Almost Ready for Foundation

Excavation has been slow-going over the past week with all the rain. But we're making progress.

A few extra ultra-blocks were needed for the retaining wall, and some more gravel and filtration work was needed to keep the mud down. Thankfully, the excavation near trees and fences has gone really well, with nothing moving or breaking.

Soon, the footing trenches will get dug, and then the footing walls can be built. And THAT will be the first real piece of the new house.

The crew eventually made it to the SE corner and started the turn along the south property line. The yellow device in the lower right is the laser emitter. It shoots lasers.......LASERS!

Naturally, we wanted to protect those tall green trees you see in this photo. They're being held back by stakes and straps to help them not fall into the pit. Thankfully, none moved at all, and only a couple roots had to be cut.

When no one was looking I jumped down into the pit. Sorry, even at 36 it's still fun to play in a big dirt hole.

And here is the clay bottom. This trench was slow going because the clay layers are so hard. In the video below you can see just how hard the excavator has to work to remove the clay. Good news: our house isn't going anywhere in an earthquake.

 

The man in orange is named Romulus (seriously). He's one of the engineers. And if there's one thing we learned from StarTrek is that the Romulans are really good engineers. And now one is helping to build our house.

With the rain coming, and a clay floor, the crew had to be sure to cover the dirt mound and pump water out in the rain storm.

Speaking of rain, here's an example of how clay infiltrates. Answer: not at all.

As you can see, most of the area of the house has been excavated. Next up: footing trenches!