Our House Project on Sparrow Hill Gets Underway

Finally, construction is beginning on our new house on Sparrow Hill here in Corvallis. It's a fill in lot in a subdivision which is mostly completed and we picked the lot because it backs onto a protected oak grove and we really like trees!

First job is to dig a big hole for the foundations:

The lot extends way back into the oak grove and we are looking forward to owning a lot of trees as well as having them for neighbours.

The foundations at the back of house will rest on concrete pillars eleven feet deep in order to protect the tree root systems.

Getting the concrete into the holes at the back of the lot required the use of a large crane. The pump must have been pretty powerful to push the concrete 30+ feet into the air and pour it down a small pipe into the pre-dug foundation holes.

Here the trench is being dug for the down hill retaining wall. The depth of the trench is about eleven feet near the road - that's quite some retaining wall!