A LEVEL PAD LEADS TO MORE DIGGING

A level pad

On May 6th Evan completed the preparatory work on the pad.  The northeast corner behind the casita caused the biggest delay as it was solid rock and Evan had to spend some extra time with the 5,000 lb hammer cutting the embankment back a bit and getting it vertical.  By raising the elevation of the southern edge of the pad by a few inches we were able to avoid having to bring in any outside fill dirt during the pad prep portion of the build.  This was a good thing as it keeps with our overall vision statement.

2nd Meeting of the Minds

We had a second meeting of the minds, this time with the addition of the concrete team, and made the final decision on where each building would be located.  After we had painted the outline of each building on the ground we decided to rotate the garage 10 feet towards the house to provide a little extra room for the electric utility trench on the north side of the garage.  We think we have it all planned out on paper and then when you put it into the real world there always seems to be a need for a tweak or two.  So now that we have a level pad and the building locations decided, the excavation of the foundation begins.

Foundation footer trenches for east end of the house

Foundation footer trenches for west end of the house