Construction is in full swing!

So after almost one week of construction, it looks like a big  pile of dirt!  But there's been a lot of progress...
After the surveyor came out and located all the corners of the building, the perimeter of the building was laid out with batter boards and forms for the slab and the steel for the foundations were delivered.

 

Bill and I posed for a picture.  But I know he wanted to hurry up and unload his truck!











Rebar

The deep foundations had to be dug in the few spots that we had them--in the connection between the 2 rectangular volumes (Thanks to Juan Fernandez, I learned about "portal frames":)  Kevin had his mini-bobcat out there... This thing was mini!

I had heard that the soil was hard in this area, so when I saw this little thing, I worried!  But for the most part, it did ok (other than breaking down once or twice and not being able to get the last small part of a foundation that was solid rock!)
After the foundations, the dirt fill was placed to the approximate level of the bottom of the slab.  
Meanwhile, Santi and his helpers worked feverishly for 2 days trying to tear down the last little bits of the remaining walls with chipping/sledge hammers

and by Friday, everything looked great....til Tommy got there on Saturday!  Tommy and I met there early and laid out all the underground plumbing lines,
including the Camper waste line way out in the yard... We spray painted them on the ground after completely redesigning the plumbing layout to avoid plumbing lines running thru the deep foundations. This is the kind of thing ONLY an owner/builder/architect can do ON SITE!  After a couple of hours of that, Tommy's backhoe arrived to dig trenches...  This thing was a little more equipped to handle the terrain!  Before 4pm, he was done, and all that was left to do was reassemble the chain link fence and we called it a day.
Next steps--put in the pipes, get the temporary electrical hooked up (so I can stop borrowing from my awesome neighbors, Orlando and Dora, who I consider GOOD friends already!)  and put in the underground electrical/mechanical and prep for the slab pour...  Stay tuned!!