Tons of Dirt

Well, we finally have some pictures to show that there has been progress. The last time I posted, we had found out what we thought was a small amount of diesel oil from an old underground tank in our soil, about 200 tons worth. Well, yesterday we dug some more dirt up and found at least another 100-150 tons of contaminated soil. Well, it gets better than that! After Stephanie's and my final doctor appointmet for the baby before he arrives, I hustled home expecting all of the contaminated dirt to be gone. Well, the crew dug up another 150 tons of contaminated soil. I haven't seen the final number yet, but I am thinking that we shipped about 500 tons of contaminated soil out to a transfer station in Everett that will then ship it by train to Oregon and the soil will be burned... Wow, what a process. I keep reminding myself that this is just a speed bump in the process, but it is a little depressing that we kept finding more contaminated dirt. It is gone now, and the half swimming pool sized hole that they had dug within the hole has been filled, ready for foundation to get started!

So, tomorrow we will have the trackhoe operator back out to dig out the trenches for the foundation and I hope that the foundation guy will come out on Thursday to start framing the footing and by Monday or Tuesday of next week the foundation pouring will begin. I think that once this happens, I will really feel a sense of accomplishment and that we can move onto the next step.

Here are some pics I just took:

These pics can give an idea of how much dirt we took out. At the back end of the property, we took about 9 feet of dirt away.

As for baby news... Stephanie and I went in for our final pre-baby appointment and everything was great. Baby P is kicking up a storm and seems healthy. We will get to meet him very soon!

Dirty Dirt and Baby P

Well, it has been 17 days since I have posted anything on the blog, thank you Todd Moore.

Unfortunately I don't have anything fun and exciting to post. It turns out that the old underground oil tank that was on our property had a small leak... Though this tank was removed 20+ years ago, the residue remains. So, on Friday the 16th, 4 dump truck loads of dirt was sent back to our lot because it smelled like diesel and boy did it ever. Thank goodness the oil tank was deep down in our soil, so only a small portion of the dirt was contaminated. We have about 200 tons of dirt left that we need to remove, so I have been working on that today. I have had an environmental services company out and hope to have a second one out later on to get all of my options.

On much more exciting topics, we have a date set for Stephanie to go in and get induced, December 3rd. There is a chance that the baby will come early, but if not, we at least have a date where we are going to the hospital. I can't wait, I am so excited to meet my son.

Dirt, Dirt and more Dirt

Since the excitement of the house demolition, there has been a lot of throwing the scraps away, shifting of dirt and a huge hole. The house came down quick, leaving a big pile of, well, matchsticks and concrete. It took the crew 3 dumptrucks to get the house and garage out and 2 HUGE semi like trucks to get the concrete out. The semi like trucks were easily twice the size of a regular dumptruck. I didn't get a picture of the big trucks, but here is one of the small truck and the hole that they started making.

Here are some pictures of the removal of the house and concrete:

With the house/garage and concrete gone, it left us one giant hole that they kept digging. It is amazing how much dirt was actually there. There is dirt under the plastic.

And for those of you concerend about our outdoor cat OB, she was freaked out each day and hid, but at night came back and sniffed around for food, found that she had a new HUGE kitty litter area and found the trackhoe....

We have been informed that the company that is buying our dirt is not quite ready for the remainder of it, so now we wait. I hope to have something up a week from today.