Week 9 - Backfill

The drain line inspections were passed. Finally all the holes will be filled back in with all the big piles of dirt scattered around and I may be able to navigate the yard again. Yeah!

Heating ducts were also put in under the floor and taped off. It doesn't seem to matter how carefully you go over a change, or how many people agree to it, the person who actually does the work is always the one who wasn't told. I moved the office vent from the north wall, where it was on the original plan, to the east wall because I didn't want it directly under my feet once my desk is in place. I talked to my contractor and the heating sub contractor. We marked the change on his copy and the plan on site, but the guy who actually did the work didn't see them. He had his own drawing from the original layout. However, he came back the next day and moved it.

Meanwhile the backfill crew started to take all the concrete pieces out of the garage/driveway area and throw it back over the wall into the big trench behind it. They got an impressive amount of material thrown over the wall in a fairly short period of time.

The next day was backfill in earnest. Unfortunately I was going to be away for most of the morning. So before I left I went out and talked directly to the head of the crew to make sure he understood that I wanted the trench behind the garage to be left open and the pile of dirt in the back yard to be left alone because I was going to be using it elsewhere.

Three hours later I returned to find ... no hole and no pile. The foreman had given instructions to his mostly non-english speaking crew and moved on to the next job. I was not a happy camper and let several people know it very quickly and somewhat heatedly, about that and the fact that all the fill everywhere is full of rocks, twigs, construction debris and/or general refuse. Larry says that is normal, but as a gardener I find it very annoying. It seems that most people buy topsoil to go over their backfill. Where is the fun in that? I plan on making my backfill into topsoil.

I also found that, in the front, they had sloped the yard to match the profile of the incorrectly built retaining wall all the way across the front, leaving the old cement curb that had formerly divided the lawn from the slope.

Larry came out to see what might be done about the non-trench and the front slope. We agreed that they would dig the hole back out until they hit concrete, and I would deal with it from there. I also decided that I could fix the front myself. Since that will take a while, my biggest concern at this point is how dramatically it slopes. With any rain, the whole thing will end up on the sidewalk in very short order. I'm going to sow a temporary cover crop for now and, if the weather turns, apply more hardy measures.

As Larry explained, it's hard for some people to grasp non-standard instructions, no matter what they agree to, and I'm the first homeowner he's worked with that asked for a hole NOT to be filled. I'll remember that for future reference.

The rest of the backfill seems fine, except for the ever present trash in it. My biggest regret is that I have good garden soil in the front where I want to reinstall my pavers, and clay/silt in the back where I want a garden. Isn't that always the way?

Framing began with the garage and proceeded very fast. With all the other little things that had gone wrong, when they got to the garage roof, I went out to check that they were putting the rafters on 12' rather than 16' centers (another change). They were not, but the framer had just discovered that they were supposed to be, and was on the phone to Larry confirming it even as I showed up. He asked me why I wanted it so over built and I explained about my plan to eventually have a deck/garden on top of the garage. Now everybody knows I'm crazy.

Another on-site change that I went over with both Larry and Mike was to raise the west parapet on the garage roof. I was going to put an 8' fence along the property line to shield my yard from the parking lot, but discovered that, along the garage,this fence would only be 18" higher than the parapet. What would be the point? The taller parapet saves me 14' of fence and leaves a 1' pocket between the garage and the parking lot. I'm thinking that it would be the perfect spot for blackberries or bamboo, well confined and a deterrent to climbing.

On Friday the sub-floor went down and actual walls began to go up!

So by the end of the week, my addition actually begins to like an addition! I'm meeting people from all over the neighborhood who want to know what's going on, especially the long-time residents. One lady even promised to let the original owners of the house know what was going on, since she still knows them.

Week 10 - Framing 1