Chipping Away

Written by Jaqui Lividini

House elevated nine feet in the air? Check. Renovation underway and appliances being chosen? Check. Foundation poured? Not just yet.

You may remember that the foundation for our beach house was supposed to be poured at the beginning of November. Now, we are shooting for the end of January–which a glance at the calendar will show you is fast approaching! 

So back to the question we have asked again and again: Why is this taking so long?

In this case, the answer is something called ledge rock. Our experts at Design Development  have advised us that the ground needs to be completely level in order to lay the foundation properly, and it is covered in seemingly unbreakable and uneven ledge rock and granite. Our crew keeps breaking drills trying to complete the job and has resorted to chipping away at the rock with hammers and chisels. They can’t just blast the rock away because the house would go with it!

Pylons made of concrete and encased in wood will support the house, and those are almost complete. To complicate things further, the pylons will be set on three different levels because we have three different floor heights–all of which have to completely evened out before this process can be complete.   

In the meantime, I am distressed because the house is floating nine feet in the air exposed to all the elements of each winter storm. All of the windows and doors must remain open because air needs to be flowing through it!  

I swear I feel as if I could be an engineer with all I’ve learned from this project. Mostly I’ve learned that there is something to that old saying that you can’t rush a masterpiece!