- Wednesday, 1 August --- Video:
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- Today
they put in the drain pipe AND started filling in the hole.
Let's see, we paid big bucks to dig a hole, now we're paying
even more to fill it! Better yet -- we cannot simply put the
original dirt back in the hole. Even though it's been there
for hundreds (thousands?) of years, it's no longer good enough.
Go figure.
Actually, it makes sense in an odd sort of way. I've been
told we want the dirt to compact so the house doesn't sink
(that's a good thing), and the existing dirt simply will
not compact enough. Much of what was dug up is called
``Santa Cruz Mudstone'' and it's basically clay. Large
chunks of it everywhere. It would be like trying to
compact chunks of concrete.
I've also recently learned of the Soils Engineer Employment
Act (OK, I made that up). It seems that every time a hole is
dug, we need an engineer to come out and say, ``yep, that's
a hole.'' And then, every time it gets filled in the same
engineer has to come up and say, ``yep, hole's gone''
- Thursday, 2 August --- Video:
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- I couldn't tell from the pictures yesterday, but gravel
was put into the hole, not dirt!
Talked with CW Excavation & found out
that much of
the dirt can be reused! Hooray! It looks like
the driveway will be filled with dirt, and the area under
the foundation will use engineered fill.
Originally we wanted a 10,000 gallon water tank. This part
of California follows a predictable cycle : 4 years of drought,
6 years of rain. We thought we could save a bunch of water
by collecting the rain & using it for irrigation during
the summer. Looks like the cost is prohibitive. Bummer.
Finally, everyone wave to the tractor guy,
Bob! We'll be
seeing a lot of him for a while.
- Friday, 3 August --- Video:
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- Monday, 6 August --- Video:
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- Tuesday, 7 August --- Video:
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- Wednesday, 8 August --- Video:
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- Thursday, 9 August --- Video:
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- Friday, 10 August --- Video:
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- You cannot see it, but we have string! OK, not that
exciting, but the house was laid out in string so over
the weekend we can stand in the middle of it and pretend
to be in a house. It's slowly coming together.
- Monday, 13 August --- Video:
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- The footings are being dug for the house! And, unfortunately
it's not visible but someone arranged rocks to spell out
``hi folks''. It's blocked by the orange plastic fence
at the driveway approach.
- Tuesday, 14 August --- Video:
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- Today I talked with Derek the
framing foreman dude. The forms are
being built for the footings. I cannot wait until the frame
starts to go up.
- Wednesday, 15 August --- Video:
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- Thursday, 16 August --- Video:
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- Friday, 17 August --- Video:
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- Still working on the foundation. I thought this would probably
take a while. We're putting in a slab foundation, which means
everything that normally would simply go under the house
goes into the slab, so lots of things have to be laid out
before pouring (it's very difficult to move things around
once the concrete has dried).
It appears that someone
Hogan & Pinckney has found this page!
Actually, I told him about it at the beginning and he claims that
he doesn't surf the web. Equally apparent is that one of his
foreman must! Look at some of the videos before 16 August
& you'll see the contractor's vanity sign barely visible
somewhere under
the stop sign (not the one painted on the road, but the
red octagonal street sign). Then, look at the video shot
on 16 August. Around 7:30 the sign mysteriously moves into
the center of the orange fence. Finally, sometime in the
afternoon of the 17th the sign moves just about into the
middle of the picture. I'm sure it's just a coincidence
& they keep moving the sign to get it out of the way.
- Monday, 20 August --- Video:
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- Tuesday, 21 August --- Video:
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- The rebar begins & there's a lot of it. Rumor has it Friday
the concrete will be poured
- Wednesday, 22 August --- Video:
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- Thursday, 23 August --- Video:
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- Friday, 24 August --- Video:
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- All the footings & the house pad were poured today! That ran
80 - 90 yd3. It was rather impressive
how fast that much concrete can be poured. According to Lynn the
trucks were queued up down the street.
It looks like next week they'll finish the rebar for the carport
& pour the garage & carport pads.
- Monday, 27 August --- Video:
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- Tuesday, 28 August --- Video:
- I don't know why, but I expected this to happen : the camera went dead
at 8:15 this morning. Allison was good enough to give it a whack
around 7:30 in the evening, but it went dead again a few minutes
later. So, for the meantime, there won't be any pictures.
The camera worked flawlessly for the two weeks of watching concrete
cure, now that the framing has begun it's gone kaput. Blech!
Anyway, yesterday they marked the major walls with chalk, and
started laying the sill-plates. Today they put down more sill plates
& looks like they started framing a wall. Hopefully we get the
camera working soon!
- Wednesday, 29 August --- Video:
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- The video's working again. I don't know what I did (other
than annoy my neighbor). I twiddled with a bunch of different
buttons & it seems to work. Let's see if we can capture
the remaining framing.
- Thursday, 30 August --- Video:
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- Friday, 31 August --- Video:
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