Excavation Begins

There was a lot of activity at 3283 yesterday and today.  Things are moving faster than I had expected. A good thing. The contractor excavated a trench and opened up the northeast corner of the cottage. The concrete blocks from the old 'foundation' fell away amazingly easily. Floor jacks were installed to support the corner of the porch and the corner of the main structure.

Then the excavation continued under the house. They dug this 'trench' to the point where the first 'crib' would be built as a support to one of the main beams that will support and lift the structure. By the end of the day this crib was in place. I'm expecting similar efforts will take place on the other three corners of the building. Stay Tuned.

A lot of sand is going to be removed from the eventual basement. Rather than hauling it all away we decided to create a berm in the woods. The crew excavates with a small endloader and moves it down the drive to the stockpile location in a larger one.

The trench was excavated under the porch and slightly
under the cottage to give access for installing posts.

Patrick and John are installing floor jacks to support the northeast corners of the cottage and the back porch. 

Patrick used the small Cat to trench under the cottage. The face
of the excavation ended up about 18 or 20 feet west of the
porch wall.

Excavated material is moved about half way down the drive to a clearing we made in the woods. Some will come back as back fill around the foundation. The rest will become a berm in the woods.

The crawl space was a tangle of old flexible duct work and fiberglass insulation. Pat cleared the duct work. 

They even let me check out the trench.

Patrick and John built the crib that will support one of the main east-west
beams. In the picture it is higher than it will be when the beam is in place.
And, it IS plumb!!! I saw them put the level on it!!!

3283 as of Wednesday March 6th, 4:30 PM