Basement is backfilled

Ron and Trevor on the excavator, yeehaw!

Facing the back of the house looking to the left. We finally decided the layout of the basement will be the kitchen against the very farthest wall and the bathroom will be in the "nook" area.

Facing the back of the house looking to the right.

Another shot of facing the back of the house. Kind of gives you an idea of the backyard (or lack thereof).

This weekend Ron worked at the lot all day Saturday and got the majority of the material needed to the lot that we need for backfilling the basement. Then on Sunday Ron, Trevor and I all headed to the lot to bale the material into the basement and level it all out. Luckily we had the excavator there and used that for the most of it and that way could avoid having to use a wheelborrow for the whole thing. So Ron ran the excavator and Trevor and I got to shovel and rake to get the material to the edge of the walls. Next Monday the plumber will be out to start installing the pipes that will be under the basement floor and then the floor will be poured and hopefully some walls will start to go up!

Yards are in!

Standing to the left of the house looking across the "front lawn".

Standing to the left of the house again (same location as above picture) but looking down at the "side lawn". I think this is going to be the general location of Trevor and I's vegetable garden. He has been requesting a veggie garden since we bought the lot, so I figure I better follow through on it.

Standing on Cherry Rd (upper rd) looking at the "front lawn"/front of the house. The fill here is a little deceptive because it almost looks like you can drive into the garage, well you could but you would need the excavator to lift your car out! =)

Here I am standing to the left of the house looking into the basement, which yes has some water in it. The drains are capped at the moment as to not fill them with backfill (no worries). Also you can see about 1/2 of the "back yard" in front of the excavator.

Okay you really have to use some imagination. I imagine I will be using that line frequently throughout this process so bear with me. Ron drove truck and we hired another truck to haul in drain rock for the footing drains and downspouts and we also had another one of the guys from work running the dozer and excavator. There were able to get all of the backfilling done on the outside of the foundation (for the most part). The garage and basement still need to be backfilled but Ron is hoping to get the basement done this weekend. The garage isn't a huge hurry since it doesn't get poured until after the construction is already underway. The native material was/is still pretty wet but after a couple weeks of some nice sunny weather it will be as hard as a rock, a great base for the topsoil, driveway, etc.