Pre-Construction Activities

That sign describes what we've been doing for almost 10 years since we purchased our property near Eagle Harbor. It sometimes seemed as if the big dream would never be fulfilled, but we kept the faith, and kept plugging along.

Things are getting exciting now! The pre-construction phase has kicked into high gear during the last 2 weeks. Remember, the basement walls were erected in June of 2007. The basement floor hadn't been poured and the walls hadn't been backfilled, so Steve had to remove some vegetation from inside the basement and from the trench around the exterior of the basement walls. You can see one of the piles created during that process in this shot - near the base of the trees in the foreground. This photo is directed toward the back of the house that will be mostly glass. The bump-out will be the great room.

As you know, we had an unusually late Spring with a rapid meltdown. The excavator thought the dirt inside the basement was a bit spongy and suggested we install some tiles for drainage. So, Steve got a good workout while digging a trench around the interior - about 10-12" deep.

That was a lot of work.

No wonder he was hungry when he came home for dinner!

Memorial Day gave us the opportunity to take a trip to Menards in Marquette - 2 hours away under the best of circumstances. I enjoyed the scenic waterfall at the brief stop we made at the Phillip A. Lynwood Roadside Park.

We spent a record 7-1/2 hours at Menards, but we saved "big money" as advertised.

Our bones were weary, and the sun was setting as we drove back home to Calumet.

Our excavator and a 2-man crew met Steve on our property on Wednesday.

They went right to work using the Bobcat to begin backfilling our basement with sand we had purchased 3 years ago.

You can see the small compactor in that last photo. Here's a side shot of the great room bump-out. Our sand piles are in the background.

The tile was set in place in Steve's trench.

Stone was hauled in.

Stone was dumped in the trench.

Next, went the sheeting.

More dirt on top of that.

Here's a better shot of the sandy backfill. You can see how much has been added.

This shot shows you what's left of our sand piles. It should be enough to finished backfilling the walls when it's time to do that.

That should catch you up on the pre-construction activities. More to come!

All is well in the Keweenaw.