I'm Not A Block Mason For Sure

I'm not handy with the trowel so I probably lost more than a third of the cement when it fell in between the block. I actually resorted to using my hands on part of this wall that has been constructed on top of a footer (above) I poured a few days ago. For the wall built (below) I used 3 1/2 -60 lb bags of mortar mix. Experts probably use two. At least it's level, but it does look off comparing the deck eh? The deck was designed to slope for rain water runoff, but it falls in between the deck boards.

How to keep this thing water tight has been a thought provoker. So here's the plan. Create some channels in the floor joist system (notch out with a sawsaw) staple visqueen (plastic sheathing) to joists then add 1/2 inch pressure treated plywood. Water will then run through the channels and out to the left, away from the wood part so I don't get wood rot down the road. I figured on gluing some small pieces of PVC pipe illustrated below. Difficult to explain. More pictures in a few days.

That's half of the water problem. In the above photo there's an area of about four feet (lattice covers) where the decking is open as well. I figure instead of spending more dough on plywood, grade (circled) it so the water runs away from the new area and cover with visqueen. This way there's no hydrostatic pressure against the new block wall. Too much pressure and it could fall over...eventually.

Once everything is enclosed I'll wheel some 3/4 inch gravel into the area to be used as the floor. Doors should be another interesting project. One to enter from the yard and another so the crawl space and HVAC unit can be accessed.

Why the wall? After all it's about 30 inches away from the the new framing in the photo above. I wanted extra space and couldn't risk digging out more dirt close to the column that supports part of the porch. That area will serve as a ledge filled in with more gravel.