Buried treasure

It's been said that renovations are not for the faint of heart. There are the myriad of decisions that must be made, often well in advance of the actual project; the upheaval of regular routines; the debris; the stress; the cost; and of course the ever-present uncertainty of what lay ahead. We haven't even swung a hammer and we've been tested far beyond what we ever thought we'd have to endure at this point - with little to show for our time and energy beyond plans, calculations, and headaches.

So we gave our hearts some time to recover; a break from the decisions and questions and uncertainty, and we left well enough alone last week. Almost like hitting the pause button while watching a jugglers performance: all the balls are still in mid-air; arms outstretched ready to catch and release the next one; all focus frozen in time. Plus the weather is nice for this time of year, so we've been enjoying Spring come early - given what we endured last year in the pretext of being Summer - we deserve this bit of paradise while it lasts.

In between the lawn raking and window washing, we grabbed a shovel and some steel pry-bars and removed a cast concrete drain diverter sidewalk pad at the front corner of the garage. It was no small feat - having sat in it's present location for almost 50 years, wedged in place between gradebeam and sidewalk, and those nasty shrub roots and shoots that refuse to die...

But we did manage to wiggle it free and out of the way so we could dig down in that area to see what treasure lay buried beneath. We weren't searching for gold - though that would have been a welcome bonus - instead we were after a precious cargo of a different sort; one that might only appeal to builders: evidence of a concrete pile.

No, we don't need to see a doctor.

The concrete pile in question would be a very welcome sight, in that it would allow us to continue our plans of garage conversion, provided it was of sufficient size to carry the additional loads required by the new framing. So I dug down and after a few false finds which consisted of bits of excess concrete from the original construction and the odd root, I finally struck construction gold, and located a solid, non-movable surface inside the dark clay and soil hole I'd created.

With a bit more excavation - mostly by hand - I had uncovered the top of a circular concrete pour, about 18" in diameter, as best I could measure since a good quarter of the pile is hidden beneath the garage grade beam concrete, with a bit of exposed re-bar tying the two together, and with a bit more fine-tuned digging, the outside edges were revealed as well.





So our garage was built as we had hoped, with proper foundational support. I sent off details of our findings to the engineer for his consideration, installed some wooden stakes around the hole, tied them with bright pink survey flagging tape to keep the neighbor's kids from falling in, and called it a day.

We still don't know in which direction our next steps will be with this project, but at least we're slowly learning what we have to work with. Which is usually more than half the battle. In the meantime, we'll shine up our armour and hone our swords while we wait for divine inspiration.