Foundation snag

Well, the first "discovery" of significance is that the combination of the water level being higher than anticipated and the soil's capacity for water-induced expansion makes it necessary to put in more drainage and to bring in more "non-expansive" soil for compaction so the footings have a more stable platform.  The impact is that the foundation wall sections we were going to be saving have now been torn out and a bit more excavation and site prep have been done. We'll end up with an altogether new everything now (except the garage, which will just get a facelift).

They've also brought in the additional soil, done the compacting, and done the additional excavating, so the lot is pretty jam packed with piles of dirt waiting to either be hauled away or backfilled around the new foundation, which is supposed to start being poured next week.

Excavation & foundation prep work - real progress while we were gone!

This is what the site looks like today from across the street. The foundation has been cut away on the South and East sides and parts of the West and North. The small remaining part of the foundation has had window holes cut into it, and almost all the excavation work has been completed.

This is a shot of the ground water test pit (I didn't know there was such a thing, but am glad they did one). It shows that the soils report was a bit off in stating that we had ground water at 12 feet. It's more like 6 feet or so, which can be easily addressed with a different drainage strategy than we started with.

The two shots below show the large cutout for the NW bedroom's egress window in the North wall and the smaller window cutout in the West wall.

This is a shot from the basement level looking basically West towards the garage. It shows how the lower level is fairly shallow, allowing it to feel like a garden level house with the windows at normal heights. The new house will overlap the garage by a couple of feet, but be set about 6 feet to the East so there will be a walkway between the two.

Next steps are to install more of the geothermal mechanical systems, redo the sewer lateral and water meter, and then put down the gravel bed and pour the foundation footers and beam support pads. Then will come the foundation walls, blue foam insulation over the gravel, a 6 mil plastic barrier for the radon system, and then the slab pour. Should be done in a jiffy :)