Day 4

Friday, May 15th

  Looks a heck of a lot different eh?  I told you so.  We added a TON of dirt to the hill to even it out, as I'm sure you can tell.  Granted, this view is a little closer, but use that large tree to the right as a reference point.  BIG CHANGE. We got to the site around 4:00 p.m. tonight.  Just in time to help Mom & Dad set forms for the basement footings. I've taken off forms before, but never put them on.  We worked til about 8:15 or so on get that set up.   Perhaps you can tell here.  We put the forms around the outskits of the basement. Footings are for the blocks to sit on.  Metal stakes hold the boards in place.  The footings can't be poured until the inspector comes out and approves them.  Unfortunately, that won't be until Monday.     Saturday we're going to move a bunch of dirt from the top of the hill (front yard) to the back hill (back yard).  Right now our walkout is a little bit steep, this picture doesn't do it justice, but the edge of the dirt you see is IT.  Straight down from there. We're going to plane it out tomorrow, that way it will be nice and sloping.   This is the basement to the south.  The smaller area you see is our sub-garage (see walkout plans).  Dad intends to form the roof up on the top of the hill for stability (and the inspector).  Then once we're putting the first floor on, the rest of the garage will be poured to match.     This is the North West corner of the basement.  Notice the blackish slanting line on the right wall?  That is how much dirt we added to even out the land enough to make our walk-out look right.  Pretty wild huh?     This is the road coming around the North side of the site.  This will be used for the cement trucks to get the concreate down to the footings.  Its a lot easier than having them try to pour it from the top of the basement wall, that's for sure!     Now we have a ton of equipment on the site.  Excavator, Bulldozer, Backhoe, and Dump Truck.  The neighbors are amazed, they're used to much smaller equipment being used.  It goes a lot faster with these though!   If you haven't looked at the plans... go here:  PLANS Or see another day's activities: Day One Day Two Day Three Day Four Day Five Day Six - Relax Day Seven - May 18 - NO PHOTOS Day Eight - May 19 Day Nine - May 20 Day Ten - May 21 Day Eleven - May 22 Day Twelve - May 23 (May 24-25th Vacation - days won't count) Day Thirteen - May 26th -& Day Fourteen - May 27th NO PHOTOS Day Fifteen - May 28th Day Sixteen - May 29th Day Seventeen - May 30th Day Eighteen - May 31st Day Nineteen - June 1st Day Twenty - June 2nd Day Twenty One - June 3rd Day Twenty Two - June 4th Day Twenty Three - June 5th   We've begun buying tile and have our carpet picked out:  INTERIOR