The red dots actually point out a very precise nail head, (because Mike's a perfectionist), and while almost all of the points were pretty easy to mark, there were two that gave us trouble. As we were determining the points for the foundations that would support the overhang supports, I had some trouble nailing the nails into the ground. After a little digging, we realized why.
There was some sort of foundation left over from the porch. So, we dug, and dug some more, and realized it was a piece of block that was used to build our basement foundation.
At least they used some sort of foundation for the porch, and I guess since the porch didn't collapse it worked, but Mike definitely doesn't half-ass, (unlike the previous owners, which obviously goes all the way back to the original builder), so they had to come out. And, after a lot of digging, and wedging, and even a moment of craziness when Mike listened to my suggestion and tried to "just pull it out", Mike finally got them completely uncovered and was able to get them out.
From the giant holes we just dug, you'd think that we wouldn't need to dig any more, but we had to make sure we had the correct points for the foundations for the posts, so Mike filled the holes back up and we laid out the correct points.
The next day, Mike rented an auger to dig all the foundations and thankfully Kyle came over to help. Like I've mentioned before, these are big boy toys and I wouldn't want to deprive them of the playtime.
Sometimes, I wasn't sure if they were really working or in fact just playing.
When they were done digging all the holes our yard looked less chickenpox-y and more like Swiss cheese.
And to give you some reference point at how deep these holes are, Mike (in the name of documentation), said he would jump inside one of the holes to show you:
And, amazingly, besides the surprise blocks we found earlier, the day was pretty uneventful expect for a small meeting between the auger and our downspout drainage pipe that runs out to the backyard. Since it was dry and there wasn't any water running through it, it was pretty easy for Mike to fix after a trip to Home Depot to get a new section of corrugated piping.
After all the holes were dug, Kyle and Mike spent the next couple days filling them all with concrete. While our original estimate, (and delivery), called for only 25 bags of concrete, the holes were a little bigger and deeper than technically needed, so we had to have more delivered and ended up using 77 bags total. At 80 pounds per bag, that's 6,160 pounds the guys shlepped across the yard, mixed and poured!
Since it started raining and got muddy, I didn't take any pictures, but the next step is more fun anyways. Come back to see the posts and framing go up!
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