Our Hole New House

I do actually remember trying to dig a hole to China when I was a child.  At the time I didn't know it would be an 8,000 mile trip through molten lava.  A couple of years ago we actually did go to China, although in an airplane this time.  Which if you think about it too long, is just as weird as digging your way there with a shovel.  As an adult digging is my least favorite gardening activity.  Mostly because it's awful hard to do.  But after our builder Jason called to say excavation would start on Thursday morning, I felt like a kid on his way to China.  I was very excited, distracted from Wednesday's activities and ready to hop out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to be ready in time for the big machines.

So, in short, we have a hole!  It's nowhere near China, but it cost more than two tickets for the tour we took.  We consider it to be well worth the money since the idea is to fill our beautiful new hole with our beautiful new house.

The old foundation from a previous house that was taken down decades ago.  The stone from this foundation was separated from the soil and will be sold to a quarry for eventual use as somebody's garden wall.  In fact we carried a bunch off to the side for our "can't get here soon enough" garden.

Vinnie, the highlift bulldozer driver was a true artist.  And after less than 2 days, here's what we have:

We are standing in the basement (we have to have 9 foot basement ceilings in this part of the city!).  One floor up from where we're standing would be the hallway between the kitchen and living room.

Something you might not know about Isabel (she's the black one above).  She loves freshly dug soil, so probably she was the most excited about this phase of the project.  Incidentally, the round, rusted object in the upper left corner is an old water heater if you're interested.  We also found car parts, though no whole car yet, and also more clothing and the soles of shoes?!?

Onward and upward,

Mark, Mark and Isabel