There is a bulldozer in our kitchen... Really!

To be completely honest, this is one of the moments I have most dread... We have so meticulously tried to plan everything else about this house, but there was so much brush intermixed with trees on our lot it took me a long time to get a feel for how to lay things out and try to save the best trees...

In the end, there was a group of about 8 really nice post oak trees that were going to have to go one way or another. So the decision was made long ago for those trees... However, around the perimeter of the house a lot had not been decided. It was just impossible to tell where you were standing... I tried everything, a friends GPS, Stellar Navigation, a handheld compass, climing up and down trees (my wife actually got bit by fireants WHILE in a tree), throwing streamers in the air... finally, I put on my safety glasses, hooked the 300 foot tape measure to my belt, and started crawling through the brush (in amongst the Copperheads and Fireants) with my wife telling me left or right...

So when the dozer guys showed up today... I was afraid they would just crash through everything with no due regard... I was wrong...

The owner of the company jumps up on his dozer, and asks me to guide him around the perimeter of the site, he would clear a patch so we could see the rest of the job, and then eventually clear the interior with an excavator and dozer. It worked perfectly.

I could not believe how he managed to get that thing between trees I could hardly walk through. He just mashed and pushed, and didn't put a single nick on any keeper trees. Even better, he didn't even mess much with the dirt around the bases of the trees. Then, when the rest of his crew got there, they were no less meticulous about the whole job, and did a great job of getting everything in a great big pile.

These guys were so careful, in fact, that I have decided to have them do some more clearing of brush on Friday. I was originally going to keep the brush to protect the rest of the trees from damage, but knew I would be spending countless weekends out there with my chainsaw. Well, what would take me 3 months to do these guys do in 10 minutes, and since the burn is already approved, I think it is prudent to take care of more of it now...

Some facts, the slab is going to be pretty big... Huge, actually by house standards, but too small for a mall. 121 feet across, with an additional 30ish feet for the apron in front of the (side load) garage. 80 feet deep at the thickest. The foundation will be a post tension slab with high tension cables. I have been a fan of these for a long time, because they are an active system rather than passively waiting for the concrete to fail. With a traditional rebar/concrete marriage, the rebar actually doesn't do anything until it is "asked" to, when the concrete is trying to come apart in tension. In contrast, the post tension cables will hold the concrete in compression all the time. The beams in the slab will be 28 inches deep, and 12 inches wide, about 10 feet on center. So it's like a huge upside down waffle. Add to that the strength of the effect of bracing the opposite side of that waffle with 10 to 14 feet of ICF walls, and you have an extremely strong structure. Way stronger than most bridges. And perhaps more expensive...

So, I rambled.

I tip my hat to a fine, young crew today...

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!