We Make a Home: Breaking Ground
#4: Driveway, Excavation, Septic Tank & Foundation
We Make A Home is a newsletter series about Emilio & I’s journey to build a home together (literally & figuratively)! We both value creativity and time in the natural world, and are working to create a place that reflects that. While I write from our direct experience in a way that I hope is helpful, please note that every place and situation will be a little bit different, and we’ll also choose to maintain our privacy in some areas. Read all posts in this series on my Substack!
We broke ground on September 16! Because the land was completely forested, they started by cutting down trees on the driveway.
We met them at the property to map out the precise path, and then they got to work. After literally one day, two people (one with a chainsaw, one with a skid steer) cut about 500 feet of path! It was truly incredible, and it set the tone—they have been working so fast from the first day.
From there, they cleared the house site and began excavation and grading, bringing in more machinery and a few more people on the crew.
Our property has a gradual incline from the road to the top of the plot where the house is meant to sit, so we knew they’d have to do some grading to make the site flat for the foundation. But, this ended up being a bigger job than expected.
They began digging material out of the high side (the top of the hill) to bring down to the low side (where the driveway ends). This was complicated for two reasons: it required a greater reshaping of the land than expected, and they immediately hit shale after around 10’’ of topsoil.
Shale is a soft rock, so they could break it up, but due to its orientation (perpendicular to the surface), it was more difficult than if the layers had been laying flat.
This process went on for several weeks until it actually was time to get the foundation ready.
Because it took so much time to break up the shale, the team moved to finish excavating and flattening the foundation site, then had to leave some of the remaining excavating work for later in the process. They primarily needed to continue flatting out the area around the house and creating a swale so water didn’t flow toward the house from the high side.
They also finished the driveway, though it would need some additional work after all the heavy machinery was done driving on it.
At the same time they were working on the main house site, they prepared the site of the septic tank for sand delivery. Because of our shale bedrock, our land isn’t able to sustain a traditional leach field as liquid drains too quickly. Instead, they brought in tons of sand to build a drainage mound.
There are 2 septic tanks that feed into the sand mound piping, which has since been completely covered over by sand and top soil. It’ll be a great site for some perennial meadow plants, I think.
All this work only took about 3 weeks (the septic system was completed later). Late on the evening of October 8, the concrete forms were ready.
Our house’s primary heating system is hydronic radiant in-floor heat. So, hot water will flow through these green pipes and heat the rooms through the heated concrete.
We came to watch them pour the foundation.
Four concrete trucks poured the concrete into a pump truck that had a giant hydraulic arm. The team moved the arm around the forms as concrete poured out, distributing the material and eventually smoothing everything out.
The whole thing took less than 2 hours (a necessarily fast part of the process), and by the next day, they had already put down a layer of sealant and cut the relief cuts. We aren’t laying any flooring over the concrete, so these really are our actual floors!
While all this was going on, we were also busy little bees doing lots of research and purchasing our fixtures. We had to pick out just about everything that goes into the interior of the house, from tile to sink fixtures to lights to cabinet pulls, and boy there are a lot of options!
We primarily wanted to ensure we were buying high quality stuff that wouldn’t break the bank, while also looking for opportunities for the house to feel custom and special.
Some of these selections were fun to make, while others made us a little bit crazy. But, by mid-October we had everything ordered and on its way to us. Looking forward to sharing some of those special picks when it’s time for installation!
Next Time on We Make a Home…
The walls go up!
I love how you are documenting your whole process! You'll be happy you did and see how far you have come!
We were so lucky with our build because both my brother (excavation/concrete) and my son work in construction (and now my husband is moving from tech to that). We also have a plot full of shale and that was what made our septic a nightmare, they won't allow sand mounds here any more.
We also have radiant heating put in our floors (self-installed) in case we ever want to use it. We also installed it in our huge garage. We learn how to do almost everything ourselves from the internet.
One thing we were so lucky with, even though it didn't seem so at the time, was the pause we had because of the septic issues. It gave me time to find tons of deals on appliances and materials that I stockpiled. I still do our local building material auction that goes on monthly and have gotten some awesome deals there! Got every window for our garage there and they are all Andersen. Another suggestion I have for building is not to get too in love with a specific item. I go into a project with an idea, but go with parts that I can find at a discount or make myself. I have saved so much money that way and the results are better than if I had picked it out. Happy accidents! My best places to find things are auctions, eBay (all my appliances - Viking and Thermador), the clearance section at Home Depot and Lowe's, local appliance store clearance sales, tile lots that are on sale from the maker, and things that I designed myself. I make tile inserts for my master bath that are one of my favorite things in our house.
Cant wait to see what you come up with and your final home! Cheering you both on!
You’ve come sooooo far so fast! Wow exciting. Miss Coco is honored to be included. Can’t wait to see what’s next. 🫶🏽. Everything is so intentional and purposeful. Everything is so you!