Footers

Excavation continues... Some more hammer hoe time this past week to dig the trenches around the perimeter of the house for the footers. Eddie sure is working hard with the back hoes. He had both running and was jumping from one to the other to hammer with one and then use the bucket on the other to dig out the rock he hammered. Berto and Ricardo kept an eye on the depth of the trenches and got out the shovels and picks to clean out the trenches in preparation for re-bar and concrete pouring.

Hammer hoe hard at work on the rock again!

Ready to mark out the footers around the perimeter of the hole.

A few more loads of rock were hauled off and some more to go...

Hard at work on the footers and remaining excavation.

The outline of the crawlspace section in the back of the jack and jill side of the house is visible with the trench for the footer there.

May snow

We have had some wintry weather here in Flagstaff the past two days. The peaks are all snowy and it was actually snowing/sleeting at the lot today while they were working. But at least everything dries out quickly here, so no slowing down construction. The good news is that the excavation progress looks great! The hole is about a foot below finished floor height almost everywhere now. They have a few more spots to clean out further and then trenches to dig for the footers. Hopefully the footers will go in this week and then time to build up the block walls.

Measuring and marking the footer locations.

The deepest corner back in the back of the garage needs a little more digging.

Lining up the back retaining wall and bump out for the stairs (a little more digging required).

Some of the dirt that is being saved for back fill later. Notice the peaks are covered in clouds and it's snowing... you never know what you'll get in Flagstaff!

Rock, rock and more rock

Excavation went slowly this past week because of all of the rock they hit. Initially things looked good with a nice layer of topsoil, minimal clay and some rocky spots that were easy to break up. But then they hit some hard malapai spots.

The excavator brought out two backhoes and some smaller buckets to break up the rock more easily. They did end up having to use the hammer hoe on the stubborn spots.

The little boy across the street asked what the big hole was for... He was pretty upset that his sledding park will be gone this winter!

Andy pondering the rock...

The back corner of the garage looks like it's almost deep enough.

We finished cutting up the last 8 logs today. We have 6 large piles of wood and several big logs left to turn into outdoor furniture for the back yard.

There are several big piles of rock to haul away Monday!

Firewood for 100 years?

Well it was a weekend of hard work cutting up those logs. We now have 4 neatly stacked log piles in the back corner of the lot. We should be all set for fires in our new fireplace for years to come!

Andy enjoyed using his new chainsaw...he was impressed with how well it worked for some pretty big logs.

Our wood piles and a big stump for splitting the wood once it dries.

The excavator worked for the afternoon to continue digging the big hole. We relaxed for a little while and watched the entertainment.

We cut up at least half of the pile of logs on Saturday...but a big pile still remains waiting for us!

The big dig

All 16 trees that were within the house perimeter are down and the root balls were hauled away. That meant that the excavator was ready to start digging the big hole today. He hit rock fairly quickly, but it looks like the rock crumbles pretty easily. He just dug a few test pits today, so the next few days will tell how bad the rock really is!

Andy inspecting the biggest hole with plenty of rock

How far down do we have to dig for that garage?

All quiet after work today.

They saved the trunks for us to keep as firewood (we'll be set for many years of fires!). Andy was excited to have a reason to own a chainsaw finally.

The two biggest logs from the monster tree that we might save for lumber...fireplace mantle? Any other cool ideas for Andy to use this wood?

I'm figuring out this blogger stuff...notice the new background. I turned the construction progress post into a separate "page" so you have to click on the page link to the right to find our daily photo of the lot and see the progression. That's the quick and easy check on what's changed...especially for the days that I'm lazy and don't do a post!

Finally the fun begins!

Well we finally jumped through all of the hoops for the bank. This morning we closed on the loan and fun began. The tree service came to take down the big monster ponderosa tree. The rest of the trees and stumps will be taken down by the excavation company hopefully tomorrow. It was impressive to see how precisely the man could drop the trunk, which shook the ground when it hit. We missed him climbing the tree and cutting the limbs and upper sections off. Andy said it's amazing and scary to see how easy it is to take out a beautiful old tree in just a few minutes with a chainsaw after so many years of growing.

Kip and Andy inspecting the tree.

Costa (Kip's yellow lab) helped to get the excavation started by chewing up some sticks and digging some holes.

Check out the interesting growth on the stump, must have been a fire many years ago.

Our little pile of rocks that we collected to start our drainage rock path down the side of the lot.

A year later...

The winter was pretty mild this year and all of the snow has melted, so that means building season is here! We have have an awesome set of custom building plans that have been approved by the city. Just waiting for the bank to give us the final go ahead...

Here are some Solidworks model images that Andy made of the house:

Front of the house

Back of the house

Here are some recent photos of the lot:

Andy and Eric checking out the house layout

The view of the peaks that we hope to capture from the great room windows

The lot looks pretty wide without a house on it!

And it looks pretty steep (better exercise for the dog chasing a ball up the hill!)

The surveyor marked the corners of the lot (Stakes with pink string) and mapped out corners of the house (pink flags). Andy and Kip marked the 16 trees that will have to be cut down. There's one monster that will be sad to see fall...

April 16, 2011 - Surveying and plotting the house