progress report: clearing the land

Björn's birthday present

björn bought himself a new chainsaw for his birthday and he really loves it.  it is a stihl brand 290 farm boss and compared to his old saw it is magical.   over the weekend we worked hard finishing up clearing the land of the small trees and shrubs that covered the property.  this was a huge job that we started in the spring and have slowly worked on but now we are ready for this part of the project to be finished!

Trautner Geotech and their cool drilling machine.

björn hired a geotechnical engineer about three weeks ago to do a soil test & report since our property is located on the river & the soil was fill from approximately 20 years ago.  Trautner Geotech preformed two test drills and analyzed our soil & came up with....slightly worse than good news.  our soil is less than ideal which means digging a really deep hole rather than a sort of deep hole.

Test boring by Trautner Geotech

we met with our engineer at Wilson Structural Engineering on friday to discuss this soil report and the options we have for the foundation.  after conferring with both the engineers and geo guys it was decided that we will have a full basement under the house.  this will accomodate the depth of the hole we have to dig without having to do a lot of back fill, etc.

today

• call tree services to get estimate on brush removal / chipping
• meet with several excavators on project bids for foundation
• turn in building plans to city for approval and permitting

tomorrow

• look into buying a utility tailer in farmington, nm
• meet with more excavators for bids
• whitney may be heading to the target in farmington to get some of the missoni line for target :)