Construction Blogging: Dirt and Concrete

We started with this beautiful green blank slate (with the burning bush that survived the demolition of the old house). 

 

Ben has worked so hard over the past six years to have a lush, pretty yard.  So, as exciting as this house building project is, it hurt a little bit when the first step in the building process (excavating the site to basement level) was completed.

Please note that we moved the burning bush.  See it over on the property line?  Hopefully it will survive.

After that, they dug the footers.

Check out the drastic difference between the red clay at the top of the property and the beautiful black dirt closer to the lake.  It's like there's a magic cutoff line.

Then they poured the footers.

And then it snowed.  In the second week of November.  Really.  

 

The first few days of work were really productive, and progress was quick, but the unseasonably cold weather the next week slowed us down.  The next step was to build the forms and pour the concrete basement walls, but concrete obviously cures more slowly in cold temperatures.  The wall pouring company typically builds the forms, pours the concrete, and then removes the forms the day after the walls are poured.  Due to the cold weather, however, they were leaving the forms on for an additional day.  They had a few jobs ahead of ours that took longer than normal, so ours got started a little later.  I'll show you the walls in my next post.