Breaking ground!

It was a momentous weekend here at the ranch!  Day 1 & 2 of our addition phase have now passed us by.

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!:

back in 2015

The very exciting arrival of the excavator:

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:

Later in the afternoon, around 3pm, Mark took the large excavator over to the west side of the house, up the hill, which will eventually be the master bedroom.  It was a lot more wet and difficult to maneuver with the large excavator.  I couldn't get as many good shots of this process, but I have a few of him getting started, from Zoe's bedroom window:

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!

Deck build!

And so it begins!

We are building a back deck-so exciting!!  It is to be 12' X 20' when all is said and done.  240 square feet of outdoor space!  It's gonna be marvelous to keep the back door open and have Judah play on the deck, and I can work in the kitchen (window to the farthest right) looking out the window on occasion.

Early/mid April, Gabe (and my dad helped some) broke ground on the deck.  First, he dug four 30" deep holes to pour concrete footings for support posts.  Then, they worked on drilling into the brick siding to attach the ledger board with large bolts.

A visual of that day's progress:

A view from up the hill:

Gabe spent some time breaking brick away from the house too:

The next Monday, an inspector came to inspect the footings and that passed with flying colors.

Gabe (and dad) worked the following Saturday on setting the support posts and perimeter framing.

First, they needed to complete the ledger board to the right of the back door:

Continuing to work on perimeter structure:

Setting the structure posts:

Gabe created a landing pad for the lawn mower under the deck:

He used leftover pieces from the pallets making the shelves for the basement, with tar paper on the bottom.

Started work on setting joists:

Once the most of the joists were laid, Gabe installed the rail posts:

The stair stringers can be seen above.

Before the joists could be 100% installed, the existing porch pad had to be removed.  This was a concrete pad laid on top of brick, attached to the house by a concrete stoop.  

Here, he is scoring the concrete at the stoop to separate it from the house:

Progress breaking up the existing porch pad:

That took a lot of muscle to remove!

The rubble will be covered up!

Here is a shot of the joists in place over the existing stoop:

After the joists have been completed, here is a sweeping look at the view from the deck!!

Love it!!!!

Next, Gabe worked on digging post holes for the stairs going down to grade:

Then we got the framing inspected.  It passed!!  Yay!

Last weekend (Memorial day weekend), Gabe worked extra hard on the deck...he started with the stair framing:

A note about the stair location--instead of centering the stairs, we decided to line it up with the back door, so it's a little off center, but it makes sense.

More progress on stairs:

After this, Gabe and my dad start working on perimeter decking boards:

This part is complicated (and time consuming) because they needed to scribe around the posts.

Here he is starting on decking!!!

nice face Gabe.

A few treads on stairs:

A happy little boy with his coconut ice cream ("I-geem") on the new deck boards!!  :)

Mmmmmmmm!! perfect for warm dayzzz

Eerebody look to the left:

 Eerebody look to the right...

A couple of weeks later, Gabe started work on the handrails.  He smoothed them out real nice.

Here he is starting on the supports for the balusters:

with an onlooker

Aren't they cute?

Judah is getting better about not being afraid of the loud noise the saw makes!

must have just gone through the sprinkler too

A couple of days later with a bit more progress:

In July, almost a month later, one side is done!  

Looks so great:

Street view:

Lookin' sharp.

Detail shot, from on top of the deck:

Next, Gabe worked on the balusters down the steps and around to the other side.  These next photos was taken about a month later, in August:

And done!

More finished around the other side:

We got the final inspection in mid August--IT PASSED!!  Yay!  FOUR months later and we have a deck. :)

Next spring, we will stain the deck after the wood dries out completely (takes a couple months for this) and after we give it a good power wash!

We quickly proceeded to buy an outdoor table with benches so we could start entertaining out there:

I love it!!

I ordered it from a local company: Modern Rust.  Here is a link to the curved custom base detail they worked with me to get: http://modernrust.com/heatherTable.html.  It was Gabe and my birthday present to each other this year.

A detail shot of the deck stairs from the grassy ground level, taken in October:

I took a little time to landscape around the deck.  First, I dug out the grass, then laid down weed paper, lined the bed with our 1890's bricks from Bluemont, and finished it with a fresh coat of mulch from the nearby landfill (free!!).

I happen to love it.  Come spring, we will have some flowering viburnum flanking the steps!  I will plant more in these garden beds later.  For now, it is getting established with some evergreen shrubs as well.

That's a wrap on the deck project!  I intend to follow up with our next basement projects soon.

Cheers!