Replacement footing

One of the footings needed to be replaced since when the floor was removed, the post was not even touching the pad. It turns out that the footing blocks were sitting on big rocks placed in the dirt. This did not work so well with our soft sandy soil.

A lot of dirt was moved to level out the floor. With my new laser level, I figured that the house is out of level about 1" front to back and the floor was sloped more than 3". I had to take out about 1.5" of dirt from about 1/2 the floor area. I think this ended up being about 1-2 yards of dirt and had to go out the window in buckets.

Dug the hole for the basin (more dirt to remove!).

Rolled out some large bolders and the useless footing up the ramp (they were not liftable so I would guess >150 pounds each).

Bolder alley...one of these was under the concrete footing...they did end up using rock footings under the concrete footings.

The floor is gone.

The completed the work today...hard to believe 38,000 pounds of concrete can go out a window in 5 gallon buckets (took 3 guys 10 hours to do).

This footing is not even touching the post. The floor must have been holding it up.

Basement Floor

Raya investigates the sewage pump.

Strange depression in one area near foundation crack...

Plumber said he would be done in 1 day...6.5 hours later he said it would take 2 days...

Floor paint removed, but lots of cracks in a wavy slab.

10 doors in the Subaru!

took the back seat bottom out with 2 screws and fit 10 full size doors in with the hatch closed!

Retaining Wall

Gate

Short Fence

After changing our mind a few times, we decided to build a cosmetic fence to provide a bit more privacy, cover up the old graffiti on the neighbor's fence (from our prior house owners), and bridge a gap to the house for a new gate across the driveway.

A lot of mock ups were required for Rachel to approve the final height, material, spacing, spacing change height. Knotty boards were nixed due to them looking too country. The cost is high with the clear cedar boards, but it was not too big and since I built it myself, it still cost much less than hiring a fence builder.

It is 24' long and 7'6" high. After building it, I know why no one builds fences this way. No 2 boards are ever the same, so you really do not want to butt them together. Also suffered through getting all different board sizes from Lowes, Home Depot, and the 2 good lumber yards.

It took ~$1000 of wood (8' cedar 4'x4'x8' with metal post is $82/each!)and ~20 hours of labor.

We still have to build the gates!