The forms for the basement and stem (short) walls are all in and squared up. In addition, long battens have been added to the inside of the forms to indicate the top of the poured concrete. On Monday (Dec. 1), Don (concrete), Gary (framer), and I met at the site to map out all the Simpson tie downs. In addition to the regular sill-plate tie downs, there are 42 Simpson hold down rods (SSTB) and brackets (HDU). The rods are hooked at the end (see photo) to engage horizontal rebar in the walls. The upper part is angled a bit to offset from center, and the upper 5" extends about the concrete (3.5" are threaded for coupling). The stack of materials we're holding down to the concrete consists of a 4x pressure treated sill plate (3.5"), BCI engineered joists (11 7/8"), Warmboard (1 1/8"), and a 2x sole plate (1.5"), so the threaded rod has to go through 15" of subfloor materials. So, in addition to the SSTB anchors, we'll have to use a coupler and an extension rod that is at least 12" long. I just priced the components, for yucks. The SSTB rods are $20-30 each (depending on length) and the HDU hold downs are $15-20 each, and the extension rods and couplers are another $5. So it looks like we'll use about $1500-$2200 of Simpson equipment just on the basement/first floor. The HDU brackets also are used to hold the upper plate, second floor joists, and second floor sole plate together. Then there are tie downs for all the roof joists, and a variety of others that I haven't even tumbled to. I suspect we'll be into the Simpson Strong Tie company by about $5000 before this sucker is screwed down to the Earth's crust. However, I've stopped thinking about the M8 earthquake Cascadia subduction zone that Alan Nelson and Brian Atwater have been teasing the pubic with. Its 200 km west and >50 km below us, so what is there to worry about? 
In addition to the regular walls, we'll have two pads that support . The large pad in the basement (first photo) supports an overhead Versalam beam (3" x12 ") and the basement staircase. The second pad is in the adjacent crawl space and it supports the same beam under the bedroom. The beam is 48 ft long and runs N-S across the entire width of the house. In these photos (Jason, light-colored shirt) is putting the SSTB rods in place along the south (bedroom) exterior wall, whereas David (gray shirt ) is preparing to cut into the forms to place a metal beam support that gets poured in place. Its Tuesday am, and we're waiting for the second foundation inspection. Assuming he shows up this morning, we'll pour all the vertical walls and two pads this afternoon. No rain in the forecast, so all is well.
Finally, Gary Estes of Craighead Electric showed up at lunchtime on Monday to install the temporary power pole. This is a separate story in itself, but after getting approval from Puget Sound Energy (3 weeks), we were allowed to trench the three feet from the high-voltage transformer on our neighbor Kathy's property (formerly the Wallin house). Gary placed the power pole in the hole I dug, braced it up and laid about 10 ft of cable in the trench for PSE to connect to. After inspection, I'll call PSE for a temp hookup and we'll have 2 20 amp circuits available to the lot, just in time for Gary Ellis Construction to start the framing. He's pencilled in to start on about Dec. 11th, just 9 days from now. In the mean time, I need to get the first lumber and tie down package ordered from Carls. This will consist of sill plates and bolts, BCI floor joints, the Warmboard, and the basement egress window.
