A couple days later the concrete guys were back before daylight to strip the forms from the footings and prep for forming the walls. Fortunately the sump pump worked over night so the hole was mostly dry with a few shallow puddles. Although it wasn’t raining, it was pretty cold for these parts (in the 30s) – not the kind of weather I’d want to be working outside.

The guys made short work of stripping the forms from the footings and removing that wood from site. Then they scraped and cleaned the concrete surface so the wall forms will sit better. Then they measured and snapped chalk lines for the wall forms and nailed down the form cleats.

The Building Inspector only comes to the island on Tuesdays and Fridays so the plan was to get the wall forms up on Monday after Christmas, for inspection the next day and concrete soon after.

Unfortunately the weather forecast was right for once and we have a snow delay! Just when we were starting to get on a roll, snow delay of game. Our high temperatures are in the lower 20s F – very unusual for this part of the world. This cold is supposed to last a couple more days, plus a day or 2 for the snow to melt, means best case is work will resume after the new year.

In the meantime, the water supply to the trailer is frozen, the water heater has died, ran out of propane, ferry to the mainland is running unpredictably, and the marine head has some sort of issue. Since the trailer is connected to shore power I am able to run an electric space heater that keeps the interior above freezing. I’m trying not to think about ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda’ being in the house, inside the greenhouse, but for that 10 month delay waiting for my permit. Where’s the whining emoticon when you need it?

Still no word on the greenhouse ship date.

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