Earthworks

More digging

18 tons of gravel

Moved it by shovel, wheel barrow, tractor...

Filled the French drains

Moving more gravel with the excavator

NW side of house with drains in place, covered, and graded. Next, we'll put a retaining wall in so that dirt doesn't collapse.

Used some of the rocks we've dug up to build a stone wall 

Back yard sculpted into terraces

 Temporary "facilities"

Remains of Former Occupants Found in Crawl Space!

Well, it has been about 400 million years or so since they lived here. 
Pentamerus oblongus lived during the  period when, "The Silurian sea was largely mud-free across Ohio and the climate was tropical, much like that of the present-day Bahamas."

Kitchen, Crawl Space, and Geology

Today was a good day -- the kitchen cabinets were delivered by Ikea! It will be a while before we can install them, but they'll be ready to go when the time is right.

Last week we rented a paint sprayer and, after vacuuming the "ceiling" of the crawl space (joists and underside of the subfloor), spray painted ceiling and walls with a mixture of "oops" paint and some additives to inhibit mold and termites (boric acid, borax, sulfur, and orange oil). This is an experimental concoction that we came up with after a lot of Internet research, so we'll see how it goes. Soon we'll be able to lay down the plastic vapor barrier on floor of the crawl space, and hopefully that will end the work down there for a while.

Here's a "before" shot. The previous owners vented their dryer into the crawl space (bad idea!) and it was really yucky.

An "after" shot of the area of the crawl space that houses the furnace and the pressure tank for the well. You can see what the ceiling of the crawl space looks like now. 

A huge improvement!

More digging today. The geology of our property is really interesting. We ran into a vein of lavender-colored clay:

and a black sandy deposit flecked with gold (mica? pyrite?). (Click on the photos to enlarge.)

You can count on hitting a huge rock about every 3 minutes when digging. We're going to have plenty of material for one heck of a rock wall!

Heavy Equipment

Excavating

Mowing

Working fast because more rain is coming!

Big Beam

We got two very long 2 x 12's up to serve as a header beam between the kitchen and dining room today.

Two 2x12's screwed together (super strong!)

The 2 x 4's that were holding up that wall came out. It's exciting to see the big opening between the two rooms, even though you really have to squint and use your imagination that there will one day be a kitchen and dining room!

While we were working, this robin kept bumping up against the living room window.

I spent some time playing in the muddy clay left by the bobcat. I was trying to get the puddles to drain so that we can eventually finish the grading job. The clay was so heavy and sticky that I abandoned my tools and ended up just making channels with my finger.

I wasn't the only one who had been playing in the mud!

Bobcat

Tom's friend Mike was finally able to get a start on the grading on the up-hill side of the house -- a measure that we hope will improve the drainage and keep water away from the house. Tom and Mike also used the Bobcat to remove the concrete patio between the garage and the house.

Patio chunks

Rotted sill where concrete patio touched the house

Bobcat tracks (artsy shot)

Finished!

We brought in some extra help this week and got tons of work done on the exterior of the house, the kitchen, and the new bath. We can't wait to move in!

APRIL FOOLS!