Next set of pictures...

By this time, excavation is nearly complete. The pictures below show the updated status...

In this picture, you can see that the road has been nearly completed and there is a pad in front of the garage (just in front of the dozer). Also, you can see the trench with power and water lines crossing under the road.

Here's how they pour your road! That truck is laying down a layer of 5/8-minus on top of the 3" roadbed (which is on top of some geotextile fabric). This guy is good - he is driving at just the right speed to keep the dump going, and get a nice even layer!

We have power! (Or at least somewhere for the power to go) The transformer was put in place, and we also have a well-hydrant to get water in case of a fire. This will also serve to do some watering...

This is a ~6 foot deep by three foot wide by 115 foot long trench for our geothermal heat pump's ground loops.

Slinky-coil in a trench. These are the loops that the heat-exchange fluid travels through in the ground loops of the geothermal heat pump system. In total, we have 2400 feet of tube length, all in ~400 feet of trench!

This is the "manifold" that the geothermal ground loops are connected to. One side is the supply, the other the return, and each has three connections. From the supply side, the fluid will travel down the slinky-coil, then back to the return line. Cool!

Pix of construction so far...

Here you can see our view--the hills in the background are the coast range.

This is the capped-off well pipe.

This is the new road they are building, going toward the house. The green area is where the house will be.

Here is more of the new road, the home site is up to the left, where the big excavator is.

Here they are leveling out the home site. There is so much dirt everywhere! The excavators had to dig down quite a bit to make it level since the land is slightly sloped.

Here they are leveling out the land. This is our favorite excavator, Bruce.

Here is a deer standing on a dirt pile. They aren't afraid of the big machinery at all.

Here are the trenches for the electrical.

I had just seeded this area a few weeks earlier with grass. Oh well!

Here are two deer using the dirt piles to reach tree branches.

Here you can see the terracing where the house will be.

They have to dig down until they get to solid, hard dirt that the foundation will sit on.

These piles of dirt are twice our height!

My first blog...

Well, here we go. I have never really wanted to do a blog, but decided that this may be the best way to archive (for all time) the process of building our new house. We are building a ~3500sf Ranch-style house on acreage we own, and are just getting started... In the days and weeks (and months) to come, we will add content including pix of the process. Perhaps this will serve as a warning for others considering this prospect, or perhaps as a showcase of what to do... Only time will tell.

I welcome any comments along the way, and hope you enjoy!

-- The Author