 well good morning it is first day after the travel day Donnie and I are up here we had a pretty good night's sleep went to bed it was still raining I woke up around three riproaring ready to roll and went outside and it was still kind of misty raining a little bit I was like geez but it stopped this morning everything's a little bit wet pretty soggy including us so we're gonna drive a cup of hot coffee into us first thing and then we're going to get after it and work at a really slow pace this morning oh yeah can't wake up God I went to bed at 6 30 last night and what is it now quarter or seven no we went to bed they eat good way yeah seem like six right though I've got to change my hearing aid battery the first thing well I think they're tiny they are tiny but they work yeah one thing about it you take them out like the wind blew pretty good yeah oh it ripped last night yeah yeah my tent's kind of caving in on me it's so saturated but it doesn't leak it was just everything is wet yeah oh we got a malfunction here yeah gives you a five-minute warning on the battery okay well well stay tuned guys we're gonna try to lay the blocks we got to organize some of our lumber pile first then we're gonna try to spread spread a little gravel and lay the blocks and get the beams on top of those so stick stick around we'll show you how we do the foundation yeah that's my figuring on the beautiful trying to get the hypotenose get these corners square and so I figured the long side which is C is gonna measure 38 10 and 5 8 inches the other in the other two sides of 27 there are lots of ways to do a foundation but when you're in the wilderness you're pretty limited we've elected to use the concrete disks that range from 16 18 all the way up to 24 inch as our footers to set our building on the goal for today is to get our footers laid out squared up all leveled up to and they're not all gonna be this on the same level because we're on a slope piece of ground but each one needs to be leveled so the block of wood sitting on it is plumb coming up off of the concrete disk this is a really important part of the project because if you don't start out squared plumb level then it's really hard and you're fighting it the whole way so we take a little bit extra time to make sure each one of these concrete discs are actually level and set in the right spot in line with the other ones and squared up your typical concrete round pad is roughly 18 inches wide and is anywhere from six to eight inches tall these are nice because it gives you a larger footing to disperse the weight of your building project and it gets you off the ground six or eight inches and keeps your wood from getting wet and sucking up ground moisture which will keep it from rotting they typically range anywhere from 15 to $25 each and they're well worth it for the longevity of the project it's important to get each individual pad level so the wood coming off of the pad is also level and you're not fighting against uneven ground so what we're building on top of anywhere from two to four foot of shale and gravel that we hauled in as a incredible base that'll be able to shed water and not move as much with the frost as normal virgin ground wood so with that good base and these concrete pucks the building should not move too much with frost in the winter we double check each individual puck level at least two different directions and try to settle each pop in so it doesn't move during the building process after marking the center of the concrete pop we also mark an offset to where our corner is going to be from that corner we can pull measurements for the opposite corners of the buildings so we can set the other hockey pucks in the correct spots the camera doesn't always show how uneven the ground is some of the locations where the concrete footer lands are sloped pretty severely and need to be flattened out with a rake or shovel it's definitely a long slow process getting each one of these concrete footer set and set correctly but it is well worth it for the success of the overall project to make sure that each one is set correctly you don't want a shale under it right that should be okay right we've got to come this way Joey how much about six inches okay now if you think I put that where you told me to yeah you did you put it you did it right I measured 28 seconds rather than 27 seconds yeah mistakes will happen in the layout process and that's why you'll see us double check triple check sometimes even quadruple check our measurements our squares our diagonals and our overall layout just to make sure that we're correct it's a lot easier to fix right now by moving a block a couple inches then it would be after you have wood built on there and you made some cuts and put some nails in it and such don't be afraid to double check triple check or even quadruple check it happens to even the best of them so that's the front two corners of the porch yeah okay just check this one more time yeah it's beautiful I like it I like the sound of it I would just automatically go keep going yep maybe yeah right there right there yeah my eye that looks pretty square yeah wow that far back 27 6 where you going 28 I guess you got to do 28 27 6 right there okay is that what you did the triangle for 28 yeah that's just a minute get my out of my pocket 38 feet 10 and 5 8 is that for 28 by 28 or 27 6 by 27 6 by 27 6 your first two corners are gonna establish the direction you're building is going to face the third corner can get locked in with a square by triangulating the distance between the three in our case we have 27 6 by 27 6 and then we have our trying your clear having two points to measure from help to lock that corner in for accuracy yeah yeah let me give you another stick if it helps check it again beautiful we got we already got one there Donnie this one I might be throwing gravel on top of it that's the center of the pad center okay so I'll level that whole thing off okay yeah I'll throw some underneath get too serious should we measure yeah let me let me find center here okay check that one again yeah well within a quarter inch wow take it oh take it that's gonna need some serious level and she's she's low on the front but the good yeah after you have two of your corners established it's easy to get the third and the fourth and lock those in with a diagonal measurement also with your regular lateral measurement so we're pulling 28 foot from our front corner and we could also pull the diagonal if you have two long tapes you could actually do the both measurements at the same time if you have someone to hold or if it can be held on the corner and pull them both and where the two tape measures cross is gonna be your exact corner but whereas we're just a two-man crew right now we're gonna pull 28 foot from one corner and then we're gonna pull our diagonal from the diagonal corner and where those lines intersect will be the exact corner in this situation where we're on a steep incline to get the measurement exact we would need to use a level and plumb up and measure directly across rather than across the incline itself might be a shade longer because of the height difference but whereas we're just trying to get this on the cement blocks any measurement within an inch is good right now and we refine it each step of the way up till we get to the top of the concrete blocks and onto the wood we had found that leveling out a mini gravel pad where the concrete disc is gonna end up was a lot easier than moving the disc up and down and then leveling underneath so less handling of the concrete was easier and we're able to level out just a small amount of the gravel before we even move the concrete pad pretty damn good that's within a quarter inch that's nice alright here I'll run the measurements let me get my son off alright let me give you that one then I'll give you a diagonal that's close enough alright I like the sound of that we're close enough alright guys we got our four outside outside corners including the porch the eight foot extension for the porch everything's squared flat and now we can run some lines and and find out where we're putting the rest of these and we're gonna do the same thing for those we're gonna put those flat too and keep those in line square should we center it? yeah let's center it you want your string for this or your tape measure? tape measure will be good good enough can you double check my hook down there I think as long as it didn't move I should be good am I hooked center? so I got it center of the tape what the hell I mean that's don't go by measurement oh okay we're just going for a center line oh okay yeah cause I hooked the that's just for center line that's good right there okay yep perfect don't have travel far for this one after establishing your four corners the rest of the lale becomes easier it's just a matter now of dropping a pin on line with two corners at the distance that you want the next rounds this can be done with strings or using your tape measure as a string and dropping a pin at the right distance along that line the blocks still need to be seated and leveled correctly so it is a little time consuming doing the rest of the layout but once again it is very important that they are all level and placed in the right position and seated correctly pretty damn good I'll hold this right on see if you can get your measurement well this one would be 19.6 was it? center? yep center pretty good it's centered perfect can you just pull a 9.9 off it? what? can you just pull a 9.9 for me? yeah just come up to this one you can leave that I think I have to slide it one way or the other okay perfect beautiful and that one was pretty good and flat that looks pretty darn close close enough okay the final check to make sure everything is in line and spaced correctly before we get into the lumber