Prep New Building, The Maine Adventure

The Maine Adventure

The Property The Site... Landscaping... Outside Design... The Natural Environment...	TheCape Gentle Demolition... Moving the Barn... Moving the Cape... Reconnecting the Cape... The Cape Renovation... Becoming a B&B...	The Farmhouse Prepping for the Farmhouse...Modular Farmhouse & Stick-built Garage...Farmhouse Interior...	The Homer Jones Barn The original Homer Jones Barn...The new HJ Barn...Homer Barn Interior...Owner's Quarters
The Heroes-My Working Partners... The Gallery... The Retreats... The Destination Weddings

Project 13a: Preparing the New Building.... Project 13b: The New Building-The Farmhouse.... Project 13c: The New Building-The Barn

Project 13: Preparing for The New Buildings

First of all, the new building site needed a new septic system. So there was no rest for the weary. The next good-weather day, Casey was back on the job, this time to remove and replace a twenty-year-old septic system that was past its prime and which wasn't the right size for the new building.

As usual, Casey did a superb job!

Here's the view up to the lawn above...and then to the barn.

After three + years, and much legal hassling, the site crew arrived to expand the septic system to 8 bedrooms, as originally planned.

First, they placed a roadway of rocks, so that the big machines didn't sink in the lawns.

Then they turned the soil over to prepare for the expansion.

New Foundation
Blasting--Although I swore I'd never blast the site, it finally became clear to me that I couldn't place buildings on the ledge where they could look out at the pond and the river unless I did. And, with some research, I found that the blasting I had witnessed back in the 80s was much different from the very localized blasting that's done currently. So, getting agreement from the contractor that I would be on site to watch--to be sure the blasting didn't get too near tree roots, etc., I agreed. And finally, we all synchronized our schedules and the blasting began.

It's truly amazing how precise they can be and all trees are still happily standing!

New Foundation
Then it was time for the third new foundation on the site. And this one is a whopper! The foundation under the new garage is just a four foot frost wall, but the new farmhouse and new barn both got full, livable, basements.

Radiant piping was installed in the foundation.