Fortunately, the house was capped just before the first snowfall.

This keeps the snow out of the basement.  Next week,
1st floor exterior walls go up.

Finally, a floor!

It's a cold bright morning and the guys arrive early and
begin to place the first sheets of flooring.

I usually bring by hot coffee for the crew sometime
during the morning.

Here's the view from our Bedroom!

The 'Garden Level' is starting to shape up nicely as well.

Add caption

Time Lapse Photography.

8:11 AM

11:30 AM

1:30 PM

4:41 PM

4:45 PM

LUMBER! Nails meet hammers soon.

Backfilled, Sanded and Compacted.



Many truck loads of fill are brought in, then covered with gravel,
then sand and compacted.
The pouring of the slab is several weeks away.





This is from the lower level.  Walls will be built on the foundation seen in the foreground.  It's much less expensive than pouring concrete all the way up to the 1st floor level.




Craig now has his sign up.  Lumber delivery can't
be too far behind.



The forms are "Peeled" off and now we have a foundation.

This is the garage view from this angle.  You cans see the foundation walls are being waterproofed (that's the black you see at the bottom).

Next step:  Fill is brought up to about a foot or so, then a layer of sand goes on and is compacted, next comes a 5 or 6 inch layer of gravel up to within a couple of inches of the top.  Next, 2 inches of foam insullation goes on top of the gravel (this is new code and adds several thousand dollars to the total).  Finally, the slab concrete is ready to be poured, smoothed and finished.

Layers upon layers upon layers...and it's all invisible.

A very big day at our little house. Check out the photos at the bottom.

Today started off bright and warm and the weather was a good omen as much was accomplished.

First of all, Jeff Rhodes, our foundation guy, brought in a pumping truck to distribute the concrete to the forms.  The pumping truck is an amazing thing. (At $700. per day, it should be).  The wet concrete is loaded in the rear of the truck by regular concrete truck then pumped out of this long 100 foot collapsible tube.  The tube direction, height and flow rate are controlled with a wireless console by a worker on the ground.  Very Slick.  The whole job was done by 3:pm.

While that was going on, the underground electricty supply and the water and sewer hookups were unearthed, conduit installed for each and covered back up.  We should have electricity for power tools and saws within a week or so.

An amazing machine this pumping truck

This guy on the right is controlling flow and the boom height etc.

Concrete trucks were lined around the block waiting to fill the pumping truck.

Quite a reach!

Slowly, it's starting to look like a house, and not just a hole.

Foundation walls start to go up!

Even though it was 7 degrees when the sun came up this morning, Jeff Rhodes and his crew were out beginning to place the foundation and basement walls.

Neither snow, nor rain nor gloom of night...

Amazingly, after 5" of snow yesterday the guys were back at it this morning uncovering the footings of snow.

Much was accomplished today including removing the footing frames and installing the French drains (oui monsieur!).  Then more tons of gravel were brought in to the level of the footings (12 inches!)

This means the house foundation is now in the ground and free from any danger from frost.  So much of a house is underground and invisible...but so important.  This is where a good team of a general contractor, excavator and foundation expert is so important.

Monday, the guys will be at it again installing the frames for the basement walls.  Very Exciting!

Footings are in and now covered! Foundation walls go up Friday.

Here is Jeff Rhodes, the man installing our foundation

And here is his assistant Tug

The foundation is starting to take shape.

Footings go in tomorrow!

In prepartion for the footings to be poured tomorrow.  Foundation frames will also be installed tomorrow.  The entire foundation could be poured by Friday.

Final survey today and the pins are placed ready for a new foundation on Monday.

Here's the view from our soon to be living room.

Placing the final pins.

Foundation to go in on Monday January 9th (Thank you Jill)!

Looking back across the pond with the Cat ready to start digging for the foundation.

Looking across the pond to a very unusal square rock.

 Donna and Rooney enjoying the hay.