Day 2: More Dirt and a Ditch

Today we had a soccer game for a rockstar 7 year-old, so I didn't make it up to the site until after dark. I was able to see the progress and was happy to note that the first culvert was in. We had a significant dip right at the end of our driveway straight-a-way that channeled runoff during rainstorms. Not wanting to ford a stream during a downpour, or risk loosing that part of our driveway, we placed a large culvert (tube) under the road. So doing also helped to level out driveway and eliminate the dip.

Daily Stats:

Work done: excavation, placed big culvert
Hours worked (me): 0
Hours worked (friends/family): 0
Hours worked (contractor estimate): 9.5
Contractor: Grishm Farm and Construction
Materials used: 24" x 20' doubled walled plastic culvert and apron, gravel

Day 1: Playing in the Dirt

We've started! "We" in this case means our excavator. You can't build a house that's a quarter of a mile from the road without a driveway.

I spent a lot of time researching rural road construction techniques and came up with a pretty simple formula that worked for my budget and hopefully works for the long haul: scrape off top soil (black dirt) down to good hard clay, compact with heavy equipment, place geotextile fabric down, cover with big gravel (2"-3"), compact with heavy equipment, and cover with small finish gravel (3/4"). We'll see how it works for both the near and short term.

For the first day we cut in and started removing the topsoil, taking off about six inches and piling up the black dirt to use later in the garden.

Our long driveway passes through a couple rolling hills, so we had to notch out a level spot for the road and build a little ditch on the up-hill side of the road. I had some good help checking the work at the end of the day. Kids ended up playing king of the mountain on the dirt pile and needed a good scrubbing at the end of the day.

Looking forward to the time when we can enjoy more of these sunsets from our own porch.

Last but not least, I need to add the daily stats:

Work done: excavation
Hours worked (me): 0
Hours worked (friends/family): 0
Hours worked (contractor estimate): 8.5
Contractor: Grishm Farm and Construction
Materials used: none

Day 0: Groundbreaking

We've decided to build a house. After years of searching for the right place on acreage, we finally bit the bullet and bought some land.


Sunday, April 6, 2014: The day before the excavation started we had a little groundbreaking of our own. We had hoped for a nice photo op involving a sharply dressed family turning a spadeful of black soil with golden shovels. Instead we ended up with some neon hoodies, a hoe, a post-hole digger, and a few random shovels. That's a pretty good omen, right.

Safety first. Good thing we had hard hats on, what with all the overhead hazards and such.

If you're still reading, I'll share a few more details. The site sits on a 20-acre plot in rural Missouri, north of Kearney, birthplace of Jesse James, the outlaw. The site has about six acres of woods, two creeks, and ravine that's probably 40 feet deep. We're the bottom rectangle lot below. The other lots are owned by family members. The house will sit in the north-east corner of our lot.

Here's a shot of the house site before any work has been done.