Big creepy holes!

Connections
Water and sewer were reconnected today. I imagined a simple connection a few feet below the surface.  Na uh. We drove up and the entire street was closed off with a gigantic pile of dirt. On closer inspection, there were multiple holes - the kind that cause buried alive nightmares.  The extremely rectangular hole takes up about half the width of the street.  Hopefully, the replacement pavement won't bottom out cars as they pass on the street.

One unfortunate fate
We had hoped to save a small, but perky crabapple tree. It survived the demolition, the excavation, and the backfill of the foundation. The utility reconnection was it's undoing...

And one happy outcome
And so closes the saga of the cave-in. With the window well and the backfill finally in place, all is right with the neighbor's sidewalk.  It actually is probably a good thing in the end.  They had a 1 to 2 foot drop off of their walk before, level ground seems much safer.  Now the worst that could happen is tripping, stumbling 5 feet and falling head first into our window well.

Well wishes

Well, oh well
Today started out with a mini-crisis requiring some speedy decision making, not always our forte.  Our contractor recommended that we act as quickly as possible to fill in the neighbor's side due to the cave-in. That means we had only 1 option - steel window wells on that side.

I hate steel window wells.  Nothing like staring out of your basement and into the sides of a giant, shiny tin can.  Bleh.  Thankfully the 2 window wells in question are not focal points.  The one by the cave-in would be on the stairs to the basement.  The one in the back would be in a kids/guest room whenever we decide to finish the basement.  Of the 2, the one on the stairs seemed like more of a priority to play down the tin can action.

I had briefly seen a product at the lumber yard that would be a compromise, so we all sprang into action to see if it would be a possibility.  The product has a printed veneer that looks like a stone retaining wall.  After calls to the lumber yard, and St. Paul Corrugating (the manufacturer), they agreed to make one for us today so it can be installed tomorrow.  Great customer service!

StoneWall by St. Paul Corrugating

As expected, the cement forms were removed yesterday.  Got a good look at it in the daylight today.  Looks great!  You can see the window holes - the plan is really coming to life.

Next up

With the window wells installing tomorrow, the plan is for the fill to be replaced around the foundation on Friday.  Hopefully, utilities get connected on Friday, too.  Framing is scheduled to be deliver on Tuesday with the carpenters getting started Tuesday or Wednesday.  According to our contractor, framing will take about 3 weeks.