Excavation Pictures

Excavation for the garage was completed on 2/24. This picture shows how the area has been cleared, the garage has been dug, and the base for the driveway is in place.

This is looking down the driveway with the garage to the left. The driveway will loop around the garage to the left and return to the main portion of the driveway/road.



The picture below is a wider view from the road towards the building site.




The next picture shows the detail of the excavation, once you get about 2 feet down, you reach shale rock and you can see the layers. The shale is easily crushed and the layers separate easily as well. This shale is being used to form the base of the driveway and becomes a very solid base, later, some gravel will be spread on top of the shale to finish the driveway but for now, this will be a solid surface for the large trucks and other excavators to ride on.








The next shot shows just a few of the many dirt piles that have been made so far- this is considered "top soil" in WV and was moved out of the way for now but will later be used to backfill around the house and garage to support some limited plantings. We're told we're going to end up with a few large piles of shale when we're done, we'll have this moved to somewhere that it can be used for updating roads and paths. All the roads have been completed so far using only the shale that came from the garage dig, they haven't even started the main house yet so should have plenty of shale to work with.

The last picture is looking from the excavation site back to the north, along the road/driveway that leads to the build site. The garage will be to the left and you can see the new, shale base rock that has been spread to complete the driveway back towards the main entrance. The main gravel road from the edge of the property to the point where the trailer is sitting is about 1,600 feet long, will have plenty of work to take care of it and keep it plowed as needed!

Next trip to the site will be this weekend, the house excavation should be completed by then and put the builders in position to start forming the foundation.

Excavation Started

Excavation started in earnest this week, as of Wednesday, the garage dig was completed and they were starting on the house basement. Hope is to have the basement poured and the floor in over the next couple of weeks- weather is obviously still a factor. Will get some pictures and videos up in the morning to show the progress.

Electric Is Done

Did receive confirmation, well, really, it was a bill, that our power is in and working to the property. Good news, we'll be able to move the trailer and keep the generator ready for emergencies. Other than this, no news.

We spent Valentines Day taking a hike to the property through the 30" of snow that has fallen in the last couple of weeks. Road was only plowed to the one house that is in the subdivision- we had about a 3600' hike to the top where we're building. Here's a snapshot out of a couple of video's we took on the way. This is after about 40 minutes of breaking through the snow. I was able to start my tractor and was able to make a better path all the way back down to where we left the car so going down was a lot easier. The mountains covered in snow looked great. There are some of new videos posted at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/martinsvideo1



Here's another picture of Donna on the hike.

No idea when work will start again!

Snow Stalled!

Not surprisingly, the over 30" of snow we've had at the property over the last week or so has us pretty much at a standstill. Equipment is still on site ready for the thaw and looks like there is about a day of work to finish clearing the site- then the excavation work can begin. No update from Allegheny Power at this point but the temporary service may be nearly ready- they were talking about putting up the cables on the poles the Friday before the first storm hit but won't be surprised if that work was shelved for storm preparation.

Will provide an update when something happens but not a lot to talk about right now.