Fun With Foundations

Construction of our new garage began on Tuesday, August 3. I took some "Before" photos, but these are "After" Rob came by and cut back all the weeds. When we got back from Cape Cod, our yard was like a jungle! It was too embarrassing to take photos...

Here's the garage site:
And the driveway:
The foundation crew arrived Tuesday morning and got to work digging the foundation for the new garage.
At the end of the day, they had made significant progress!
They came back Wednesday morning and laid down a gravel base and built the forms for the concrete.
This "Mud Buggy" was parked in the back yard when I got home from work on Wednesday. Looks like fun!
The concrete slab was poured on Thursday morning. We had a HUGE thunderstorm blow through on Thursday afternoon, but fortunately they were done by then and it doesn't seem to have affected the drying of the concrete. Alexandria and parts of south Arlington were pretty hard hit by the storm -- our friend Scott's power was out for 4 days, and there were fallen trees, utility poles, and power lines blocking nearly every street in his neighborhood. It was reminiscent of when Hurricane Isabel blew through here in 2003.
We decided to host a BBQ for a few friends and neighbors yesterday to celebrate the groundbreaking on the new garage and inaugurate the new gas grill that Josh's parents gave him for his birthday. The foundation made an excellent auxiliary patio space that served as kitchen, lounge, and kids' play area. (Our neighbors brought the pool over) Our only concern was the 6" pieces of rebar poking out of the perimeter of the foundation, so we bought a case of tennis balls at Costco and covered them up so they were easier to see -- and harder to injure yourself on.
I picked up some sidewalk chalk and bubbles to keep the kids entertained (there were 8!), but they spilled the entire bottle of bubbles within minutes, and only the neighbors' kids had bathing suits to play in the pool, so they eventually all gravitated to the chalk. Instead of using it on the foundation, they came up with the idea of coloring in all the bricks on our patio. It actually looked pretty cool...
By the end of the evening, the kids were all COVERED in chalk. I'm sure every single one went straight into the bathtub when they got home -- but at least they all had fun, and let their parents have fun, too. The bricks look pretty, but we end up tracking chalk into the house every time we go outside, so I'm hoping for another thunderstorm to wash it away sometime this week...
Apparently the foundation lounge was a big hit at the BBQ, but ultimately I think a garage will be a little more useful. It's beastly hot here (upper 90's and HUMID), but Rob says they'll be back towards the end of the week (when it should be a bit cooler) to get started on the framing. Now that I'm no longer working from home full-time, it's harder for me to document everything that happens, but I'll do my best.