I talked about how many rocks we were uncovering during excavation of our basement. In the last few days we’ve watched them tackle the really big ones, that the excavator can’t budge. Now that rock was a monster. When we dug back, it not only exposed 10 feet of depth, but there were two veryRead more about Big big rocks[…]
We always knew there would be rocks in the dirt, we just weren’t fully prepared as to how many. Our initial estimate was to remove 1800 yards of material from the ground. We are done tucking dirt away now and have taken 1200 yards. That means we’ve also moved about 600 yards of rock andRead more about Rocks, rocks, and more rocks[…]
Our old sewer line runs right through our future basement. Obviously we need to dig that ridge of dirt out as well, so we have to put in a temporary line while we are living in the old house during construction. Because our old line under the street showed some root intrusion, we are requiredRead more about Moving the old sewer line[…]
We are now more than half way through excavation and our front your truly looks like a battle zone. The basement hole(s) are getting pretty wide and deep. The ridge separating the two holes is the old sewer line. On the far side of the hole is the replacement sewer line for the old houseRead more about More excavation, lots of rocks[…]
The surveyor mapped out the basement contours a couple of days ago to give the excavator a dig line; it is pretty much constant digging here now. The front yard has large holes everywhere. One thing we didn’t anticipate when planning on staying in the house was the difficulty of getting through the dig zoneRead more about Excavation is in full force[…]
And old Steve Martin joke … I’m always curious about history and as we dig am looking for any artifacts that I might find in the dirt we uncover. The first one turned up yesterday, an old bottle. Based on the markings on the bottom, I was able to identify that it is likely fromRead more about I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy[…]
Before excavation could start, everything in the way had to be removed, including the old asphalt, a couple of tree trunks, the old garage, old house foundation footings, etc. The excavator spend several good hours removing one giant tree trunk in particular. Here are our girls sitting on the trunk before it was removed. TheRead more about The beginning of excavation[…]
Our garage, built in 1942, was close to falling over on its own. It is in the way of the new driveway cut, so it is one of the first things that has to be done before we can start grading the lot and digging the basement. The excavation contractor noticed that the boards onRead more about Tearing down the old garage[…]