Boring is so Boring.

It's October and we're still in the excavation phase. It's been ridiculously rainy lately. One tropical thunderstorm front after another, besting rainfall records almost weekly. Rain plus moving heavy machines equals a goopy and sloppy site. (Like burning man after a monsoon, eww). So no site work on rainy days. Must wait for it to dry. Which is a lot of very boring forever taking waiting.

Here's the latest and greatest site snapshot - September 28, 2023.

Steve is a one-man excavation team. Me? What do I do around here? My job is to bring him lunch and blog. Just kidding. I bring him breakfast too. Chipping away at solid rock ledge, all the noise it makes, it's just too damn loud for me. It shakes my bones, and brain, gives me a headache. Then add mosquitoes swarming my face and swarm Archer. I'm pretty sure I kinda dislike this part of the construction project. (Hence the reason for no blog posts in September).

Here's a list of the important tools necessary for the excavation phase:

The Excavator - To move trees, logs, stumps, roots, big rocks, crushed rock, strip topsoil, and basically make big piles of stuff.

The excavator. The first big machine to arrive at the site.

The Hydraulic Hammer - To chip away at solid rock ledge and detach roots embedded in rock. Also known as the migraine maker.

The hydraulic hammer.

A Backhoe Tractor - To move those big piles of stuff from one spot to another spot somewhere else.

This backhoe tractor had to be returned because it was not big enough for the job.

Because the backhoe was too small for this job, Steve swapped it out for a huge front loader. That monster machine is doing a much better job. Sadly, I don't have a picture of it :(

The Smooth Drum Vibrating Compactor - This flattens and smoothes the ground surface, making it easier to walk on without tripping (too much). It is a skeleton shaker.

The smooth drum vibrating compactor.

The Laser Level - This thing might be small compared to the heavy machinery, but this tool is equally as important as its oversized construction team members. It is highly accurate at checking elevations.

We want to avoid over-digging, or digging deeper than the desired level. Why? Because that would correlate with needing more fill later on.

Here's how the building envelope looked before using the compactor. The ground is still very uneven, difficult and unstable to walk on.

There's Archer for reference.

Without Archer, the ground has been scraped, but not flattened.

This is the building envelope after using the compactor. Makes a huge difference!

After the compactor, much better, more flat, less trippy.

The building footprint is getting closer to the desired ground level here.

View from above.

And now a view with lyme lines.

View with lyme lines.

The springboard diver in me wants an eight foot deep section in the pool. Which means there's still some chipping left to do at the bottom of the pool location. There's some super duper stubborn rock there. Steve saved a chip of it as a memento.

What's up next for bahay namin :: our house?

• The chipping of rock ledge is near complete, so we can return the hydraulic hammer machine soon.

• The driveway has been outlined and compacted as preparation for an anti-tracking pad. Which means we'll need to purchase the stone gravel soon.

• After that, we can get a container delivered for the stump trash pile.

• Get forms to prepare the footings.

• Get a generator.

Slowly but ever so surely, it's all taking shape. Come back again soon :)