Sculpting with giant tools

My friend Len is real busy these days. He decided to give me a quick lesson on the bulldozer and let me push the gravel around today. It was like sculpting with the biggest tool I've every handled. Three trucks hauled gravel in all day and we managed 510 cubic yards into the hole. It will take another 2-300 cubic yards to bring things back up to the level we need for the footings. 

I've owned and operated a small tractor with a bucket for nine years but a bulldozer is a whole different animal. It was all hand controls on Len's bulldozer and in spite of moving slow there seemed to be lots happening at once. It took a little getting used to but I managed to flatten each load of gravel as it came off the trucks. 

Every few loads I jumped from the tractor to the giant roller/packer we had rented to pound the gravel into place. The roller shook everything around including the old house and all the stuff in it. There is little chance the new house will settle like the old one did. The soils engineer dropped by during the day to check on things and gave the job his blessing. He will stop by one more time tomorrow when the task is complete.

By tomorrow I should be practically an expert on the bulldozer. :)  I think I enjoy my regular job more.

-grampa dan

First you dig a hole, then you fill it in.

Over the last week my friend Len has been using his excavator to dig the hole for the new house. Topsoil is deep in these parts and all that ground had to be moved out of the way. We were not yet in a super rush and he could do the digging after his other work and on weekends. It worked for us. He dug up and moved well over a thousand cubic yards of dirt. It is piled on two sides of the old house in massive piles and will be used to shape the grounds when the new house is done. Tonight the last scoop of dirt came out of the massive hole.

Tomorrow the engineer will come to take a look and let us know if we can start to fill the hole back in. We won't be filling it back in with dirt of course but rather proper aggregates. It will all be packed into place with a large mechanical roller as per the engineer's instructions.

We may just get the building permit tomorrow as well. Here's hoping...

-grampa dan

Picture this

I have the ability to simply imagine something and even seeing it completely finished in my mind's eye. Janis has to see to believe. When we are doing a project like the house we have plenty of show and tells along the way to bring her up to speed and keep her in the loop. Today I assembled a few of the window bucks (forms) which mimick the final window sizes. I set things up, carefully measured and then used a felt pen to draw lines on the forms showing where the window frames would be, and where the glass would start. The two largest windows of the house are circular, with multiple panels making up the whole. Then I gave Janis a call so she could really see just how things would be when we were done.

I also provided a place we could kneel to view the mocked up windows for they would start two feet off the floor. Any fears the windows might be too small vanished in an instant for she didn't have to imagine the size any longer. While we were at it I showed her a few of the other windows as well. Janis' verdict. Perfect! Keep building!

-grampa dan