Day 36: Concrete, Boulders, and Power Lines: When Construction Finally Gets Real

Since last week, the team has accomplished quite a lot! And when I say "a lot," I mean we've officially entered the phase where this expensive hole in the ground is starting to get filled up with what will become the foundation for everything that we will do in the later stages of construction. Literally.

Progress feels good, people.

Concrete Day: 95 Degrees of Pure Determination

First and foremost, after what felt like numerous delays on pouring concrete for our building footings, we finally started on July 30th. And when we started, we didn't mess around.

Despite it being one of the hottest days this year—we're talking 95-degree scorcher—Zinck Concrete showed up and did their absolute magic. They managed to pour a staggering 140 cubic yards of concrete, which is about half of our building footings.

Let me put that in perspective: 140 cubic yards is enough concrete to fill about 5-6 standard swimming pools. And they did it in blazing heat that had everyone else seeking air conditioning.

But here's the secret to their efficiency: we brought in the biggest concrete pump truck we could fit on site. This beast has a reach of 147 feet! We positioned it right in the middle of the future building footprint, so it could reach every single corner of the building without having to move once.

With machinery like that, we could bring in concrete trucks every 15 minutes and very efficiently pour concrete into the forms along the entire perimeter of the building. No repositioning, no delays, just constant concrete flowing exactly where it needed to go.

These guys are basically concrete superheroes with superpowered equipment.

Now the team is setting up for the foundation walls and the rest of the footings, which will be poured next week. Fingers crossed that the weather cooperates and we don't discover any new surprises underground.

The Boulder Saga: Part 847

Speaking of surprises underground... unfortunately, our boulder adventure continues.

We've uncovered what can only be described as a complete minefield of massive rocks that need to be broken down before our excavator can even think about picking them up and moving them to the surface.

The good news? So far, we haven't found any long stretches of solid ledge that our hydraulic hammer can't break through.

The "fingers crossed" news? We're really, really hoping we don't hit that kind of ledge, because that means bringing in dynamite. And while that sounds exciting in a Hollywood action movie kind of way, trust me—it's anything but fun when you're dealing with permits, safety protocols, costs, and timeline delays.

Let's stick with the hammer, shall we?

Power Play: The 9-Month Pole Saga

Here's where things get interesting on the electrical front. JML (my electrical contractor) and J-Bo (our site team) have been preparing to install electrical cables and a transformer pad.

This might sound like routine construction work, but it's actually a critical step I'm thrilled we're addressing sooner rather than later. Why? Because I've heard horror stories of entire construction projects being completed, only to discover the building can't operate because—whoops!—there's no power, because sometimes it takes more than a year to work through the bureaucracy of utility companies. And unfortunately there is no escalation path. You just have to wait. And wait. And wait some more.

To bring power to our site, we need to coordinate with both Eversource and Verizon. First step was getting them to install a new pole on Main Street.

Want to guess how long that took?

Nine months.

Nine. Entire. Months. For one pole.

Can you imagine?!

Now we need to order a transformer from Eversource, but here's the catch: to get on their installation list, we have to prove that our site is 100% ready for the transformer. So I'm genuinely happy that our team has already dug the trench and started preparing the transformer pad site.

Because apparently, when dealing with utility companies, "ready" means "ready yesterday, with documentation, photos, and possibly a blood oath."

Metal Building Delivery: The Final Countdown

And finally—*drumroll please*—our metal building is arriving on August 14th!

The whole team is working in perfect coordination to ensure we're ready when those big trucks roll up with our materials. We need to be able to unload and store everything efficiently, because nothing says "amateur hour" like having a delivery truck sitting on Main Street while you frantically try to figure out where to put a building's worth of steel.

By delivery day, all our foundation work should be completed, which means our metal building erection team can start immediately.

There's an incredible amount of coordination happening across multiple teams right now. The concrete crew needs to finish their work, the electrical and plumbing prep needs to be complete, the boulder situation needs to stay manageable, and everything needs to align perfectly for that August 14th delivery.

The coming weeks are going to be interesting, to say the least.

The Beautiful Chaos of Real Progress

You know what's amazing about this phase? For months, this project existed mainly on paper—drawings, permits, approvals, plans. Now we're dealing with actual concrete, actual boulders, actual electrical infrastructure, and actual building materials.

Sure, it's chaotic. Yes, we're juggling multiple moving parts and hoping nothing breaks down. But there's something incredibly satisfying about problems you can see, touch, and solve with heavy equipment and hard work.

We're building something real now.

Next Week's Adventure

Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks, when we'll hopefully have the rest of our foundation poured, our transformer pad ready, and our metal building materials safely delivered and stored.

And who knows? Maybe we'll finally get to the bottom of our boulder situation. Literally.