On Tuesday, June 9, 2020 at 10:33:36 PM UTC-4, Clare Snyder wrote:

Concrete wicks water. You could just lay heavy tar paper beneath the
wood to prevent that.
from what he wrote, he did

Yes and I have to thank people who mentioned that earlier in the thread. I didn't know that before I started this.

I also have to thank those who mentioned anchoring the block to the slab. I would have thought of anchoring the new sill plate to the block, probably, but might not have realized block should have lateral resistance too.