here we go

 

 well, here we go ... new metal shop.  it started about a year ago.  we thought we were all set to go last summer, but the appraisal underwriters declared our property 'mixed use commercial' because our shop was more than a certain percentage of the square footage of our house and that threw us out of the fannie mae/freddie mac underwriting guidelines.  so, 8 months later, we have subdivided our 10 acres, and refinanced and now we're underway on a new metal shop for sam.  the photo above was yesterday around 8:00 am.  the digging and site work will be done by dydo and company.  noel dydo helped us dig our first house foundation in 1974 and we've been friends since 1971, over 40 years. 

 some scraping and digging and we're ready to extend the culvert which will allow us to expand the parking area.

 end of the day yesterday ... a little deeper than we thought we would get.  a little ledge on the back side.  about a four foot wall on the front.  good to go ...

 today, tony genier, of concrete professionals, arrived to form up the footings. 

 

 and they really are professionals.  they showed up around 1:30 and were out the door around 4:00.  finish it up and pour the concrete in the morning ...

lots of steps, due to the ledge

we're hoping that sam will be welding in the new shop by labor day ... the old one is about 12 x 24 and cramped, cramped, cramped.  it consistently spills into my garage and moving it to a new spacious building in the same area as the wood shop will be a huge benefit to us all.  progress updates as they happen ...

here's the concept via photoshop ...
update 6 7 ... concrete professionals ,i guess.  tony and his crew showed up yesterday morning to  pour the footings they formed up wednesday afternoon.  then they came back after lunch, stripped the forms and poured the walls at 4:00 in the afternoon.  gone by 5:00.  today they stripped the forms off the walls and were gone by lunchtime.  total elapsed time, footings and walls, and gone ...44 hrs?  rain was predicted today, so he had the concrete folks add some 'accelerator' to the footing mix.

VERY professional

 

 waiting for a couple days with new rain in the forecast to pour the slab

from up on the hill, looking back to the shop