May 30th, the forms are removed

Now the forms have been removed and all you see is the concrete forming the wall for the crawl space. This view outlines the expansion of the kitchen, looking from the west of the house.

This is the concrete wall that will be the base of the garage on the north side. Nigel (our bear look alike) sneaked into the picture.

This is a retaining wall, built at the entrance of the garage. The driveway into the garage will have to be built up a lot and this was the only way to hold all the dirt.

And this little nook, next to the garage is where my new jacuzzi type tub will go. Can't wait!

May 29th, Finding the water leak

The big concrete truck ran over a water line leading from the well house to the garage. Apparently the weight of the truck pushed a rock into the pipe. Denis had to get the pick and shovel out to find the source of a leak.


Denis found the leak and with the help of the builder put in a temporary patch.

May 29th, Forms are erected

The foundation workers had to erect wooden forms all around the foundation so they could pour the concrete for the walls of the crawl space and garage walls. It was hot, hard work but they were good at the job and it went fairly quickly.

Notice how close the well house is to the rest of the structure. The new garage backs up to it. We thought sure it would get knocked over by some of the heavy equipment, but it came through ok so far.


In this picture you can see the slim ribbon of concrete with some rebar sticking up out of it. These forms have to be bolted together and strong enough to hold the wet concrete. Then when the concrete dries, the forms are removed and loaded back onto the flatbed trailer that brought them here.

May 28th, Footings are poured

Rick, the builder made us some steps and a little bridge so we and the dogs could navigate the back door easier. Otherwise it was quite a drop to the dirt.

Here is a view of part of the footings with concrete, showing part of the back steps and the board for a bridge.

The footings, looking from the east side of the house.

More of the footings from the north side of the house. It looks like a river of concrete.

May 20th, Digging the Footings for the New Part of the House and the Garage

Big backhoe taking out the tree stump by the well house.

Anton Such is the skilled backhoe operator.
Breaking up the concrete pad that was the back porch.

This is Richard Blake, the builder, and Denis, the helper.

The footings for the garage, two car.

Wally says, "where's the back porch?"

Wally, in his pjs, jumping the trench.

Gas Tank Gets Moved on May 19th

The gas company we get our propane from moved the tank for us and hooked up the new gas line. This wasn't a free service of course but they sure did the move easier than we could have done it ourselves.
Now it's in place on the new concrete pad, and out of the way, back by the garage. Eventually we'll put a privacy fence around it to hide it even more.

Relocating the propane gas tank

On April 30th, the concrete pad for the propane gas tank was poured. You can see the tank in the background, up close to the house. We will build a privacy fence around it so it won't be so unsightly.

This picture shows that the pad is placed out by the garage, and it is on the west side of it. We couldn't put it on the east side because that's where we have our big regular gas tank. Not a good idea to have two types of gas stored so close together.

On May 13th, the plumber arrived with this cute little baby backhoe and a crew to dig the trench for the gas line so we can have the propane tank moved. The older man in the light blue shirt is the dad. You can see him giving instructions to his son who is driving the backhoe. The younger man working in the ditch doing the manual labor is a nephew.

As Denis said, "they are getting a little bit of dirt out of the trench." Mostly it was rock, and some mighty big ones too. Notice the rock in the bucket of the backhoe in this shot. It's a wonder the backhoe stays on the ground.

Today Denis wasn't the ditch digger, but the supervisor. That's a tiring job too, just watching and worrying.

Like Nigel, I stayed in the house until all the workers were gone. Then I came out to inspect the work and serve as model to show off the biggest of the rocks. This is only half. They left the other half in the ground.

Here are most of the bigger rocks they uncovered. The smaller ones they put back in on top of the gas line. These will be used as filler for the foundation work next week. Nigel and Annie happily served as models for this picture. Annie thinks it's great that all these people come to see her. Nigel doesn't.

And here's the completed, filled in trench from the house to the new pad. The gas company will be here next week to moved the tank and hook up the line. The dogs like the fresh dirt to lay on. That's our tractor in the background, not the backhoe.

The Old Back Porch Roof Comes Off

Knowing the removal of the back porch roof was imminent, I took the next two pictures on 4/27/08. It doesn't look like much, but having that roof gave us a place to keep things dry on the back porch.


















These last two pictures taken on 5/2/08 show the back of the house without that porch roof. Looks kind of blank doesn't it? The good thing about it being gone is that it lets a lot more light into the kitchen window above the sink and I'm really enjoying that.

Another Tree Had to Come Down

I took the next two pictures on April 8th to show a big tree (some kind of alder I think) that has to come down. It is in the way of the future back porch and kitchen expansion. Sad to lose it but no choice with the current design.

On 4/27/08 Denis finished taking the tree down. He did it slowly, almost limb by limb to avoid hitting anything valuable and to keep from wearing himself out. In this picture and the next one you can see the stump.