The "Blog" - Part 1
Feb. 24, 2003 to July 30, 2003

Prior Journals

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

• We (and the camera) survived the first monsoon storm of the season. 1/2" - 3/4" of rain and 50+ MPH winds.

• Lower level sewer plumbing completed. Inspection is scheduled for tomorrow.
  

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

• Plumbing trenching completed.
  

Friday, July 25, 2003

• Footing forms removed. Back hoe should be in on Monday to dig the sewer trench.
  

Thursday, July 24, 2003

• Footings have been poured. Up next is the trenching for the lower level plumbing and  preparing for the pad. Turns out the tie down bolts could be either the big 24" zigzag kind, or little 10"ers. Go figure. See the pictures.
  

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

• Inspector had an issue with some 24" tie downs. Working the problem. Still a chance we could pour stem walls on Wednesday, but I'd be surprised.
  

Monday, July 21, 2003

• Engineering's done, plans are complete and an re-inspection is scheduled for tomorrow. Keep those fingers crossed.

• Laurel and I went looking at tile over the weekend.
  

Thursday, July 17, 2003

• We've run into a small snag during the shear wall analysis process. The set of plans that was used for the analysis did not contain a current configuration of the kitchen exterior wall. Doing a little rework on the analysis and then the plans go back to Yurkovic Design.

• Applied to the city for the water meter tap.

• "Temporary" website is almost pau (finished). Finally!!! Seems nothing moves quickly on this project.
  

Wednesday, July 9, 2003

• Doing a little additional engineering and fixing the rebar placement.
  

Tuesday, July 8, 2003

• Stem wall is red tagged for steel placement, tie downs (normally put in during the pour) and a mystery shear wall item.
  

Monday, July 7, 2003

• Stem wall framing is complete. Waiting for an inspection of the rebar and then we'll be ready to pour stem walls.
  

Wednesday, July 2, 2003

• Most of the stem wall framing is complete.
  

Tuesday, July 1, 2003

• Footings have been poured. Next up is forms for the stem walls.
  

Monday, June 30, 2003

• Inspection passed. Should be pumping concrete tomorrow.
  

Friday, June 27, 2003

• Inspection didn't get done today. Maybe Monday...
  

Thursday, June 26, 2003

• Field density report showed up. Inspection requested for tomorrow.
  

Wednesday, June 25, 2003

• Waiting for Foree & Vann to provide the field density reports for the dirt. I guess we need this prior to requesting the steel inspection. Tick tock...
  

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

• Moved the Porta Potty back to it's rightful place. How would you like to have that job.

• Installed rebar for the footings.
  

Monday, June 23, 2003

• Setting up reference markers for the rebar guys.
  

Sunday, June 22, 2003

• House footings were finally dug on Thursday. The other retaining walls, which were suppose to be done at that same time, seem to have gotten missed.

• The blue diamond-shape in the upper-right quadrant of the live picture is the handy work of a few local miscreants who decided to dump the porta-potty down the hill.
  

Wednesday, June 18, 2003

• It's been almost two weeks since the dirt work was completed, but no footings. As a form of therapy for construction delayitis, we decided to put together a little model. Take a look!
  

Wednesday, June 11, 2003

• House is placed on the lot and the footings are outlined. Still need to locate and mark the retaining wall footings for the north side. This wall holds up the entrance-way.

• The driveway retaining wall was shot 8" low, but we'll fix that up with a minor do-over.
  

Monday, June 9, 2003

• Lot's set to go. Foundation's ready to be staked and then it's time to dig the footings for the house and the other retaining walls.
  

Thursday, June 5, 2003

• The lot is ready for building. That was quick!
  

Wednesday, June 4, 2003

• The lot's almost back to the original grade level. Today, the trucks just kept coming and coming and coming. At 10 to 12 cubic yards per load, it takes a while to haul in 800 cubes of dirt. This "dirt" phase, which began in early March, should be wrapped up Thursday. Nothing is easy.
  

Tuesday, June 3,  2003

• After a couple of weeks of things being quieter than a Beijing salad bar, we've got dirt. Driveway back filling is just about complete. The grade on the north side of the lot has a couple of feet to go.
  

Wednesday, May 21,  2003

• Waiting for dirt...
  

Thursday, May 15,  2003

• Retaining wall is being waterproofed today. Backfilling is scheduled to start on May 20th. We'll be trucking in 800 cubic yards of dirt from Boss Kean's ditch.
  Boss Paul: "That ditch is Boss Kean's ditch. And I told him that dirt in it's your dirt. What's your dirt doin' in his ditch?"
  Luke: "I don't know, Boss."
  Boss Paul: "You better get in there and get it out, boy."
  

Aloha Friday, May 9,  2003

• Grouting of the wall was completed. This little retaining wall only took 39 days to complete. Now it needs to cure for 7 days before we can backfill. Pictures...
  

Thursday, May 8,  2003

• During the night, the weep hole fairy came. That's all for today.
  

Wednesday, May 7,  2003

• Wall engineering issues have been overcome. Waiting for the masons to come and grout the wall. Then there are 7 days of curing. Tick tock, tick tock...
  

Tuesday, May 6,  2003

• On-site meeting is scheduled to for today to discuss the red-tag issues. Think this will ever end? Right now, we're planning on having the slab party in June of 2007. These little buggers have cost us a month
  

Friday, May 2,  2003

• Yup! You guessed it. Red-tagged again. This time it's 'cause we supposedly need a 'use permit'.
  

Thursday, May 1,  2003

• Block laying completed. Waiting for inspection of rebar. Wall pictures...
  

Wednesday, April 30,  2003

• Most of the driveway retaining wall blocks were set.  See the pictures...

• After this, the rebar in the wall to be inspected. When that's green-tagged, the wall gets grouted (filled with cement) and then it has to cure for 7 days.
  

Monday, April 28,  2003

• Driveway retaining wall footing has been poured!!! See the pictures...
  

Thursday, April 24,  2003

• After a little intervention with the city, the retaining wall is green-tagged. Cement trucks should be on the way (if you believe that, you'll believe Sam the Dog knew how to knit).
  
   

• Some people would say we're not making progress, but look...
  

Wednesday, April 23,  2003

• We're at the third chomp at the apple--still red-tagged. First we needed the retaining wall permit, next it was engineering on the specifications for the wall. Now the inspector wants a drawing of what the wall will look like. Since the construction workers were able to figure out how to build it from the specs, doesn't it seem a bit strange that we'd need a drawing just to approve the work?

• Rubble removed.
  

Tuesday, April 22,  2003

• Inspection request didn't get called in on Monday for lack of a permit number. Wall inspection will be requested for Wednesday.
  

Monday, April 21,  2003

• Yurkovic Design faxed the blueprint page containing the wall specs to the engineers and they put their stamp on it. Should be good to go.
  

Aloha Friday, April 18,  2003

• Another week has passed and we've made very little, if any progress. DSD issued the permit for the wall on Monday. Inspection was called in for Wed. Again, he never showed. Inspector did finally show on Thursday and red-tagged it again. This time it was for engineering on the retaining wall. The specs for this wall are contained in the blueprints that were approved by the city. These specs are in table form and are basically engineering boilerplate. Inspector seems to think we need an engineering stamp. This is getting ridiculous!
  

Aloha Friday, April 11,  2003

• Inspector finally showed up and red-tagged the project because the permit for the retaining wall had not been issued. The retaining wall design was on the approved blueprints and we've shelled out thousands of dollars to the city for permits. Not quite sure how this one got missed.
  

Thursday, April 10,  2003

• No activity today. We're waiting for inspection of the retaining wall.
  

Wednesday, April 9, 2003

• Re-bar was formed and placed in the footing trenches. It should be ready for the cement.

• We got a load of 'mystery' dirt. It's right in the middle of the drive.
  

Tuesday, April 8, 2003

• The footing trenches for the retaining wall were refined and extended to include lot line wall footings. This required removing all the remaining (visible) Oleander roots.

• Re-bar for the drive retaining wall was delivered today.
  

Saturday, April 5, 2003

• The job site got a port-a-potty!
  

Friday, April 4, 2003

• Wide trenches were dug for the retaining wall footings. This isn't visible from the web cam since the retaining wall aligns with the South property line wall where the Oleander bushes once lived.
  

Thursday, April 3, 2003

• Driveway retaining wall was staked and the excavating for the wall footer was begun, but the back hoe broke down part-way through the dig because of a dead hydraulic master cylinder. New part is being air freighted from California and we should be digging again on Friday.
  

Wednesday, April 2, 2003

• Engineer was suppose to show up today to stake the drive retaining wall, but couldn't make it. They promised to be there Thursday morning.
  

Tuesday, April 1,  2003

• No action yesterday or today. Engineers are scheduled to stake the driveway retaining wall on Wed. The lot level is now down about 4 feet on the north end and about 8 feet on the south.
  

Monday, March 10 to Saturday, March 29

• The Great Dirt compaction effort.
  Work was done in three major sections, starting from the north end, by digging the loose dirt out until native soil was encountered, then putting the loose soil back, spraying with water then driving over it multiple times with the track hoe or front loader. It was a three week effort to get it compacted to the height for the driveway retaining wall construction. Once the retaining wall is built, the pad level will still need to be raised approx. 7 feet on the South end (where the retaining wall goes) and 4 feet on the North end. March 26th Pictures...
  

Saturday, March 8, 2003

• Following an engineering review, it has been determined that soil is going to need to be removed down to native strata, debris removed, and soil replaced and re-compacted. Bummer!!!
  

Tuesday, March 4, 2003

• Moving the debris today.
  

Monday, March 3, 2003

• Engineering firm used "penitometer" to determine soil compaction qualities. Someone's getting penitometered here, and I think I know who it is.
  

Friday, February 28, 2003

• Soil compaction issues. All work stopped. Too slippery to remove debris.
  

Thursday, February 27, 2003

• Finally figured out a way to end the drought in the southwest--build a house.
  

Wednesday, February 26, 2003

• Raining like crazy. No work today. See what things look like with no shrubs.
  

Tuesday, February 25, 2003

• Most of the roots excavated
  

Monday, February 24, 2003

• Activity at last!!! Most of the oleander bushes were removed (they were huge). Their carcasses lay in  the upper-left part of the picture. Now comes the fun part--removing the root structure. Pictures...

• Construction Cam is finally up in production mode. Up next - moving dirt for the south driveway retaining wall.
  

Prior Journals