Getting started on site

Just as soon as we had the containers on the ground, Bullets and his dozer-driving partner Brandon graded the pad and dug the footings for the first structure - a central kitchen/dining/living pavilion. Since the building pads were on a slight slope, we were able to accumulate enough soil to use in a wall formulation comprised of 50% site soil, 25% imported gravel and 25% imported sand. I"ll cover the wall building for the first pavilion in a later post.

We had packed the container with 2x12 form boards (that we would later use for the rammed earth wall forms) and with the reinforcing steel for the footings and slab. The steps after cutting the pad were (1) setting the perimeter form, (2) tying the reinforcing and (3) installing the electrical service panel and conduits. The electrical supply came up from a temporary pole we had set along the access road. We poured the footings and slab two days after off-loading the containers. I had intended to color the slabs with a powdered dye dusted onto the fresh concrete and bull-floated in, but I hadn't counted on the long haul from the batch plant. When the mud arrived on the job it was just too close to set up that we couldn't get the dye to work it. In retrospect, we would have been better off bringing bulk sand and gravel onto the site and mixing our own concrete (which we did on subsequent pours).

The photos at the end of this post show one fun shot that illustrates the containers in relation to the first pavilion, the others are of the form boards and reinforcing steel, the service panel and conduits, and pouring the footings and slab. The photo at the top of the post is of Hamoa Beach.