Friday, 28 September 2012

Sleuth is building a house - Part I

Here are the first photos of Sleuth's new house, with her own captions.

Hey Sleuth, we expect more pictures as the building progresses, so we can follow this interesting project step-by-step.

Staking out the excavation area on the original hill, which was covered
in scrub sumac, briars and other icky stuff.

Heavy equipment starts digging in.

First boulder dug up. We called it the gnome hole boulder. It has lots of nooks and
crannies in it as a result of pockets of oxidized pyrite.

It's starting to look like a hole. Lots and lots of shale. We'll be using that for
backfill and landscaping.

Another really great boulder pulled out of the hole. Lots of tiny fossils in it and sparkly stuff.

A view from above. Dan'l stands in the middle of what is the first floor.

The Amvic block arrives!

There's a cement truck in my living room! Pouring footers for the walls.

More cement. The trench is for a wing-shaped retaining wall.

Dan'l next to a pile of blue clay. There's enough clay to keep me busy making stuff forever.

Huge slabs of shale! Not sure what I'll do with these, but I'm pretty sure it will be spectacular.

Wall is going up. Yes, that's water. We hit a spring, but no worries, we have a plan!

Wee Christmas trees spared. Didn't even know these
two little guys were up there.

 Thank you, Sleuth.