This is were the fun begins. . .

We made arrangements with the Contractor who put in the septic, to come and dig the hole for the addition. The weather had cooperated, and things were ready to have him come out March 14^th. We also planned on putting in new outgoing waterlines as the old ones were underneath were the new addition was going. Based on where the incoming line was in the basement, we thought it angled to the house, so it would not be under where we were digging.

This picture shows the door to the old cellar

We had already removed the landscaping material (rocks and plants) before having the septic done, and only had a tree to cut down. My husband has cut down trees before, so this was not a big deal. My husband says he is a “tree hugger”. If he can reach around the tree and touch fingers, he can take it in one pass with his Jonsereds 2071.

The small cellar underneath the bathroom is only about 6’deep, and our original plans including keeping the roofline the same, which meant digging down 8’ from grade. Even after fixing the septic, we were still pumping water out of the cellar on a regular basis - though not nearly as much. Even though we didn’t plan on finishing the basement under the addition, we really didn’t want an indoor pool either. We finally decided that we would only go down 6’ with the new basement, and then have a “step up” (2’) into the new section. Meant changing some plans, but since the old section is rafters, figured it shouldn’t be too hard to deal with. It did mean we couldn’t match the old roof line. We played around with the software and decided if we ran the new roof perpendicular to the old roof, we could use trusses and it would look ok (well, it looked ok on paper . . .).

I had to work the day the contractor and crew came out. Around noon I get a call from my husband. While digging for the basement, they hit water. But they only hit it in one spot . . . After a bit of head scratching, the guys realized that if the incoming water line went straight, and then made a 90 deg turn to go into the house (instead of a more direct angle) they were right over the existing incoming water line. They dug a little bit deeper, and found 1” white PVC pipe. Now, it’s black plastic coming into the house, and black plastic at the “pot” where it’s hooked into the main line. A little big more digging revealed the first joint, were there was significant leaking.

It might seem strange to some that we live in the country and have piped in water, but the water out here is not really potable. Very acidic. I think it’s safe to drink, but stains clothing and tastes like rotten eggs. I’m use to MN and WI, where well water is usually very good, but out here people celebrate when they finally get hooked up to the Rural Water System.

Back to the story - The first thought was to dig back to where the PVC was tied into the plastic line, but they went about 8’ and decided that was just too much work. The contractor had all the tools and supplies on site to put in waterline, so they just ran a new line from the pot. We had not expected to end up with exposed waterlines in the middle of March in South Dakota, so that presented it’s own set of problems. They got the hole dug, and trenched in the waterlines, and left for the day.

It froze overnight, so back filling the trenches ended up being done mostly by hand, but now we had a hole in the ground.

Unfortunately, we also had a hole in the side of the house. When they went to remove the old cellar access hatch, they took a chunk of the foundation with it. We patched the hole with plywood, and left the water running at night to keep the pipes from freezing. Over all, we were happy with the work the contractor did, and now we were ready for the next step, the footings.

¶ 7:51 PM