Tressler and Fedor excavated the trenches for the gutter downspouts that will take the water away from the house and foundation.  The gutter on right front side of the house was connected to the existing buried gutter pipe that daylights the water on the far side of the driveway.  The gutter from the back of the house and the left front side will be connected and daylight in the trench on this side of the driveway but down near the electrical junction box.  There was a longer-than-expected run of PVC pipe needed to connect all the runs from the gutter downspouts in the trenches, so tomorrow the additional PVC pipe will be connected and the trenches will be back filled and final grading will be completed around the foundation.

 Scott and Julian installed the single piece soap cubby in the wall and then applied fabric to the sides and top of the shower and a Styrofoam base sloped to the center drain in the shower.  These products are part of a waterproofing approach Schluter Systems Once the fabric and floor drain pan set up over night, they will start installing the tile on the floor and the ceiling, plus the corner seat (also a molded product and it will be topped by the same granite as the bathroom vanity.  We will also have a shelf of the granite high in the shower wall.
Jeff worked on getting the water supply lines and the plumbing manifold connected and labeled so it will be easy to shut off a water line to a specific faucet or toilet. 
Jeff installed an exterior water faucet on the rear wall and will be putting another faucet on the right front side of the house, so we should be able to reach almost anything with a hose in the future.  The excavators again dug down to exposed our water well line so that Jeff can move our existing pressure tank from the garage to the basement and Dwayne can reroute the electrical service to the well pump from the garage to the new house.  Putting the service in the new house will also make it easier to add that circuit to the emergency generator board and protect the well pump from electrical outages (we have had 4 outages in the past week, probably due to some problem at our local substation--outages running from a few seconds to 3 hours.)  These changeovers will take place tomorrow so we will be without water for part of the day on Friday.

 Doug, John, and Chris continue doing wood work trim inside.  Most of the ground floor windows have been trimmed out and they have already started on the upstairs window trim.  Doug applied the door trim to the rear entry and the sidelight windows.  John added trim to the bedroom dormer ceiling.

Chris has the window casings for most of the upstairs windows staged and ready for installation once the extension jams have been put in place.  The frames for the knee wall storage cabinets are installed and ready for the doors and hinges.
We are awaiting the floor sander and finisher to begin his magic as the crew would like to begin work on the baseboards and framing in the doors after the floors have been finished.  But, if the floor guys don't get on the ball, the crew will move forward and he will have to work around them.

Reading Across the Plains **** RL Stevenson. Author rides a train as an emigrant across US. (written in 1879–80, published in 1892). Second leg of his journey, by train from New York to California (then picks up with The Silverado Squatters). I probably should have started with the Amateur Emigrant, the story of his journey to NY by boat.

Swimming pool

The hole in the ground is now a mud spa or swimming hole. We had about .5" rain. I guess we could have predicted that. No major damage or setback, but it may still be too wet tomorrow to finish this job. Maybe the excavator will still be here when Prince Cheeks comes to visit next.

Hole in the ground

We have a hole and a big excavator on site. The excavator is where the basement walkout door will be. The pile of earth behind the house is for backfill. We didn't see any rock refusal although we'll have plenty of rocks for walls and walkways. About 6'from the surface, which is already 2'-4' below the original surface before any site prep, a black plastic trash bag appeared in the clay/shale: an archeological enigma. We found many ocean life fossils in the rocks.

Some of the excavated earth is below the Toy Shed and some is between the upper and lower meadows. That will be smoothed and replanted to make an easier mowing job. The pile of about 6 truckloads below the Toy Shed will be relocated into the Shed to raise the floor about 6". We'll cover that with 2A driveway stone to finish. Raising the floor will help keep the shed drier. The doors will then hit the ground and maybe we'll keep some of the larger animals out as a bonus.

Although the forecast is for drizzle tomorrow, they probably have about 1/2 day more to do.