Stakes and Jesse's Weekend Fling

*Let me make a disclaimer. All of these posts are my interpretation and understanding of the technicalities of all of the building lingo and logistics as told to me. Feel free to correct  educate me if I misspeak.*

Last week the surveyor laid out the stakes for the lot. They mark the corners of the house and also the exterior walls of the first floor.

Below is a picture of the lot with stakes. Act excited, okay? I know this doesn't look like much, but it means we're doing more than playing with dirt, trees, and stumps!

The stakes without blue flags mark the outside corners of the house. The stakes with the blue flags mark exterior walls. The blue flag marks the grading. It shows how high we need to build up the foundation of the house. So dirt will be compacted to reach those blue flags and then the foundation will be poured on top of that (which I understand is about another four inches). See:

So that fill dirt should begin being delivered TODAY! *insert happy dance here*

Remember how I just told you a couple days ago about my husband's relationship with the backhoe? Remember how I said it was over? I was wrong!

Thursday night Jesse, MMB, and I went out to take a look at the stakes that were put up and "visualize" our house with wall markings. 

Side note: Let me say that these surveyors should leave a note for women after inserting stakes. The note should say something like, STAKES MAKE ROOMS APPEAR SMALLER. DON'T FREAK UNTIL YOUR HOUSE IS FRAMED. I mean, really. I felt like I was standing in my kitchen and could almost Inspector Gadget my arm all the way across the house to my fireplace. Jesse swears I won't feel that way when the house is framed. He better be right. 

I began telling about us going to the lot on Thursday night to tell you this... The dirt man happened to come check the lot Thursday evening to make sure it was ready for fill dirt on Monday morning as scheduled. Well, he found one tree root that Jesse left on the property. This tree root was within the stakes. He told Jesse he could not bring in any dirt until that root was removed. The dirt man said it would not pass inspection and would cause us foundational problems in the future. 

So, guess what?! Jesse now had weekend plans. He had to remove the tree root by Monday morning without touching the stakes because we needed to stay on schedule and we did not want to repay the surveyor to come out and restake the property. Back to the backhoe he went. 

BUT, the backhoe's clutch is broken. The backhoe (owned by his Father) is currently out of commission until the clutch is fixed. 

Jesse called the local machine/tractor rental company first thing Friday morning to hopefully rent a backhoe for the day on Saturday. (The man that owns the local machine/tractor rental company will be one of our new neighbors. Amazing man. Amazing family. Amazing company.) No backhoes were available for our last minute need. But, they searched and found Jesse something similar that would do what he needed. A trackhoe. 

A trackhoe is a backhoe on steroids, in my book. A trackhoe is an army tanker on the bottom and the biggest claw I've ever seen on top. See:

Needless to say, Jesse spent his weekend with his new love affair. He removed the tree stump without touching a stake and I believe he did more projects with this thing as long as he had it available. Good thing this love affair was short and sweet and was already picked up this morning! 

Fill dirt should begin today!