This was the day we had been waiting for...Ground-breaking day! Seven years in the making and many, many revisions in our heads as to what might come. On May 31, 2023 the excavator showed up and started carving the slope and shaping the ground for our foundation.
Our contractor Brian, of LJ Allen Construction Inc. (we'll write more about Brian later), had marked the lot with foundation lines and depth and altitude levels for the grade beams, foundation, garage floor and the first floor.
At the end of several days of excavation we had a large hole in the ground, a good idea of the slope of our future driveway and location of the courtyard in front of the house.
Mind you, before we had a hole in the ground we had a pole. Really. Those of you who receive our holiday newsletter will remember that in our 2022 missive, instead of showing you the progress on our forever home we proudly displayed a pole...That we paid for...Out of the kindness of our hearts. Because the utility companies in their wisdom had strung utility lines to our neighbors home that traversed our property. (By the way, we now proudly have a Port-o-John next to that wonderful utility pole!)
We are just two months into construction as of this writing and every day is just as exciting as we thought (hoped) it might be.