Dirt Rich

We knew from the start that this house project would make us dirt poor, but we never thought it would make us dirt rich. Over the course of the last two weeks, Albert has hauled away over 70 dump truck loads of our brown, sandy dirt in order to make room for the house. We have posted ads on Craigslist and hung signs on the property offering free dirt delivered. Many, many loads of dirt have been hauled to family, friends and strangers in West Seattle, Green Lake, Ballard and Vashon Island. Albert has visited parts of Seattle he never knew existed. Still we have huge mountains of dirt piled in every corner of the property. If only there was gold in that dirt to pay off the house!

The first phase of the project is drawing to a close. Albert, Lori, and Steven have been on the property six days a week working long hours to wrap up the site prep work. We lend a hand before and after work, but it's a small contribution compared to their labor. One of the neighbors commented that the amount of progress that has been made over a few short weeks doesn't add up when you look at the size of the crew. They obviously have never experienced the pace of Albert's work.

Albert and Steven have carved the footprint of the house out of the side of the hill. Our perch on top of the property where we used to watch the sun set is now 20 feet above the bottom of the hole. We feel like we have our very own canyon now. In addition to the house dig-out, they installed a new utility ditch to make restoration of power to our neighbor possible.

Despite being busy with hauling and digging, Albert took the time to teach John how to operate an excavator. When John sat down in the seat of the huge machine and took those joy sticks in his hands, his smile was reminiscent of a giddy six year-old playing in an oversized sandbox.

This coming week, Albert and Steven will dig out the footings. This is the first step for pouring the foundation of the house. As soon as this is complete, there will be a changing of the guard on the project. Larry and his crew will move in and begin building the forms for the footings followed by concrete being poured into the forms. It's starting to look like a house project instead of a mining operation!

And, because Jennifer commented that there haven't been any pictures of Lori yet, here's her very own set: