Day 3 -- Septic Tanks, Footings and Dirt...OH MY!

Today started off with more siding removal and digging! When I woke up they had already started digging. One huge dump truck took (from what I saw) 5 truck loads of dirt, and I wasn't home a lot of the day sooo I am sure there were more trips!


I did go to a friend's house to check out her new kitchen and I LOVED it! It's exactly what I am looking for, same colors for cabinets and counters....walls and appliances. So that was fun! It was nice to see what I want all in one place!


Then I was off to the DMV to renew my license......I was so excited to get home and see the progress.....and then I got a text message from Joe. It said, "2 Surprises. No footings on current house and they found the septic tank" My response..."HOLY SHIT...what does that mean?" Let me see if I can explain in "stupid terms" as I asked John to explain it to me.


I'll start with the easy one: SEPTIC TANK! The excavator hit it when he was thisclose to being done with the digging. And it was in the worst spot ever...right smack in the middle of the addition, right smack in the middle of our new basement. And it's 15 feet down..below where the new basement will be! Nice..right? Soooooo.....now what? Not sure! Joe called Dan b/c it needs to be discussed with him before we do anything. We do know that the hole needs to be filled with something, we just aren't sure what. Sand? Gravel? Stones? Concrete? I guess we will know more tomorrow or Friday. In the meantime John has to get the building inspector to our house tomorrow to look at it and keep him in the loop. What does all of this mean??? We aren't moving as smoothly as we were yesterday and Monday, but it's a fairly easy fix..or so they say.....


Here it is! The dark black hole would be it..and that hole goes 15 feet under and *maybe* 30 cubic yards across!



OK....FOOTINGS: This one is a little tougher. This house apparently was built without footings. A footing is: The footing is the base of a structure and the first step in a foundation. It is a mass of concrete supporting the foundation of the house.
And our existing house DOES NOT have them! Not sure why, or how they forgot, or what they were thinking when they built it....but we have none! What does this mean? Again...I'm not sure. They might have to create a temporary structure to hold our existing house up while they dig under the ground and remove all the dirt....which will then allow someone (thank god it's not me) or something to get under the existing house to add footings and a new foundation. YIKES! If it's not that...then I'm not sure what else. All I know is people are telling me it will be OK and this happens! I haven't started freaking out yet....and I won't! If I start now on Day 3...I will be DOOMED!

So bottom line after Day 3....We know all of this, but honestly we don't have a clue what's in store! Hoping for a better day and some answers tomorrow!