I have a foundation!

And walls!  Well, I have the framework for SOME walls.  But I have a foundation.  And those are very important, as it turns out.  And they take a LONG time to do.

Last week, there was NO parking on my street within several houses of ours.  And I am still planning on making cookies or something as a thank you/sorry for the trouble/please don't hate me thing for the neighbors.  Why was there no parking?  Because on any  given day, the following trades were at my house:  Carpenters (who are here every day), electricians, concrete guys, and some other random people just wandering in with construction stuff.  Oh!  And there was a backhoe (NOT a bulldozer) in my yard for 2 weeks.  I love having my own backhoe.  Ya gotta  admit, it's kind of cool.  But this isn't about the backhoe.  This is about the foundation.   

I wanted a slab.  The idea of another crawlspace, well, no.  It's just not going to happen.  Not after the incident with the possum.  I will never again provide shelter to scary rodents.  So to have a slab, first they need to dig a hole.  A big hole.  A really big hole.  And lots of smaller holes.  And the holes need to be inspected (and we passed, natch).  Then the HVAC guy comes and puts in ductwork.  And the inspector comes back and is sent away, because when they were moving a big piece of concrete, they, um, accidentally dropped it on the duct.  And squished it.  And that was bad.  So the HVAC guy had to come back and do it again.  I was not here for that part, but I am pretty sure he was REALLY not happy about it.  Because it took him all day to get it just right (you can see it the other post below).  But he did fix it.  And when I came home, the ducts were covered with dirt.  And the gigantic pile of dirt that was next to my house was nicely leveled out back in the giant hole.

And then the concrete started.  And stopped.  Because the truck broke.  Which was kind of funny, because the kids and I were watching out the back window (since we no longer have cable, this is our primary source of entertainment), and when it started pouring, Ian said, "wow, that's a lot of concrete!" and then the concrete guys (my guys, not the one with the truck) figured out the same thing and immediately started waving and shouting at the truck guy, but it was too late.  It snapped.  So instead of filling the gigantic hole easily with a chute of concrete, instead, they had to do it a wheelbarrow at a time.  And they did.  And they were here for a VERY long time.  I was really impressed.  These guys have a much stronger work ethic than I do (notice I'm blogging, and not editing).  

p.s. - We now have electricity in the downstairs bathroom!  We don't have any light fixtures, just holes for them, but that's a whole other story.