weekend project.

[imported_Steven Bauer]

Mary and I had a light schedule this weekend so we decided to put a foundation under the downstairs bathroom:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid22/p61b546fb66dd3f8a29159fa8d53a825f/fda7552a.jpg

It turns out that our 12 year old is great with a backhoe!
While we had the machine we figured we might as well dig out a foot of topsoil and fill the hole with stone dust for a patio. So we carried 2.67 tons of stone dust to the backyard in wheelbarrows. It was such a tight fit getting the backhoe into the yard - there was about 6 inches of extra room between the house and the fence.
I just love hydraulics! I'd never operated anything like this before, it really was fun. And much less expensive than I thought it would be. I have the foundatin about half finished, I hope to have it done by next weekend.
Steven

foundation pics (http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=4291734403)

[skuthorp]

A mate of mine was given an afternoon with a BIG buldozer for a wedding present. He says it was the last fun he ever had.

[Jim Goodine]

Steven, you're making us a little nervous putting a foundation and a patio in before the boatshop slab. What if our wives see this display of misguided labor? If you feel the urge to do any more house projects, please post here first and we'll get a few of the committee members to stop by your place. They are great at helping you see the true meaning of life. And anyway, your wife and your boy are on photographic record as being perfectly capable of completing any project without you.

[Donn]

Steven...the little back-hoe looks like a blast! Mind if I ask what the rental fee was? I can see all sorts of lawn-elimination potential here.

[imported_Steven Bauer]

Jim - as I hope to show you - on the 10th when you come through Portland - I already built the boatshop! Our garage, a 20' by 25' two storey barn really, was built on 6x6's just sitting on a pile of rocks in a ditch. This was fine for eighty or ninty years 'til the ground level rose enough to rot out the 6x6's. I figure this rot happened over the last twenty or so years. House and garage were built in 1892. So, when we bought the house the back left corner of the garage was down 11 inches! Two years ago I had the whole thing jacked 10' into the air and had an excavator come in and dig for a full foundation under it. I built the foundation myself, my first foundation job! So my shop is under the garage, it is connected at the basement level under the new breezeway. That way I can have the ground floor of the garage to keep boats in. And to build Eun Na Mara.

Donn, I rented the backhoe from Wicks Lumber. The rate was $150 a day, but... The weekend rate was one and a half days - $225. Delivery and pickup were $30. And the best part - they delivered it friday morning at 10 am and didn't pick it up untill 11am monday. So for $255 I had it for over three days. Most of the damage to the house came in the first hour or so. I guess I should have started with the patio, not the part under the house.
Oh, be very careful when your wife is a little closer to the bucket than she should be. Actually, I think it was the arm that hit her. She was fine though, really. Nothing that an ice pack and a few Advil couldn't cure.
Steven

[imported_Steven Bauer]

And Jim, the shop slab even has radiant heat in it!
Donn, our goal for the backyard is no grass, just patio and walkways and raised beds for flowers and a small kitchen garden.
Steven

[NormMessinger]

Um, Steven? Shouldn't you pour the foundation first then build the house?

--Norm

[Greg H]

Yeah those things are a blast. I've used one like that and, there is another one the same size but on tracks, that is even handier in tight spaces. Control everything with a joy stick, it's a hoot.
:cool:

Nice hole.

[Donn]

Oh Norm...yer such a traditionalist.

[PaulC]

It's nice to see all of the awards too! Congratulations Gavin!