Having no more excuses, today I "dug in" and finished digging the remaining two (of six) footing holes for the gazebo. The first hole had a giant root going through the middle that I had to chainsaw out and pull up with the tractor. The second hole had a huge boulder (too heavy to lift out without the tractor. But I got er done. I then poured the footings, which are about 2'x'2' x 6" thick. Two 80# bags of concrete. The tricky part is making sure the top of each footing is level with respect to the other 5 footings. Mine are dead on ... within an inch anyway. Hey, it's just a gazebo!
Then I started in on the concrete blocks. These are 8" x 16" x 8" blocks. Each pier will be 6 blocks high (48"+mortar), so 12 blocks/pier. This is the first time that I have ever worked with these blocks to build something like this. I'm not very good at it, I decided. But I got three of the piers started (two blocks high each), and they seem to be ok. Once i get all six base piers done, I'll pour concrete down the inside of the blocks and add more rebar.
We are still investigating the river rock for the outside of the piers. Regular 'cultured stone" can cost upwards of $7 a sq ft, and we need 120 sq ft. We can get some on Craigslist for around $3.50-$4, sqft. The direction I'm currently leaning is to make our own rocks using rubber molds and concrete. This way we can make rocks for the greenhouse and around the foundation walls of the new house. This is the mold brand we are considering: http://www.stonecasterstudio.com/index.html
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