concrete forms going up

As of Thursday morning, the footings were completed.
Yesterday, the concrete forms were delivered. A crane lowered the heavy stacks of forms down into the hole. By yesterday afternoon, they were almost finished putting them up.
Hopefully they will pour the foundation on Monday, but possibly Tuesday.

Byron & I will be in St. Louis all next week, so check back in May for more updates on the house progress!

footings

This is a cross section of the layers of clay and sand in the ground. There were several pockets of complete sand, and others of a sandy-clay mixture.





Fortunately, there was only one large boulder and the rest were smaller rocks.
Many of the rocks have fossils and shells in them, and some are "Petoskey stones", which are actually fossilized coral.







Yesterday, after all the gravel was put down, the masons came and constructed the forms for the footings.




This morning, the inspector came and gave his OK, and then they started pouring the concrete.





Annabel insisted I take a picture of us watching the workmen. :)
They are finished with the footings now, but I don't have those pics yet.

the digging continues

It rained all day yesterday, so they couldn't dig. But before it started raining yesterday morning, the excavator noticed water at the bottom of the hole he had already dug--they ran into the water table! This was very surprising, as we are nearly at the top of the hill, but all the snow has just melted. Now that the hole for the foundation is completely dug out, the water is still there. Parts of the ground floor are solid, and others are completely spongy. They will fill in with some gravel and make the footings wider to make sure the foundation will be stable. The excavator is going to try to get all the gravel down tonight, as we are expecting rain tomorrow morning. Then, weather permitting, the masons will be able to start pouring the footings tomorrow afternoon!

the big dig

Yesterday the excavator had to create a 3' high driveway over the high-pressure gas line that runs across the front of our lot. He piled up 2'6" of dirt and 6" of gravel over the line--with the man from the gas company watching anxiously--to protect the line from vibrations from heavy trucks. Then he started digging out our foundation!

GROUND BREAKING!

Today's the day--we broke ground on our lot! The excavator came and started removing the topsoil. We measured and staked out the house and got it positioned just right. We also figured out about where the driveway will be, as well as the septic field. The excavator also figured out where "level" will be. Because of the steep slope of the lot, the front-left corner of the house will be 3 feet above grade--and the far end of the garage will be almost 4 feet above grade! So all of the dirt removed from digging out the foundation will be needed to fill under the left side of the house. Tomorrow he will remove the rest of the topsoil and start digging!

snow...again!

Ummm...what was that I said about the snow being amost gone?
Well, it was...until Monday. It started snowing on Monday and didn't stop until last night. (Needless to say, I didn't leave the house!)





This is what it looks like today--at least you can see the lake again! We got about 5 inches. Fortunately, the highs are supposed to be in the high 40s today, into the 50s tomorrow, and climbing to 60 (!) by next week. I am hoping all the snow will be gone before we break ground!