Here's what was happening last time I wrote, earlier this year. Two weeks ago, we received approval of the permit we submitted of the drawings for our addition. Last week, an appraiser came out to survey the property to gain a more accurate construction loan amount based on existing conditions and projections of potential worth, when all is said and done. Our contractor came out last week as well to mark out where the footings need to be dug.
Our extremely generous friend Mark, who works in construction, came out yesterday to help dig footings. The excavator was delivered and he worked with Gabe to make quite a mess! :D
Exhibit A:
Whereas, it used to look like this!:
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| back in 2015 |
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| delivered at 2pm on Saturday |
They started with the east side of the house and worked there from about 2:30pm until 8pm. Mark brought his small excavator and laser leveling machine, which they set up first thing. He operated the large excavator, while Gabe assisted. The cinder block retaining walls had to be removed, which took some doing. The septic line pipe location was marked with a broken rake handle, to avoid hitting it. The large excavator bucket didn't have teeth on it, so it was tricky to get a grip under the gravel--it ended up taking quite a few passes to remove not very much gravel.
Here are a couple pics of them working on Sat:
In all of that, they did end up hitting the septic/sewer line, barely. So, we weren't able to flush for a while! It was a good thing the kids and I were leaving for a few hours...and it was fixed by about 8pm.
Here's a pic (above on the left) of the damaged pipe that was removed and (on the right) the next day, after it was repaired. That iron pipe will all need to be replaced anyways!
They picked up working again on Sunday, from 8am until about 3pm, to dig footings on the east side. 30" footers at grade, to go below the frostline, is what is required. On the ends closest to the house it is much deeper since it has to be level in the base of the hole. The excavator will be returned today.
Getting started on the last footer on the east side:
What it looked like when I got back from church:
Look at all the piles of dirt!!
Proud daddy:
Lunch break!
I like to show comparison shots, this with the one below it:
:) I had to. They are so cute!!
This basement entrance is what we have used predominantly to get to our cars when we leave, so it will be an adjustment figuring out how to move (without too much mud coming in my house!) around the piles of dirt!
Boys and dirt piles, I tell ya.
Gabe rented a "jumping jack" (which happened to sound like a helicopter from inside the house!) to compact the dirt at the bottom of the holes, which will help when they go to pour the concrete later this week.
Operating the thing:
Zoe watching the action from the basement door:
I should add, that the day before, Judah was helping Gabe dig a little to locate the Fios wire--
He was really getting in there!
Back to Mark and the large excavator. It was so wet, that he got stuck! A few times:
They had to get creative to get it out...here's a video snippet of the commotion:
So, when all was said and done, it was better if Mark would trade the large excavator for the small one to finish out the footings on the west side.
The mess that is my yard now:
There was a bit of rain expected in the night last night, so Gabe's final effort was to cover the holes with large sheets of plastic he bought since we would like to accomplish pouring concrete yet this week. There is no more rain in the forecast (praise the Lord!) until Saturday, so we will hopefully be good to go with the next step after inspection of the holes dug tomorrow.
Stay tuned!
