wet Room
July 15th, 2021
Rain DeGrey and Shay
August 7th, 2021
Final inspection!
July 6th, 2024