Giant Chimney

Our chimney is finally starting to take shape.  It sure does look big from this angle.

The footing is ready for concrete

Already at the first floor

Ye Old Farmhouse

So back in the day before mechanized earth moving equipment construction was done by hand with small tools and shovels. While excavating for our new basement/crawl space we revealed the fine construction of the 1800's!

There is no mortar to speak of between these rocks, it is all dirt. Pretty scary considering we need a 4' opening into this wall to access the current basement and install mechanicals.

It has been standing for close to 200 years!

Instant foundation

We decided to use a Superior Foundation which is a precast foundation. It is poured off site and then trucked to your site and lowered into your hole with a crane all in one day. Talk about instant gratification! The only drawback is the measurements have to be exact as there is no "fiddling" in the field. These two pictures are from the same day. We had a Go-Pro mounted to the end of the crane boom and got some amazing video, to be posted forthcoming, of the sections going in. The crew doing the  installation was amazing looking like they could do it in their sleep. Everything lined right up, no mistakes.

 Before

After

Lake Stony Brook

In true construction fashion we commenced to dig our foundation, we had three beautiful days of weather, and then the rain came. Approximately 4" in one day!

That big thing in the middle is a wrecking ball that Tony would drop from the excavator to break up the stone! It was effective but quite messy. By the end of the rain it was almost completely covered by the water.