progress report: bending rebar

when we started thinking about this project and about the process of designing and building a house i knew that i would be working hard.  i was looking forward to the hard work, i was excited to learn everything i could, what i didn't realize i would be doing is cutting and bending rebar.  i didn't really understand how one little person could bend steel without the use of a machine, but now i get it.  björn had to cut all of the #5 rebar because it was a little to hard for me but i used a rebar cutter / bender to cut #4 rebar and then add an 8" bend.  björn and i cut and bent all of the rebar needed for the 8" slab to length and prepared it for installation.  for those of you who don't know much about rebar here is a little tutorial:

all rebar is numbered 3, 4, 5 etc.  #4 and #5 are pretty standard sizes and is what we are using for our slab and the stem walls.  these numbers tell you how thick the rebar is a #4 rebar is 4/8" and #5 is 5/8, etc, etc. which is why the #5 was much harder to cut.

me bending the #4 rebar

putting some muscle into it

forming up the slab and laying rebar 18" on center

all of my bent rebar

its starting to really look like a foundation, looking into the main house

looking into the great room

we are super excited to have jack baer working with us forming up the foundation and helping with the concrete pour.  he is a professional stone mason and has done a ton of concrete finishing.  björn grew up with him here in durango and we are so lucky to have him, now we just have to assemble the rest of our concrete crew!