House Layout

Since we are acting as our general contractor, it was our job to lay out the house so that the excavator could begin it's work. We did it over last weekend, while Evan napped. We got it done and we set up a couple of batter boards so that we can quickly string a line again and find the two back corners. This way we can layout the house again for the footings and the basement wall.

Here's a picture of the little stakes going up. And below is Shawn holding his patent-pending tool. It was hard holding onto the measuring tapes, so he deviced this jig to hold them for us. Really made a difference. There's a nail through the board. On top, the tapes are clamped at the desired measurement. Then both tapes are pulled tight to indicate the exact location of the corner. Then a stake is place below the nail sticking from the underside of the board. And here is Shawn double checking measurements. An below, we are demonstrating how the tool worked.
We did have to do some work at night after Evan went to bed, and we almost killed the car battery, but it was done in time for the excavator.

















Of course, the excavator's other job ran late so he was unable to begin working until a week later.