Kyle and Karen's House Addition Project

Before Ground Breaking (Day 0)

From back door towards pond	From back door towards well house	From back door towards old garage	From back door towards driveway
From old oak towards back of house	From well house towards back of house	From well house towards back of house	Building permit

Primary Destruction 12/29/03 (Day 3)

From back door towards pond	From back door towards well house	From back door towards driveway	From old oak towards back of house
From old oak towards back of new garage	New well pipe	New well pipe	Ian fitting the well pipe
New well pipe in well

By this point, we had taken out the well covers, the back patio, and part of the sidewalk. We laid down the new well pipes and capped them up to keep them clean until we can hook them up later.

Rough Grading 12/30/03 (Day 4)

From back door towards pond	From back door towards well house	From back door towards driveway	Rough grade
Grade from back of new garage	Front of new garage

We began grading on day 3, and it rained overnight, making a very soupy mess. On day 4, you can now sort of see how the pad will take shape.

Grade Starts to Take Shape 01/01/04 (Day 6)

From back door towards pond	From back door towards well house	From back door towards driveway	From old oak towards back of house
Grade from back of new garage	From old oak towards back of new garage	Front of new garage

The grade begins to take shape and the preliminary footers have been dug out.

Grading Grading Grading... 01/03/04 (Day 8)

From old oak towards back door

From old oak towards back of new garage

Rough footer

Workers checking depths

Now you can really see the pad and how it is taking shape.

Rough Grading 01/06/04 (Day 11)

From back door towards pond	From back door towards well house	From back door towards old garage	Grade from back of new garage
From old oak towards back door	From old oad towards back of new garage	Front of new garage	Front of new garage

Murphy strikes! At this point, the plastic, wire, and rebar were in place and we were ready to pour concrete. The pad was formed to Gwinnett County code. However, the inspector who came out was smarter than the people who wrote the code (Ahem). He decided Gwinnett County code wasn't actually sufficient for building a monolythic slab in compacted clay. Making the long story short, much of our footer is now 24" inches deep, with many places having been changed to 36" deep! If you think that is ridiculous, you are correct. While the crew was digging the footers out deeper, we had a lot of rain which further impeded the progress of the project. We didn't take any more pictures because from the camera's point of view, nothing changed.

Concrete 01/14/04 (Day 19)

Builder and subcontractor	Beginning to pour	Pouring the corner	Starting to move the concrete around
Second truck, less than half way there	Moving it around, finishing the second truck	A very cool compaction tool	General smoothing
Finishing up the third truck (the pour was 25 yards)	Machine "screeding" the concrete	Final smoothing after the screeding	From back door towards pond
From back door towards well house	From back door towards the old garage	From back door towards the driveway	From old oak towards back door
From old oad towards back of new garage	From back of new garage

The weather was perfect for pouring the concrete. We had a very high quality crew doing the work. I actually sold my first (1964 half ton Chevy) pickup truck to the concrete subcontractor about three years ago. The first batch of concrete came in one of those "backwards" concrete trucks so that it would reach back far enough and not get stuck in the mud. Now that it is finished, we have to let it sit for a few days to cure, and then we start the framing!