We have a (very expensive) hole in our yard

Despite the rain last week, our contractors were able to dig the basement and pour the footings.

There were happy dances being danced. (By me.)

In case you are following along, I thought I’d share the process.

We chose our contractor after getting a few quotes. We haven’t needed to hire many contractors, but have found a few things we focus on when interviewing and getting quotes:

• Are they prompt in getting back to us initially? (Some contractors took literally weeks to even return a phone call to get a quote.)
• What’s the timeline? (Some of the folks we talked to had a really long waiting period.)
• How experienced are the contractors? (We wanted to choose someone with experience.)
• Are references favorable? (We made sure to talk to people who had actually worked with the contractors on new construction.)

Only then did we even think about price. Because we found that most of our bids were in a pretty close range. And we’d much rather work with someone we trust then worry about a few hundred dollars.

Our concrete folks came out to our house a month or so ago and put everything into a tablet electronically. This gave us a really good idea of actual costs of the concrete based on the grade of our land. Much of the basement will be exposed and we chose to frame most of the walls over pouring concrete (for cost and looks.)

Once the bid came back, we decided to also use this contractor to dig the basement. The price was competitive and we were told the process may go more smoothly for the timeline.

So, last week, the digger showed up at our house one afternoon. And the next morning, a two-man crew showed up to dig a big hole.

But not before my little assistant checked out the machinery.

Ryan and our rep had staked everything out and talked through all the plans in great detail beforehand. The morning of the digging, there was a large game of connect the dots, which gave us an idea of the wall locations.

Then, it was time to dig.

Henry and I watched the process to see the basement forming.

Because much of the basement will be exposed, it wasn’t a very deep hole. It wasn’t very long before they started leveling everything.

Then they worked their way around the edges to dig deeper for the footings.

And this guy nearly gave me a conniption by getting so close to the septic. (But he didn’t ever go over it, just like he told us he wouldn’t.)

By early afternoon, the hole was done well dug. 
And they next day, they poured the footings. (Which I missed because I didn’t know it was happening.) We did get a little rain in the evening after pouring, but all seems to be well and it was dry the next day.

Next up, they’ll start forming and pouring walls. We’re hoping for good weather this week so it all comes together.

 

Seeing a hole is pretty exciting – we’ve been looking forward to building this house for ages, and it’s finally coming together.