Our neighbors razed their house and are building a new one. There are some things they do here they don't do up north when building houses, like lay tons of rebar and build with cinder block. But when it comes to concrete and brick or block walls, I don't think those rules change.

We've had a lot of rain lately. The footing trenches looked like rivers. When they poured the footings, many of the trenches were still filled with water. Up north, that weakens the concrete.

Up north, once any concrete structure is poured, you have to wait a minimum of 7 days before loading it with anything. Yesterday, two days after pouring the footing, they were laying block. When the neighbor stopped by, I asked her how high they were going. "All the way I hope!" I told her typically you only lay 4 feet in a day. "We build things different here," she said.