The temperature hit the low 40s (F) today so it was a nice sunny day to visit the job site. I got word from Matt that the trusses will be ready in 1.5 -2 weeks. Talking to Great Oaks GM Bob Porter, he said that's enough time to get out of the way of the crane and two semi trucks that will be needed to bring the trusses in. They started work on the stone retaining walls near the house on Thursday last week, so this is what two days of work looks like.
As a refresher, here's the plan as it was submitted to the city.
The two dark gray walls are undergoing implementation right now. They've started on the lower (upper) wall so far.
They excavated the hill where the two walls will be and put down small crushed stone as a base for the stone. I'm not sure how deep this trench is, but from the plans submitted to the city, the base is supposed to be 12" deep and 2AA crushed limestone. The stake you see is where the stairs will come down. On paper, the wall looks huge, but seeing it on the ground, and with its proximity to the boulder stones that will be circling the small stand of trees, it doesn't look like it's going to be that big. The foundation you see is for the lower wall.
You can see how the ground slopes away from the wall, just as the plans show. It looks like there's a little deviation from the plan because the wall was supposed to come off the corner of the house, but the gas meter is there so it had to be moved in a bit. I don't think this is a big deal. If that stake is where the stairs come down, then yeah, it feels small. I'm sure it will look great though.
Here are the first two stones laid in. The pipe you see buried in the rubble back fill is the pipe that was tied into the form-a-drain. Pretty good idea to bring it behind the wall, since the wall will already have a 4" perforated pipe behind it to carry water away to daylight. It's neat how these two stones fit so well together. I'm not sure if they made it this way or were just lucky. This is clearly where the skill of the install becomes a larger expense.
Here's a roll of the geo-fabric used to separate the rubble drainage layer from the soil back fill. It's much thicker and stronger than the small rolls you'll find in the local big box hardware store. I think there was some more stone delivered too because it seems like there are more piles.
The crushed limestone is very solid. I didn't see a vibration compacter on site so they either took it with them or just used the heavy machinery to press it down. The stones are dry laid, relying on only their own weight to hold them in place.
It looks like they back filled all of the cement retaining wall. All the piles of crushed concrete aggregate are gone from the street but there's one in front of the garage now. I think they might have just moved it from the street to the site and used some of it for the back fill. Some more dirt was removed from the large piles, but at the same time, the overall height was increased due to the spoils of the stone retaining walls.
I think there's more here than there was at the street. I'm sure more will be needed especially if it's placed behind the boulder retaining walls as well.
You can see the stakes in the ground that mark where the circular retaining wall around the stand of trees will go. The end of the stone retaining wall doesn't meet up here and there's a little slope of grass between the two. In paper, this slope looks pretty large, but as it's laid out here, it doesn't look like it will be more than 5 feet. The wall surrounding the trees is pretty much right up against the driveway so I can get a little better sense of how the land will be used.
I climbed on top of the dirt pile and got a nice shot of the concrete retaining wall. It's hard to believe that all that height will have to be back filled to get the motor coach to grade. We really are adding a lot to the land here compared to its original state. I was just looking back at pictures of when we first bought the lot. Everything was almost flat in this area.
Once nice thing about the cold weather is that the wetlands solidify enough to carefully navigate without sinking up to your knees. I ventured out to the lands edge to take a shot back towards the back of the house. The path you see is kind of our proposed run where the catwalk over the wetlands will be. It's not straight back and perpendicular to the house, but it's at an angle that offers the shortest path and the best view. The plan is to have whatever catwalk over the wetlands the DEQ will allow, then maybe have a nice platform at the waters edge to which a permanent dock can interface into the water. There are neighborhood deed restrictions governing how wide the dock can be so I'll have to make sure to review them before we implement.
There are two pieces of machinery on the lot, this little excavator and the tracked bobcat with the bucket and fork. There's a blade attached to the front that they can use to grade and scrape. I don't think its strong enough to move the stones, so they probably just use it to excavate and fill/level.
So yeah, there's more stone here now that I remember from last time I was here, so it seems like the walls should be pretty impressive. The dumpster is still on the site, but it's full so they should probably remove it soon. The weather is holding out nicely so the working conditions aren't too miserable. There isn't any snow predicted this week, with temperatures in the 30s-40s. Hopefully it will still hold out to get the trusses up. We really need to move on taking delivery of the windows and getting measurements out for cabinets.
Here's the pile of the 2AA crushed limestone used as a base for the stone walls. There seems to be a good amount here, but I'm not sure if it's enough for the whole build. This is the same stuff that will be used as a base layer for the driveway.
We have a meeting with our interior designer, Margaret, this week to take a look at tile and stone. We got approval from the HOA for our exterior building material. We'll have to use wood shingle on the first floor to satisfy a deed restriction, but it will be painted and all under the 8' porch, so exposure shouldn't be a big issue. We're still hammering out other details of the landscaping plan, but hopefully we'll be able to close that chapter and concentrate on the build itself. We might find some time to visit the site after our meeting with Margaret. If not, I'll go up next weekend to check out the wall progress.
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