With winter somewhat behind us, we started our garage project. Summer seemed like it was in full swing when we began our dig, but a cold snap showed up a few days later. We kept on chugging through – summer is short in the mountains. (For the big picture of this renovation click here)
The first couple of days of excavation were promising. There was more top soil than we expected. Fingers were crossed that this would keep up. We had local sources who wanted the fill coming out of our job site (saving lots of money not trucking the fill down the canyon). Over the next few days we hit rock. Nothing the backhoe couldn’t handle, but the going slowed down. Then we hit the hard rock. Our excavator had to bring in his rock breaker, things really slowed down, and costs went up. But the hole got dug.
Check out the time-lapse videos below for some digging fun. We didn’t get every day, but you get the idea.
Initial Estimate (time, fill to be removed): 4 days, 250 cubic yards of fill
Final Estimate (time, fill removed): 11 days, 450 cubic yards/658 tons of fill
Wandervogel with the McElvains 
Trying to figure out where the garage will sit… Are you going to swing around to the back of the house? Will it be a two car garage + extra work shop space ? That was a lot of dirt!!
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Never mind…I just saw the plans for the location in the back of the house. I tried to enlarge the details but was not able to. It looks like the rest of the cleared area will be driveway space for parking the RV ? and making the turn into the garage easier.
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The rest of the cleared area will be driveway space. Alas, not enough room for permanent RV parking. We put out cones and tried to make the swing in and out of the garage and it was a no go. And yes, two car garage with some extra space for a work shop and brewing area. Not as big as we wanted it, but better than what we have.
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