Knocking holes in slab

Doing site prep and demolition not only lowers the contractors' bids, but also allows me to tightly control how the first and most important phase starts, namely, the foundation. I live at this jobsite, after all. I've carefully marked the centerlines of the piers and hired a laborer to knock out holes where they're on old slab. Pier drilling can then go quickly and smoothly... hopefully.

Project: room addition

To get the lowest prices from the most qualified people to do decent work in reasonable time, I'm starting the room addition right now, in the dead of winter, even before completing my interior projects. Good thing I already got the building permit. Here's to hoping for dry weather in February!

Voila! storage shed

This is a Keter Apex 8x6 storage shed purchased from Orchard Supply Hardware for $649 plus tax. It has a ridge skylight and two windows. It's super easy to construct, given a flat and level ground. Assembly requires only a philips screwdriver and about two hours. Just in time for the rain. Trailer transported.

Shed floor

As luck would have it, the compacted granite pad was short by about an inch. Part of the problem is that stock 2x4 treated wood is actually shorter than eight feet (the required width for the storage shed). It was lapped on the side, but the side board itself wasn't perfectly level. It's best to have the entire shed floor sit on the same material, so I dug out more dirt and hand-compacted another six inches. The visible clue is the cedar 2x4 extension seen at lower right in the photo. Only now is it ready.

Little brick wall

Although the concrete footing hasn't yet cured (typical working strength in 7 days, design strength in 28 days), it's just firm enough to start the bricks. And the bricks were discovered sitting in the underfloor crawl space, stashed by the previous owner for some reason. They're otherwise useless, so why not build a little retaining wall with them. Too bad it won't be entirely visible -- the shed will hide it on one side, and dirt will cover most of it on the other.
But it came together very well.