All The Way Around

Hooray! The walls are up all the way around, 7 courses high. Our contractor brought in extra bodies to get it done. He said the sooner the house comes back down, the better he'll sleep at night. 5 courses to go!
Isn't it pretty?

The opening for dirt removal. The egress window will go here.

The walls are 2/3 of their final height. The dirt on the right is still at the height of the original basement floor. The new back porch is straight ahead. The stairs will come down along the right side of the wall.

Wall Progress

One wall is now 7 courses high, and more corners are up. Wet weather makes for slow progress, but some of the piles of debris are actually smaller today, so they're doing what they can. I don't think they'll be done on Friday, though, unless The Flash is on their crew.

The Block

The block and mortar arrived this morning. The walls are going to go up first, then the house will come back down and the rest of the dirt will be scooped out. This afternoon they had one half-wall finished. The weather has gotten cooler and rainier, although the last few storms have missed us and gone to The Cities. They can take them for the next few days, I need dry, wall-building weather! The boys are much more impressed with the mountains of dirt in the yard. I think they'll miss them when they're gone.

Bobcat Found Under House

Well, it's been raining all morning, so I wasn't expecting much at the house, but I found one guy out there filling in between the footings with gravel and getting ready to lay the drain tile. Nothing too dramatic, but it's progress. I tho't you'd like to watch the bobcat drive under the house:
It's fair week this week, so we're off to eat too much, see the winning quilts and watch the human cannonball. Then we'll go back again tomorrow.

Concrete Operational Thought

They framed up the footings today. I got out to the house after lunch, and the forms were all set, the building inspector was there, and they were all waiting for the cement mixer. I'm thinking that being a building inspector has got to be a pretty good gig, 'cuz he was standing around shooting the breeze with the other guys the whole time I was there. Of course, around here everyone knows everyone, so they had plenty to talk about. They were probably related, for all I know. Jordan fell asleep in the car, so I took the kids home and came back two hours later, and the footings were poured! I had to include a photo of the well-decorated mixer (Go Twins!). All the rooms are laid out, including the window well for the egress. The next step is a little more complicated. Either the house movers will come out tomorrow and move the cribbing (put up four new stacks, then take down the old ones) so they can dig out the rest of the dirt, or they'll start building the block walls tomorrow and leave an opening. Then they'll set the house down, and remove the dirt through the opening after the cribbing is removed. It seems to make no difference to the concrete guys, but there is a LOT of dirt left. Either way, they won't pour the floor until the drain tile is in and the walls are done. So if you want to bury a time capsule under my house, now is the time! We kept hoping we would find the long-lost family fortune under there, but all we found so far is a hat. As for the last photo here, I really hope that guy gets his hammer back.

Digging A Hole

The only thing left in the basement is the well pressure tank. Our neighbor gets his water from us, since it was all one property when his house was built. We didn't want him to go a month without water, but it's been a "challenge" to keep the water flowing. Our power company finally decided to show up and move our meter away from the house, but they didn't bother to tell anyone (they moved it on Tuesday; I got a letter in the mail today) and cut off the neighbor's water in the middle of a shower! Our electrician made a special trip to get the well pump back on, and I can't wait to see what THAT bill is. Now the excavator is working carefully around the water line and power line from the well. The guy in the photo's only job is to hold the power line out of the way so the digger can dig. The machine operator is some kind of digging guru, working around the water line (the grey hose by the "holder's" knees in the second photo), the power line, the pressure tank, the cribbing holding up the house, and his guy! This is the last corner to dig out -- all in three days, which is much faster than I tho't. Hooray!

More Progress

Mike can't hold up the house anymore! The excavator made a lot of progress today. Two sides are completely dug out, the inside walls are gone, and I don't know how they did it with one guy and a bulldozer. Amazing!


The mountain of dirt keeps growing and growing and growing.... The kids love it!