The only progress on our new house this past week was the installation of the power company’s meter on our temporary power supply pole.

David, the man who will do the basement and garage slabs, came up to inspect the site, but can’t do the work for a while. I met him as he was on his way down the mountain and I was on my way up with the dogs. He’s the same one who did the concrete work on our current house. He told me that the foundation forms on our current house were the best he had ever seen. That was gratifying, considering how much work it took for me to build them, but he was probably just being polite.

The week before last was spent mostly preparing for the concrete work. John was hauling more gravel and his helper was grading to make a turnaround at the garage. John offered to let me ride along with him in his truck when he went to pick up more gravel. Of course I accepted.

The view from the cab is commanding. We’re about a block from Broad Street here.

The ride in an empty dumptruck is rough. John does his best to avoid even the smallest bumps in the road, but there’s no way to miss them all. And you feel every one of them.

The gravel we’ve been using is actually crushed concrete. A construction company keeps a stockpile for sale to people like John. Here some is being scooped up for loading in John’s truck. The truck rode better with a load, but it’s still a dumptruck.

Back at the house, we continued to fill the basement and garage areas.

Both will need some work before concrete can be poured. There is probably enough gravel in the basement, but it has to be graded smooth. I’ll have to dig down to soil level at two places to form footings for a post and a load-bearing wall. The garage probably needs more gravel to bring it up to the proper level, but I think there will have to be some discussion between John and David to make sure.

All the work I’ve done this week is on our current house. We’re finishing the bathroom, bedroom and family room in the basement before we sell.

The vanity is installed and plumbed in the basement bathroom, and the light over the vanity is in. I have put in base and shoe moulding where the commode will go. I have the toilet flange in, but need a new wax ring before I can install the commode.

I can’t put the rest of the moulding in the bathroom until I put the door in. I can’t put the door in until I put the flooring in the bedroom and family room. I can’t put the flooring in until I frame out a section of wall that’s bare concrete block in the family room. Once that’s done, I have to stain and polyurethane the windows, trim the windows and two sliding glass doors, and put some pine planks on the laminated beam that crosses the family room ceiling. Leah is staining the doors, door frames, base mouldings and the rest of the lumber I’ll need. I wonder how far we can get in the next week.