progress report: doing it egyptian style

sorry for the late post today, the weekend was full of organizing tools, digging big holes, and using fun gadgets!  here are a few pictures of what we were up to.  we created an "egyptian water level" using 60 feet of clear plastic tubing and water.  the egyptians used this type of technology to build the pyramids so it must be good enough for björn and i.

the water level

the pencil just plugs the two ends as we move around

we knew the elevation at the curb from our survey so one end was held at curb level and the other was stretched across the property to a stake.  water doesn't lie and is always level so the height was marked on the stake.

the stake was marked and this became our baseline for all the other information we needed.  

we then checked all our work using a high tech laser level.

we constructed batter boards to mark the points that will remain in place during the excavation phase

our water level was super accurate, within 1/8"!  those egyptians were pretty clever folks!

if you want to learn more about water levels or egyptian levels check out this article from Fine Home Building.  the laser level is an awesome tool as well, we borrowed a Bosch laser from Carll Construction (the guys building the rock wall).

Speaking of the rock wall here are a few photos of the progress the guys have made! we are so happy with the look of the wall and the awesome space that it is opened up next to the river.  this area is sure to be one of our favorite spots on the property.

i love that we used varying sizes and shapes for our boulder wall.  

looking down the wall toward the river.  lots of interesting ledges  and spaces are created to
put potted plants and hopefully get something to grow down the sides of the wall.

this area will eventually have stairs up to the house level.

finally this weekend we actually started the excavation!  after setting up our batter boards and finding the ground level as well as several other levels such as the top of foundation level, etc.  we staked out the house and began the rough excavation using the back hoe.  we are hoping to finish up digging today and start compaction tomorrow.