Excavating…Dirt removal

Way back in June Don Wayne excavated all around the “L” Shaped House as this adventure began (see it here). The holes he dug created a really big dirt pile out front and a smaller one beyond the garage. We decided to hang on to the dirt until the landscaping was close to being complete. That day finally arrived as Don returned this morning to take the excess dirt away. The first photo shows a brand new view of the “L” Shaped House without our old friend the dirt pile out front.

The video shows Don in the excavator filling one of the two dump trucks hauling dirt from the site. He started in the back yard this morning and was working on the front when I arrived around noon.

The last photo shows the back yard with the big ridge of excess dirt gone. The JLM landscape guys decided to have Don leave most of the small dirt pile beyond the garage to use as they fill in the trenches and finish “sculpting” the back yard. After a month of near record “wetness” it feels good to have this particular effort complete.

Landscaping…Day 2

The JLM landscape crew has been hard at work all morning at the “L” Shaped House. Andy and his guys are preparing the area outside the basement walk-out for the installation of the modular block walls and paver patio. In the first photo below we can see the limestone base in the freshly excavated hole. The top of the lower wall will end up at the white line painted on the far wall. The upper wall will step back a few feet and rise to the grade above.

The next photo shows Andy and the crew starting to excavate for the upper wall. The lower wall will end up being about 2  1/2 ft high, the upper about 6  1/2 ft. They will roughly follow the waterproofing still visible on the back wall of the house.

The video below shows Andy at the controls of the mini excavator as he starts on the upper wall excavation. As you will see the soil at the site is really sticky!

Landscaping…Day 1

The JLM Landscape crew started on the landscaping at the “L” Shaped House this morning. In the first photos below Andy and his crew are installing the 4” PVC pipes that will drain the patio outside the basement walk-out door. We are going to have two 12” catch basins in the outer corners of the patio (each having its own PVC pipe) and a long section of drain tile in the hill to the left that will eventually connect to the vertical PVC pipe in the first photo. the second photo shows the far ends of the PVC pipes “looking out” the hill behind the house.

The video shows Andy filling the front end of the trench with the tracked skid steer. All the rain in October has left the soil completely saturated and makes the Cat 277B sound like it is working pretty hard.

The last photo shows Andy starting to work on the West side of the back yard. He plans to install the crushed limestone base by the walk-out door and “sculpt” the grades tonight making it possible for us to meet on the site tomorrow with Brett and finalize the overall landscape plan.

Grading & Landscaping…Trenching

The JLM landscaping crew dug a pair of trenches at the “L” Shaped House this morning. The first trench will house PVC pipe for the drain system in the patio area outside the basement walk-out door. The plan calls for two 12” drain boxes at the outside corners of the patio connecting to two 4” diameter PVC pipes that will run all the way to the hillside beyond the utility pole. The first photo shows the trench viewed from the walk-out door in the basement.

The next photo shows the trench for the patio drains from an upstairs window. The last photo shows the excavator working on a second trench for the electrical power lines. This trench will house a pair of PVC pipes that will bring power, and the cable/phone lines to the service entrance on the garage wall.

Grading…Semi-finish

The excavating crew came back today to do a couple of jobs including a semi-finish grading of the front and East side of the “L” Shaped House. They added some fill around the foundation and spent some time working on the grading in front of the breezeway and garage. The first photo shows the freshly graded front corner of the house.

We want to have a close look at the grade along the East side of the “L” Shaped House as we decide exactly how to deal with the stairs to the breezeway. This photo shows the breezeway entrance and the grade in front of the garage. The whole East side of the house looks different with most of the dirt left over from the original excavating spread around and the grade transitions better defined.

The last photo shows the grade around the back side of the garage. It looks like the choices Paul made earlier related to the garage floor height and grade are going to work well. The pitch to the maple tree seems fine and the transition to the opposite side works nicely.

Rough Grading and Basement floor…

I did not make it to the “L” Shaped House yesterday (it rained all day and looks like it will rain all day today as well). We got almost 2 inches of rain with this storm (so far) that also included tornados in downtown Minneapolis (KARE Link).  Surprisingly…somewhere during that time the excavators showed up and removed the basement floor. The soaking rain is second blessing because it will (again) help to settle the newly back-filled foundation walls. The panoramic photo (and the one below it) show the rough grading around the North West corner of the house a little better than pictures from the other night.

The machinery entered the house through the basement walk-out doorway. The site is a slippery, muddy mess. The clay in the soil sticks to your shoes making them into clown shoes after just a few steps.

The basement with the floor removed and the bracing for the back-filling operation in place. We took the floor out to provide complete access for the new plumbing and to facilitate installation of the drain tile waterproofing system we have opted to include. The heavy rains and resulting puddles (lakes?) make this decision seem appropriate. It will also be comforting to have a really good look at the water and sewer connections to the house.

 

The old basement floor in a pile at the top of the driveway.

Backfilling and Grading…

Late this afternoon Paul called with an update saying that the backfilling and rough grading of the site was well under way. The girls and I visited The “L” Shaped House on our way home from the Pratt’s house and took the these photos just as the sun disappeared. The grading around the front and side really changes the “look and feel” of the site (it no longer feels like the house is way too high). The rough grading out back so radically changed the landscape that I could not get used to it before darkness fell. We will now get together with Brett and talk about how many walls to build…what to build them with…and where they will go.

Helen, Anna, and I decided to have a ceremonial “first basement walk–in/walk-out” just before we left for home… fun stuff!