i've never seen anything like it..."

"i've never seen anything like it." these are not the words one wants to hear from her contractor when working on a big excavation project.

so it turns out that, not only was there nary a footing to be seen under our bay windows, we have virtually no foundation to speak of under the entire house. just a couple of rows of bricks in some sections along the outer walls.

"i can't believe the building is still standing." or that it has survived such big earthquakes. eugene says that he believes our house is being held up by a couple of tenuous spots where our house meets with our neighbors on the downslope.

well, at least this explains alot about the house and the settling we've seen in such a short time.

here are a couple of fun photos of current progress. so glad we're getting this done.

daily bin exchange to haul away the sand removed in the last 

24 hours

now we can really see the space taking shape

a look at the temporary shoring that is updated each day 

as they continue excavation by hand

it's pretty incredible to see how fast the project is moving in the first couple of weeks - and to see a space tall enough for some pretty big guys to stand below the house very comfortably. they've also made it all the way to the back of the planned garage space; if you look closely at last photo, you can see the chimney of one of our fireplaces.

please wish us luck that this is the extent of the "surprises" to be found. you know, other than gold coins or some other treasure.

beach baby, beach baby, there on the sand...