May 30, 2005 Foundation work begins & the ultimate Ikea experience

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Foundation

We started excavating yesterday; it feels so good to have it started. There was a delay for two reasons. First we had to trim our Eucalyptus trees while the property was still accessible. It cost us $700 to have four large trees topped and pruned and we are very glad that we hired an experienced arborist and we think the trees look terrific. We needed to prune them in order to comply with our fuel modification plan. When the arborist examined the trees he explained to us that the trees had been topped in the past. Apparantly, once trees like Eucalyptus are topped they need to be topped continually or pruned regulary. He explained that it can be dangerous since the post-topped limbs grow tall and are not securely part of the main trunk and can fall. You learn something new everyday! We still need to do something with the leaves and branches. I am thinking about chipping and mulching it for landscaping.

The other delay was spent waiting for a 12" bucket to arrive from Oregon for our excavator's backhoe. 12" is not a very common size and we were thrilled that our excavator was willing to purchase a 12" bucket before our project starte. We chipped in for him as well.

We had a little informal groundbreaking ceremony yesterday. Click here for a short video.

First David re-marked and re-measured the chalk lines. Our chalk lines earlier were ruined from the tree work.

Then we worked with shovels yesterday and cleaned up the edges of the perimeter to facilitate the excavator's duties.

The next day (today) we started with the backhoe and leveled the pad so the crawlspace will also be level.

After that, it was time to dig the footings. David checked the depth with a laser level continually.

The footings on the west side are six feet deep and only 14" wide. The excavator's son, David and I dug cleaned out the edges with shovels during the excavation. We did a tremendous amount of physical labor today (and lately) and I felt so sorry for David because he was exhausted, dirty and sunburned (he missed some spots). I am tired too but I didn't do as much work as David since I had to stay home with Walter for a bit.

There is a precarious edge at one side of the excavation. It happens to be in the same location where the percolation test was performed. We shored it up and braced it, now we cross our fingers.

I am terrified of anyone going into the deepest part of the footings. The excavator's son spent some time in the deepest part, on the precarious side, cleaning up the bottom and the sides. I was very nervous while he was in there! He said that if it collapsed, "do me a favor and hit me in the head with a shovel." Needless to say, we are anxious to pour the concrete.

We completed 80% of the excavation and the remaining 20% will have to wait until Wednesday. After the excavation is complete, we leave everything up to the foundation contractor. Thursday the rebar will be dropped and the inspector will be called before the concrete is poured on Friday.

Unfortunately, I cannot be at the property until the footings are poured since Walter is always with me and I do not want him anywhere near the open footings. It's only for 4 days or so; perhaps I could use the rest.

Ikea

I described this as the "ultimate Ikea experience." I mean "ultimate" in a literal sense, defined as "of the greatest possible size or significance," I don't mean that it was fantastic or fun.

A couple of days ago I took a day-long trip to Ikea to pick up our order. I spent $10,000 and it felt a little strange to see such a high total on a cash register. We are very grateful to our friends who helped us out on Friday. I don't talk much about how it is to juggle the house project while taking care of our two year old son because I usually find a way to manage. However, I knew I couldn't bring Walter with me when we picked up a truckload of stuff at Ikea. Thankfully my friend Melody watched Walter all day while her husband Andy endured the long wait and backbreaking labor at Ikea with me.

Getting the order together was no easy task. For the last six months we have been working with their in-house furnishing consultants who have helped us facilitate the order. I didn't ask for much design advice and even then, the order took 6 months to organize. Despite the fact that they are incredibly busy, I feel like they gave a lot of attention to our project. They were able to source almost everything in our order which I find amazing since whenever I shop at Ikea, I can only find about 50% of what I want by the time I get to the warehouse.

We received an invoice from Ikea on Monday and had only four days to get the money to them before our reservation orders expired. We carefully shepherded the check from the title company to ensure that the check was in by Friday. In addition to meeting Ikea's deadline we had several conditions to fulfill in order for them to accept the check from the title company. We needed a letter from the title company on their letterhead stating that I was authorized to purchase the items and basically explaining the situation. They also wanted a credit card for security and needed to verify funds at the store. Actually, this was all very easy and we had no problem when we went to the cash manager at Ikea for the approval.

After that, it took 4 hours (!) for them to ring me up. Although booking orders were prepared in advance, when it came time to ring them up, their computers crashed. Long story short, it took 4 hours to rectify the problem.

Fortunately, the home furnishing consultants pulled all the self serve items for us in advance. After that it took 2 hours of waiting for the remainder of our items to get pulled from the back. Loading the stuff was a tremendous effort but we managed without any broken bones or cabinetry. Our U-Haul truck was parked in the 20 minute loading area for 8 hours, thankfully nobody said anything.

All the waiting and effort was worth it. I am very pleased with everything that we ordered and am confident that they will look terrific in our new home.

We're storing everything until the house arrives and we are still expecting our kitchen delivery to arrive in a few weeks.

A Volunteer?

A couple of blog entries ago there were some comments regarding live streaming video during our set. I have not been able to find someone locally to do this for me and I don't have the time to look further.

I have an alternative however. I have a friend who can be on site with a camera phone during the set. In that case, I would need someone to receive and post to Live Modern. Is anyone willing to do this for me?

Now I am going to take some Benadryl for my numerous mosquito bites and consequently pass out. Thank you.