Rootin' Around

Well, well here we are again, after almost a month!  After recovering from poison ivy, Spring Break, and yucky colds that kept us occupied for a bit, we are back in the saddle.

Dad was planning on having the cement poured in the ditches dug on the east side of the house while we were away on Spring Break, but there were some delays.  We were on hold because of a tree "trunk" (later was found to be some really thick root systems) that was found under one of the piers Gabe was going to have to remove with his truck hitch.  Dad had the dumpster removed so the cement pourers would have easier access to that side of the house.  We put the cement truck on hold until we could get the root taken care of.

Last weekend we came out on Friday to finalize the foundation.  Gabe worked on getting the ditch deeper, since the requirement is 30" at its shortest spot.  Here is Gabe working on the channel, from two different directions:

It was my job to level and clean up the "crawl space" since there was all the dirt from inside the kitchen that got dumped out when we were preparing the inside crawl space.  There was an inordinate amount of glass and debris in the area for me to clean up.  When all was said and done, I had collected almost two large buckets full of glass and debris (mostly glass)!

There is the mound of dirt to Gabe's right in the picture above.  Notice the root in the foreground.  That isn't the problem child, but it will also need to be removed eventually!  Here is a picture of the notorious root Gabe hacked out with a hatchet:

Go Gabey go!

Notice the 1980's addition is being held up by a couple makeshift piers:

Dirt's flying!!!

This step isn't super glam, but it must be done.  It's important to do the foundation right.

                                                                 View from the south                        This ditch is deep

All that digging is hard work!!

The next day, we got a late start, around 11, but it didn't matter since we didn't have a whole lot to do.  It was a gorgeous day to boot!  A little warm at times, but beautiful, none-the-less.

I was again working on cleaning up the crawl space under the addition:

SOOOO much glass!!!

Mom & Dad brought us lunch, soo nice!

Here's Dad in the ditch patching the waterline:  Hi Dad!

Here is the new and improved ditch, ready for concrete footings and a slab to be poured.

In the above picture notice the discarded pier in the background.  Also notice the "tchotchkes" (as I like to refer to them; it's a fun word to say, n'est pas?) in the foreground that were excavated in the vicinity, especially at the entrance/exit to the kitchen crawl space.

                                                                                       Close up on the ditch                   Crawl space all clean!

Here's Gabe taking a break before getting up on the roof to remove the brick chimney stack of which we would have documentation, but mom accidentally took video of the inside of her pocket instead!!  Oooupa!  ;)  Sorry, no video this week!

The leftover pile of bricks Dad made after Gabe pulled them down off the roof:

Daffodils!!!

Meanwhile, Mom was busy cleaning away the brush and large stones from around the spring house.  I came and helped after while.  Mostly, we wanted to make sure the poison ivy was ripped out.

Must wear gloves and wash up real good!--poison ivy is not our friend.

Welp, we called it a day a bit early today, since I had a bachelorette party to get to and we needed to make sure we got the poison ivy juices washed off immediately.  Here's a shot of the house after we got the ditches covered with plastic.  We don't have a dumpster right now, so surrounding areas look a little messy.  We also covered the pulled poison ivy branches with plastic so they could die without us having to burn them.

Cement is scheduled to be poured on Friday.  See you next week!