Day 3: Major Changes

Well, Day 3 is over now. It began this morning at about 6:05, long before sunup, when the crew arrived and revved up the diesel engines and started moving earth. When those machines back up, of course the warning signal goes off, so between the diesel engines and warning signals, and the high-intensity lights, I don't know how our neighbors in the five apartments were able to sleep. I got home about 4:45 in time to take some photos in the fading daylight. It was overcast anyway, so it was darker than it would normally be. Here are some photos:

A rectangle trench was dug in the backyard and the footings were poured for the foundation and retaining walls. The concrete was still wet and water was standing on it.

In the second photo, taken from the alley, you can see part of the footing, but you can also see the spray paint that marks the phone cable. AT&T came by today to repair the cable, but for now it lies on top of the ground, and it makes an end around the garage so that it won't be covered up by the concrete pad that will be poured.

The next one shows the splice in the alley, where the new cable is spliced onto the cable that comes up from the ground in the alley. The ground had worn away over the years until the phone cable was exposed.

The next photo shows the footings for the new retaining walls on each side of the original driveway:


A final picture--here is a shot of the equipment parked in the yard on the Glenview side, with a big pile of excavated dirt:


The forms out front look set, so I think that Thursday the front sidewalk will be poured. I bet there will be enough changes to post to this blog tomorrow.