Week 6 - The Footings

By my calculations, we are now three weeks behind. At this pace the project will take more than six months, which isn't going to make me very happy. OTOH, they are finally putting things in instead of taking things out, so that's fun. You can see the big impressive hole where my basement wall used to be, the temporary support wall, and the big pile of dirt in my back yard.

The footing forms were set...

...and early in the week the concrete guy arrived and started preparations.

Soon an alarming amount of concrete was being poured into various places in my yard.

Then it was quickly shaped and smoothed.

The next day the forms were removed and (ta-da) actual concrete clearly defined the placement of my addition, garage and the retaining walls beside the driveway.

After that forms started going up for the foundation walls that would sit on top of the new footings. Soon I had a forest of wood walls in front of the house ...

...a clearly defined garage area ...

... and where the retaining walls will be beside the driveway.

One addition at this point was to hook up my neighbor with the sub-contractor about the retaining wall on his side of the driveway.

The original plan called for a wall that gradually dropped, matching the slope behind it, until it tailed out at the sidewalk. With very little extra effort or cost, my neighbor arranged to have the wall come to the corner full height and merge into his concrete steps. Then the slope behind it would be leveled to the wall, which dramatically improves his yard.

Week 7 - The Foundation