"Getting a Good Footing!"

Once the site was leveled and compacted, I marked the area where the footing for the house would sit. I did this carefully and painted lines on the ground.	We found a guy that had a mini excavator to dig out the area where the footing would go. He was very precise and we were thankful.
This is a view of where the footing area was dug out and ready to place the form boards. Scarred earth.	It seemed odd to compact the dirt so well and then turn around and dig it out again for the footing.
I carefully measured and placed strings where all the form boards would go for the footing.	I also drove stakes in the ground to hold all the footing form boards in place.
the footing needed to be three feet wide and one foot deep to hold a house this heavy.	I painted diesel on the form boards so the cement would come off easily once it was dry.
After the forms for the footing were in place, I needed to place all the rebar.	I needed to have four rounds of rebar sitting four inches off the ground to strengthen the cement.
This is a view of all the rebar in one corner of the footing. I also needed to start tying in the vertical rebar.	I used 1/2" rebar everywhere except I needed to use 5/8" rebar everywhere where we were to backfill.
It took many stakes and braces to hold things in place for pouring the cement.	It was a hot day, and we had to work fast to keep ahead of the cement pumper truck.
Amy worked along side of Tim, and seemed to be a natural for doing cement work.	Ross ran the hose from the cement pumper truck, while everyone else tried to get things smooth.
I took the form boards off the footing by that same evening. It really looked like something was happening.	Things began to look and feel rather solid, with the cement in place and the rebar sticking up ready for blocks.