Footers Dug

The basement is completely dug out, and no rock! Wow, what a relief...that saves us a good chunk of money that we had figured on needing. There's rock all over that property, but the 46'x54' hole that we picked was rock free...amazing!

The footers are dug, and we're ready for that inspection. As soon as we get the go ahead from the inspector, they'll pour our concrete for the footers and start stacking block just over 9' tall. We've got them going 9' so that we'll have enough room for our ductwork/wiring so that when we finish out the basement space, we'll have full 8' ceilings downstairs.

Excavation for the Basement

This past week, there has been a LOT of progress. The driveway is cut in now. The slope is much more gradual than we had pictured it being. We thought it was going to be a little difficult to make it up the hill, but our excavation/basement guys did a great job cutting it in. Our bridge is complete and the forms are off. It looks great. We're going to do stone around it and some stained wood to dress it up a bit.

The basement is almost completely dug out. It looks so neat! They've dug out SO much and did not hit ANY rock. If you could see our property, you would be amazed! There is rock all over that hill... cliffs and rock...everywhere! Our neighbors were AMAZED and even the basement guy was in shock. He said if we had picked any other spot we would have been all over rock for sure. So, already saving money! If things continue to go as smoothly as they are now, we'll be set! Great news!!

We let Rylee come see the construction site. She absolutely had a blast. Her and her next door neighbor friend, Lucy (lab/hound/chow mix)ran all over that property. Running up and down the dirt mounds. She loved it. She did make the mistake of jumping off the cliff onto where they had dug the hill (probably 10' off the ground)...and she was pretty sore the next day. She's fine this morning, but she limped around quite a bit yesterday. Poor puppy. She's wild.

Here are some new pix....

Our Bridge!

Our concrete guy started working yesterday. We were at work all day, so we didn't get to watch them start, but we got home just after dark last night and saw that they had put the forms in for the bridge (just a bunch of lumber that holds the concrete in place untill it dries). So the forms were in, and he had done a little excavation around our driveway. He was cutting into the hill to make it an easier drive to get up, not so steep. So a lot had been done yesterday, but it was hard to see, because we're out in the country....the only light we had was our truck headlights and a flashlight.



We had today off work, so we got to watch them pour the concrete in the bridge area and do more excavating. Our bridge is done and our neighbors' lovely dog tested it out. We were at the top of the hill, and we saw her run across it and we yelled "Lucy, NO!" Luckily, the concrete was hardened already and it didn't leave prints in the concrete. You can see paw prints, but they're just muddy....no tracks! Thank goodness! We didn't realize how fast it sets up. We can't drive on it for 30 days though.



While the guys were working on the bridge, the two of us were putting up our erosion control silt fence. We got 100' of it to go down along the creek to prevent the dirt from getting in the water. So the two of us put that up, and then we staked the house corners so the guys can start excavating for the basement. They've already started digging into the hill and leveled some of it out where the driveway will go into the garage. The garage will be down with the basement. With us being on a huge slope, we're going to have a full walkout basement. So, in the front you will see the entire basement, but in the back of the house, the basement will be completely underground and the first story will be level with our backyard. We're going to have a deck across the entire front of the house above the walkout part of the basement. So, that's where they were excavating today, and they'll start digging out the basement tomorrow.



Here are the pix that we took today: