Field in the forest

Field

Insert Tank Here

Wednesday June 27th

The septic field has been installed which consists of 10 concrete end-fed chambers and today the concrete holding tank will be set. We've encountered ledge in many spots but have enough cover to make the tank work. We’ll have to shift the foundation slightly to the west to miss a stubborn knob of granite near the boys’ bedrooms but we’re hopeful that will be the only ledge under the building.

I’ll be setting the height for the top of foundation wall this weekend in preparation for the concrete form-work arriving next week. We’re doing our best to marry the building with the site grading, but given the overall length of 80' it’s a challenge. We have about 38” of natural drop-off from one end of the building to the other and need to swale the water around the house to maintain proper drainage. Ideally, we would be dropping the east end of the building (the boys’ bedrooms) by a couple of feet to keep the west end from becoming a ship’s prow sticking out of the earth. Foundation contractors love dropping 8’ foundations in 4’ holes, which makes their work easier but means a lot more fill to hide the walls. It also means steps to get into the house. We’re trying to preserve the house’s connection to the land by closely tying the existing grades to the imposed order of the house and minimize the amount of fill required.

Next week, foundation. Perhaps.