"It's like it's baked into the walls..." (putting personal touches into the bones of our family home)

___________________________________

  PERSONAL PROJECT
___________________

---

Have you seen the movie "War Room?" It came out a couple of months ago and even kicked "Straight Outta Compton" out of top spot in the box office! I got to see this movie alongside my grandmother, mother and daughters - four generations holding hands across 5 seats in the theater that day. That movie is part of a special memory I hold dear in my heart.

Well, one of the amazing lines was when a couple of prospective home-buyers was walking through a home that was for sale.
The gentleman homebuyer entered a closet off of a bedroom - walked out - walked back in. When his wife and realtor inquired as to what he was doing, he observed "Someone has been praying in here."
The realtor agreed and explained it had been the owner's prayer closet.
The gentleman responded that it was "like it's (prayers) been baked into the walls."
I loved that his character was able to sense that. 

Anyhow - while Kevin & I have been dreaming and planning all the details of this house, we've gotten encouragement from my mother (who lives in Virginia.) She came up with the idea that we could use some decorative crosses (that she's enjoyed for years but needs to release since she is in a season of life where small chotchky-like material possessions are weighing her down.) She thought it would be pretty sweet to somehow tie them into the ICF walls just before pouring the concrete. In my brain, it immediately synced with that line from War Room (with concrete inherently thermogenic,  they may be "baked into the walls."
​I love this creative idea - thanks, Mom!

So today, we set out to get those gorgeous crosses inside the walls! (We tied them with tie wire into the ICF webs.) Wanna see?

And then the concrete pump truck arrived to fill our walls with concrete! 

Pretty simplistic, isn't it? There's one guy holding a controller that determines the direction of the boom, as well as the speed/on/off (you don't see him - he's on the other side of the house closer to the pump truck.) And then there's the guy you see here, directing the hose exactly where it needs to go. 


And here on the left, you've got a closer view of the pump hose and boom. ICF requires a specific consistency that is vibrated into each crevice - not too much, not too little. 

---

A picture is worth 1,000 words. 
This window buck's concrete will be vibrated & troweled smooth. (This is also one of the bucks in which we hung a cross.) 

Kevin is one dedicated general contractor - and I'm one happy camper!