That's A Lot of Concrete!

After a week's delay due to the City of Menlo Park's inability to staple our plans together correctly, we passed our inspection of the forms yesterday and poured our concrete today. Due to the length of our lot, the concrete guys rigged up a long pipe and pumped the contents of 3 concrete trucks from the street, down the driveway, through the backyard and into the forms. All in all they poured 35 yards of concrete to form the foundation and slab for the garage. They started bright and early at 8 and by the end of the day had poured all the concrete, finished it and removed the forms. The girls put their initials in the garage floor for posterity.



This picture shows the truck blocking our driveway and the pipe lying along the driveway. For the amount of concrete they pumped, they were really fast, and only blocked the driveway for the morning.






It was really cold this morning when the concrete guys got here, but they beat the rain and got the concrete finished and the forms off before quitting time around 4 pm.



It's really great to have an actual part of the garage in place! We are working on moving out this week so that we can start on the house part of the project in early January.

We Didn't Like the Front Yard As It Was Anyway!

The concrete crew showed up bright and early this morning to keep working on the forms. The surveyors certified that the forms are in the right place, so we can keep working with no qualms. They needed a truck load of gravel, and having no other place to put it, decided to put it in the front yard, as you can see from the picture above. They put down a tarp to protect our sad little lawn and then dumped the gravel. It was quite interesting to watch them maneuver the truck in so that it didn't knock down the electric wires.





They spent the day driving up and down the driveway in their bobcat picking up loads of gravel and sand and dumping them in the pit and in the foundation. Because of the rain, the backyard is a sea of mud and at the end of the day there was an inch or two of mud on the driveway and on the patio in the back. The crew was great, though, and they cleaned it up at the end of the day as best as they could. Of course, we still have some big ruts in the driveway and the lawn as a result of the gravel dump, but like I said, we didn't really like the front yard as it was anyway.

As you look at the picture of the forms above, check out the foundation at the outside edge of the patio. Yes, that is for a patio, not for a two story building, although it's hard to tell.

Money Pit Update

It turns out I was wrong about how the drainage plan is going to work. They did dig the big pit that is 4 feet by 12 feet, but they didn't put in a concrete box. I was envisioning something like a septic system, but the way it works is that they fill the pit with gravel. The gravel contains spaces to hold the water and to help the water seep slowly into the ground. The bobcat guy spent the day bringing gravel from the front of the house into the backyard to dump in the pit. From what I can tell, it takes a lot of gravel to fill a 4 x 12 pit.

The picture above shows the filled in pit. It is supposed to have some dirt on top, so I'm not sure why it is so full, but I will be keeping an eye on it. It is nice to know that thanks to the careful calculations of the engineers and the precise gravel-filling abilities of the concrete crew, we will have a fully drained yard! It is quite a comfort to me as I pay the bills.

We Almost Passed Our First Inspection!

Because the new casita is going to be slab on grade, the plumber needed to come in and rough in all the waste lines before they can pour the concrete. He worked in the mud for about a day to get all the waste lines and vent stacks in. When the inspector came by, he almost passed us! Apparently he wanted a small change that wasn't enough to warrant stopping forward progress. The plumber came back that afternoon to make the change, and the inspector will sign it off when he comes to inspect the forms before the pour.

To get a feel for the finished level of the floor, look at the big black boxy thing in the above picture. That is where the tub drain is going to be, and the whole box will be under the slab.

The surveyors came back to double check the forms and produce a certification letter to prove to the city that everything is where it should be -- let's hope it actually is!

Money Pit!

One complication about living in Menlo Park is the necessity for a grading and drainage plan that guarantees that all the water that falls on our lot stays on our lot. A prime component of this is a big concrete seepage tank that collects the water and allows it to filter down into the ground rather than running off into the neighbors' yards. Our particular tank will be 4 feet by 12 feet, with the result that the concrete guys needed to dig a very large hole to bury it in.



I have dubbed this hole the money pit. Here is a great shot of the girls standing in the giant hole. Too bad we didn't find some hidden treasure as they were digging up the entire backyard.

Men With Trucks!

Finally, we have men with trucks and a bobcat in the backyard. It is amazing how quickly six guys and a bobcat can swoop in and transform a backyard. In a day and a half we went from nothing to forms for the garage.




The view of the backyard before all the action!



The girls are standing in the new room that will be in the front of the garage building.

The guys still need to come back and pour the concrete, but we need several things to happen first. The surveyor needs to come to certify that the forms are in the right place, and I think the plumber needs to come and start laying some pipes underneath where the slab will be, so it will be a little while before we have concrete.

Heave ho cherry-o

To get ready for the garage construction, we had to move the special cherry tree that we planted in the back in memory of our cat, Peanut. As you can see by the picture, this was no small feat -- the tree has grown considerably in the last few years.


To get started, Jake dug a deep hole around the roots and then gradually dug under the tree, severing roots as he went. We were both surprised by the size of the roots.



When Jake went to move the tree, I was gone, so Molly helped him by moving the wheelbarrow under the tree as he moved the tree across the yard to its new home on the other side.



Hopefully the tree will thrive in its new home!

Welcome to BungalowTake2

Hi and welcome to BungalowTake2, my blog describing our remodel of our small bungalow in Menlo Park. We will be adding a garage and workshop in the back, tearing down the terrible second story, and adding space off the back. We will end up with a slightly larger bungalow, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, with a new kitchen and family room. Our architect, Karen Zak, has come up with a great set of plans that will result in an elegant small house that meets all our needs as a family.
We have already faced huge delays with the city of Menlo Park. Originally we were supposed to start work on the garage in September, but we just got the permit. We are also still waiting for the permit for the house, which will hopefully be issued soon. We'll be moving out right after Christmas to make way for the construction on the house, which should start in January.