Day One - Hole

(Brian) The renaissance has begun. At approximately 9:00am after taking the boys to the playground (they were up at 5:30am) we got the call that the digger was here. I practically ran home to see this thing with two boys clinging to their wagon.

Sweating and already hot, I pulled the boys into our neighbors yard and watched them as they tried to take in the digger.

For the most part the boys were a little scared of the digger and that is not a bad thing for what was going on.

It was neat to watch the bucket dig everything out. We forgot to trip the circuit breaker for the power to the garage and when he hit the power, there was a little spark. Ooops.

So begins a new list of items and I'll try and find a way to keep track of them. Today began the first day of no air conditioning. That was disconnected.

Today began also, the first day of no power to the garage, thanks to the spark. Today also began the first time that Andi is/was right with a prediction.

She said we would be without air conditioning for this project. I said they would simply move it. Well, they moved it alright, they moved it out of the way.



The boys and I spent most of the day watching the progress and conversing with Jeff, the excavator. I asked him if he ever dug up anything neat. As a fellow dude, I thought this job would cool if you dug up some treasures or dead bodies.

Well, as it turns out, he's dug up dead bodies before, but they were for graves. He said that during one job, his buddies buried an iron box that was all rusted and taped dollar bills on it. He thought he had dug up some hidden treasure. Too bad it was only a joke.



At the end of the day, we were left with a big hole and a big pile of dirt. The pile wasn't as big as our friends, Jeff and Bridget, but still a lot of dirt. We have one corner of our driveway that was cracked and tread marks from the tires all over the back yard. Luckily we were able to avoid hitting the patio, but just barely.

Tomorrow Kevin and the mason will be out. I'm not exactly sure what they'll be doing, but I imagine they'll be eying up the job. Kevin told us, that by the end of the week we could have a basement floor and wall. Next week he'll be on vacation, so nothing will be done, but that's ok since you want stuff to cure for a bit. Look for an update tomorrow.

***(Andi now writing in response to a comment left by Jeff) This is what was left for backfill...the other (approximately) 11 dump truck loads left as they got filled up. It was a constant rotation of dump trucks throughout the day. Kevin did make a comment about your dirt pile and how it sat there for months...hee hee hee

****(Andi still writing) I think I've written about my regrets in life before...I don't have many but one of them is planting Chinese Lantern behind the house. It's a weed by my definition and has been impossible to kill/get rid of the last few years. Today I turned to Kevin and said, "We are paying $XX,XXX for this addition, do you think you could kill the Chinese Lantern? It upsets me that the plant I hate the most might survive this construction project." He got the attention of the excavator and instructed him to shave the top 6 inches of the remaining flower bed. Excellent, although this is the most expensive Weed-B-Gone we've ever purchased.