groundbreaking

When we went up to check on progress this past Saturday, we arrived to find the beginnings of a giant hole in the ground. The photo above is taken from the same vantage as the first photo of last week's post, and from now on, this will be my weekly photo spot from which we'll be able to mark our progress. I am trying my best to mark the corners of the house, as it is really difficult to gauge from the photo. Billy + Walter are standing at the southwest corner, and the big orange piece of equipment is pretty much at the northwest corner. The right side of the photo shows the backyard area where the pool will eventually go. Whenever that might happen. Here's a view of everything as you come up the driveway:

Below is a photo taken from the southwest corner looking east.

As the trees get thinned out, a lot of the shale outcroppings are being exposed, and they look amazing. Hopefully all the moss will be able to survive after the trees are gone (moss thrives in the shade). The big dirt hole above is a good sign - that means no rock and therefore no expensive laborious hammering required for excavation...in that spot. Walter did hit some rock on the west side of the home site, but so far he thinks it's shale and will therefore crumble pretty easily. The good news is that we only need full basement space enough for our mechanicals (which won't be a problem to get), and so, if there is too much rock as the excavation moves north, we'll just make the rest of the basement a crawl space.

We'll be in London this week, and therefore won't be up to visit the site on Saturday, so check back the first week of May for more progress, when hopefully there will be a more recognizable building-shaped hole in the ground.