Walls

The two openings at the top of the wall are for mechanicals to go through. And of course a doorway that is part of the hallway. 

The plumber came and created some relief drains to get the rainwater out. Otherwise it would have been wet still on Monday. 

The Platinum Prince will be parking on top of this wall one day soon! 

This is an old cast iron tub that was in the original house. We hope to make it the water trough for Bunky. Fortunately, my plumber let me use his equipment and I was able to work on the old foundation as well, getting rid of it. 

Not much is going on this week. The slab should be poured in a week and then the steel I-beams will be installed for the garage slab. 

Footers and final clearing

 Formed footers

 Lots of rebar! Read below why these footers were bigger and had more steel in them.

 Poured footers!

  Notice the difference in width of these footers compared to the others? That is for the 12" wide by 10' tall garage walls that will have steel I-beams and a metal pan with concrete on top for the garage. We will have a hallway, part of Haley's room and the unfinished mechanical room under here. Based on our floor design, it was the only way we could get two bedrooms on the terrace level where we wanted them to be and have the other family room in the right place too. No, we are not "preppers" and building a bunker to protect us. But if a tornado comes through here, that's where we'll be!

This is all of the stone from the original fireplace that fell into the old house when it burned. These will also be re-purposed on the property. We haven't decided if we will leave the fallen chimney or tear it down and rebuild with the pavilion that will be built on this part of the property.

 Faith in the old root cellar, throwing out bricks that we will re-purpose somewhere on the property.

 THANK YOU to my dad for the use of his equipment, I couldn't have done it without the skid steer and it's attachments!!!! This was the last of the major cleanup and getting rid of dead or trees I wanted removed. I was thinking about how they would have used horses and donkeys on this property so many years ago and what that must have been like. I feel blessed to grow up in the era of heavy equipment and the many modern marvels we have, even the chainsaw! What will they think of in the next 100 years???

I probably should have taken a photo each week here in the beginning so I could have a "time lapse" of the progress. Oh well, it sure does look different than the last drone photo from here!

Initial grading complete and foundation started

Day 1 of grading and burning the large pile of brush I put up. 

Day 1, septic system is going where the light color dirt is. 

Initial grading complete! Maddie is enjoying herself too! 

Initial grading complete. 

My new brothers in Christ, Hank Sutton on the excavator and John just out of sight. Both were saved on a job site. The first time I met Hank I didn't care for him. He has come a long way and I'm happy for he and John.

We are so glad that Uncle Bob and Aunt Lynne were in town from New Hampshire to see the very early stages of construction. Bob confirmed a couple of ideas I already had on the house design, so we implemented them.