At long last, the foundation was back-filled up to grade in order to remove the large trench around the building. The bottom of the hole is filled with clear gravel to provide good drainage around the weeping tile. The rest was filled with soil provided (at no cost) by our excavators, who are always looking for a place to dump clean material from another job. On Friday, the area under the garage floor was dug out and filled with compacted sand and gravel. It is always important to not have any top soil or organic material under the slab as it is prone to freezing, and the expansion will crack the concrete.
Now that we are working above the second floor, the City requires that we cover the sidewalk with scaffolding, which was installed later in the week.
After the masons finished off the second floor block wall on Monday and Tuesday, the framers returned and built the other three exterior walls as well as the third floor. The view from the third floor will be even more amazing once the leaves are gone in just a few weeks.
Next week, work begins on the roof and the basement floor will be poured.