It began at the end of June with the arrival of heavy machinery needed for digging the foundation. But first, a number of trees had to be taken down that were too close to the proposed “new wing,” otherwise known as an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU). You can find out why we needed to add onto our house here. A daily blow by blow with videos can be found on my Facebook page here.
There were two trees particularly challenging to take down, as they potentially could hit the house as they fell. Fortunately, the “tree guy,” who happens to be our neighbor, was especially skilled at estimating where trees will fall. His daughter helped take down an especially dangerous tree.
Once the trees were down, it was time to begin digging and preparing the site for the cement slab, which would contain our radiant heat.
All was fine until what we feared the most happened: we hit ledge.
This meant drilling incessantly trying to rout it.
When that didn’t work, we called these people:
Finally, after several rounds of dynamite, the massive offender was conquered:
And we could proceed to the next step – filling the hole with gravel and calling the cement people to begin setting their forms.
The next step: pouring the foundation.