Rainwater Drains, Side Entrance and Sewer Line

With three weeks to go before we move in, the pressure is on and progress continues both outside and in.
Richard and Clay used a shovel with a teeny bit of help from the backhoe (JCB for those of you in the UK) to excavate a trench for the sewer line:

And here they are gluing it together. I have the impression that building air-fix models as a kid is a good apprenticeship for this kind of work.

The rainwater drain for taking the roof water and directing it back out to the street was also on the agenda. Here's the down-pipe collection system at the back of the house which routes the roof run-off to the rear NE corner:

The water is collected into a large plastic reservoir:

It's about 50 gallons or so:

And then the water is pumped back out to the street via the upper, horizontal 3 inch pipe shown here. The second larger pipe, to which the 3 inch upper pipe is tethered, routes rainwater from the down pipes on the front of the house into the same plastic reservoir. This is rather convoluted, but it is the consequence of the house being a little bit below street level and it saves having more than one pump.

Once all the pipes were in place along the side of the house, it was time to fill in against the retaining wall to create the side entrance path. Begin with a couple of dumper trucks of rock gravel:

Here's where it needs to go:

We wondered if Molly might be able to pull the gravel compaction machine, but she was too interested in the squirrels. You wil also notice that the fence posts were installed prior to the gravel fill:

And now we have a level, side-entrance pathway. Unfortunately Molly remains in suspense about how she is going to get into the garage through the side door which remains elusively 3-4 feet above the pathway:

And, probably, so are you dear reader...
That's all for now!