Posts Tagged With: George Lewis

lincoln logs, lumber, and windows, oh my!

October 1

We arrived at the lake around 7:30am to find George already there, waiting with his 6000lb all terrain fork-lift, ready to unload the logs once the trucks arrived. The three trucks were due around 8:00am, having driven down from Tennessee, carrying all the supplies from Battle Creek Log Homes that would be needed to construct our log cabin.

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Having some time to kill before their arrival, we walked down to the dock to enjoy the view of the lake for a bit.

We heard the loud sound of diesel engines in the distance and headed up the drive just as the trucks pulled into sight.

It didn’t take much to realize that there was no way the heavy trucks could make it up the driveway. So, as George had somewhat anticipated, the trucks would have to remain in the road and he would have to use the fork-lift to carry all 52 pallets of supplies from there, up the steep driveway to the top of hill, and scatter them around the building site.

Though time consuming, the unloading went smoothly till George picked up a giant pallet containing the heavy timbers for the roof, that didn’t quite fit between the trees that line the driveway.  No worries though- it seems that there is no difficulty that George can’t surmount!

Without a word, he lowered the pallet, jumped out of the fork-lift cab and onto his bulldozer. In no time, he had widened the driveway and was able to successfully bring the large pallet to the top of the hill.

The rest of the unloading went smoothly and seven hours later, they were done.

And me? I had three jobs:  taking photos, checking the pallet numbers off the list as they were unloaded, and bringing lunch back to the boys while they worked.  Two went well, the other, not so much…

Waffles faired much better. She had a big day chasing after Dave, supervising the work and swimming in the lake.  She slept soundly all the way home!

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the pouring of the concrete…

Enter Kris Cutler, the other half of C & L Excavation.  

We had met Kris, what seems like forever ago, when we first met with George Lewis and Eric Riley, and walked the property with the three of them, discussing our proposed homesite, well and septic field, and getting their ideas for the driveway and what would be involved in clearing the land and laying the foundation.  Eric was already on site when we pulled up that morning, his pick up truck parked near the shed.  We introduced ourselves to him and were making small talk when we heard the distinct sound of a motorcycle approaching. We were all three somewhat surprised when a Harley Davidson pulled into the parking area and off jumped Kris Cutler.  Not the usual means of transport for a contractor!

As George Lewis handles the excavation side of the business, and Kris the construction end, once excavation began we didn’t see him again until it was time for the concrete slab to be poured.  When we arrived Thursday morning, the process was well underway and we found Kris on site along with the concrete team from Cowling Bros Building Supplies who had driven up from Waverly, Va to pour our basement slab. They were just finishing pouring the second truckload of concrete when we pulled up. A third arrived shortly there after to finish the job.

Meanwhile, Todd Hawkes had arrived, as well as Lacey Palmore from Southside Electric Cooperative.  They were meeting to discuss how and where the electric line would be brought in.  We had initially intended to have temporary power brought in for the log crew to use during construction, but after finding out that it was no longer a minimal fee, we decided it would be cheaper just to by a generator for them to use.  Probably not a bad thing to have around when you live in the woods anyway so not a huge deal to have to spend the extra money on one.

After the slab was poured, the crew unloaded a piece of equipment that looked somewhat like a cross between a giant fan and a hovercraft, and began to run it across the mostly dry slab.

While a few of the crew continued to smooth out the slab, the others began to work on the post supports for the deck.

Once the deck supports were done, the truck pulled around to the front to pour the front porch supports.

By the time the last post support was poured, the slab had mostly dried.  We decided at the last minute that it would be fun to leave our handprints in our future basement floor and were happy to find a shaded area that was still just wet enough.

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yep, another successful day at the coleman cabin

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foundation approved, time for the slab prep

Thanks to a fantastic job by Eric Riley and his crew from Superior Walls, as well as a termite treatment by Brown Exterminating Company, and of course, George Lewis of C & L Excavation, our new foundation has passed inspection!

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Dinwiddie County gives their stamp of approval. Hooray!

Next step, the slab prep…

Categories: Fun times at Colemans Lake | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

a structure arises…

Dave arrived bright and early Friday morning, did a little fishing and awaited the arrival of Eric Riley and his crew from Superior Walls Foundations.  Although overcast, it was a beautiful morning on the lake, the early fall air cool and quiet.  I stayed behind to get Max off to school then headed down, not wanting to miss out in witnessing the first level of our log home being put into place.

The crew arrived at 7:20 to prep the ground before the amazing production began.

The crane and two trucks carrying our foundation walls arrived soon after.

The crane made it safely up the steep drive, but now it was time to get the heavy trucks, weighed down by the heavy concrete walls, up top to the home site.

After several attempts, it was clear that the heavy truck was not going to make it up the hill.  All seemed lost for a moment. But wait…

Todd Hawkes, who had previously put in the ATV trails for us, popped by to watch.  We had yet to meet him in person so we were very happy to finally meet him face to face.  He will be taking over as contractor for the mechanicals so we will be seeing a lot more of him in the coming weeks!  It was much fun having our three trusty contractors all on site at the same time.

Having successfully pulled the trucks to the top of the hill, George takes off and Eric Riley and his team from Superior Walls take over the production.

While Eric and his team were busy putting our foundation in place, we received a call that our port-a-john had arrived.  Hooray, no more potty tent for us!

Meanwhile, Eric’s crew puts in the fireplace foundation.

The last wall in place, we head inside to check out our new basement!

Three hours from start to finish, our foundation is complete and Eric and his crew, take off.

As usual, I couldn’t resist taking a few more photos of the lake before we left for the day. The cloud cover had lifted, leaving a beautiful deep blue sky overhead…

Categories: Follow the adventure as we build our log cabin | Tags: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

in which George encounters rock…

It seemed to be fairly smooth sailing for George for the first seven days, (at least from our perspective!) and then, on the eighth day….

Somehow, I had assumed that George had a team of workers helping him with the excavation and didn’t realize till yesterday that he’s been doing this entire project himself.  I didn’t think I could be anymore impressed with him than I was before, but I was mistaken.  George Lewis, you are AWESOME!!!

By Wednesday evening, George had cleared the land, put in the driveway, completed the excavation, and prepped the ground for the foundation and concrete slab.  We are sufficiently impressed!

And tomorrow, the building begins….

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