Almost Have Power

The electrician came and installed the "pedestal" which consists of pressure treated posts and backboard, which houses the meter and the main breaker boxes for our two, 200 AMP circuits. One will feed the house, the other will feed the shop areas. Then the excavator came and dug about a 900 foot long, 42" deep trench and the power company laid the cable in the trench and they covered it back up. Made a mess of our nice driveway but well worth it in the long run. It's raining today so they will be back tomorrow to finish trenching/ laying the remaining 100+ feet  of cable, setting the transformer beside the pedastal and energizing the circuit. For the first time in 13 years, we will actually have power and will be able to plug the camper in! Can't wait.

If everything goes as planned, the concrete will get poured in the shop areas next week and the framing will begin.

Great progress has been made over the past week. All the floor joists are in and the sub-floor is installed. The shop areas that I plan to heat were prepared for us to install the vapor barrier, insulation, wire mesh and the PEX piping. Over the weekend, Lorrie, Christopher and I completed the installation of the PEX piping.

Foundation Work

The foundation for the entire structure is about 60% complete. Next week they will finish all the block work and be ready to start building the sub-floor. If all goes as planned, next weekend we will install the PEX piping for the radiant floor heat in the garage and shop floors that we intend to heat with the outside wood boiler. The weather forecast looks great so I hope this plan holds together.

Breaking Ground (click on pictures to enlarge)

We have broken ground. The day was cold and snow was due to arrive late in the day but the team pulled together. They dug the crawl space that will be under the house portion, dug the footers and poured and finished the footers, all in less than 8 hours.

The first scoop! We have officially broken ground!

Digging and preparing the footers.

Pouring the concrete for the footers.

Finished crawl space, concrete footers done, gravel spread.
Note the snow on the ground.