Preparing for the foundation walls

Today the crew started preparing for the foundation walls. These are normally 2 feet high, but the ground had a significant slope to it - so when we found the solid ground at the lowest point, it was more than 2 feet below the highest ground level - so we had to go with 3 feet high walls. An additional factor was that the floor joists are to be hung from the mud sills so that they hang below the tops of the foundation walls, reducing the available height in the crawlspace. In the picture you can see the first row of boards used to mold the concrete walls are in place; these are the 2 feet high boards that are used for standard walls. Another set of 1 foot high boards will be placed on top of these. The boards are held in place by steel clips that are fastened to the footings - you can see some of these clips have also been used to hold the tops of the boards; these are temporary and will be replaced by special clips that clamp the boards firmly and also help to fasten the top row of boards when they are in position.