Wow. Can you believe this picture is only about six hours later. Concrete is poured and first floor framing is going quickly.

Grading complete - walls going up

A lot is happening. Yesterday Mark (the Loader operator) finished all the grading. We hauled a lot of dirt to the neighbors house for a berm. The framers got the first floor plate installed and were kind enough to put up a temp. railing around the stair cutout so my 5 year daughter wouldn’t fall in (her running around the newly framed first floor scared them). D&S Foundations got the structural sub floor for the garage ready for inspection this morning by the structural engineer. Later today the concrete will be poured. The framers look like they are ready to put up the first section of wall.

Backfilling

The first floor decking was finished today. The garage and foundation was all backfilled and the yard graded. The soils engineer said that Mark (loader operator) does a great job and the backfill was good. There was a water truck on hand wetting the soil down.
The water line was also connected into the basement yesterday. Now the foundation crew just needs to finish pouring the one remaining window well and the garage slab. The excavator seems to be very good about getting a good grade for drainage and will put a good swale in back to route the water from the hill above away from the house.

First floor decking just about done

Lot’s of action today. The framers are finishing up putting the first floor decking in place (they finished the TGIs and rim joists yesterday). The excavator was starting to backfill the garage area which will have a structural slab.  Within the next day or two the concrete pumper will pour the concrete slab for the garage and finish up a couple of window wells. Then the excavator will backfill (one tractor) and compact (a vibrating unit on a backhoe).  A water truck will be on hand to wet the soil so it expands (we have bentonite in the soil) and a soil engineer will observe all of this to insure the soil is property compacted and is the proper density.  The framers have been using their four wheel drive forklift/crane a lot to move material in place.