The Brandt Blog

I dropped by the site on the way to work and saw the first of the cement trucks.  One of the guys was directing traffic around the street, (the girls were told to turn off when they drove by on their way to school) and the boom truck was extended about 75 feet to the […]

Thanks to Al and his Concrete Crew we now have the forms in place for what will become the foundation walls.  I was hoping to get an interior shot but there was no way to climb over the forms – and with them being 9 feet tall I couldn’t make the jump. We expect the concrete […]

We weren’t scheduled to get the footings in until Tuesday (May 13) but because of weekend rain, the contractor’s other project was inaccessible by the cement conveyor truck.  One client’s loss turned out to be our gain…as Al + Crew brought the hardware to our site and got to work. I stopped by at lunch where […]

What could be better than seeing a crew working on a Saturday morning? Anne and I stopped during our walk to meet Al Stanalus and his team of concrete professionals while they were measuring and installing the forms that will ultimately cast the concrete footings upon which the foundation walls will be built. It’s kind of […]

Okay…so it’s just a hole.  But it’s done; and that makes us happy. We’re trying to figure out what the notched looking thingy is where the garage will be.    

The progress on ‘the DIG’ is moving pretty fast.  I stopped by at lunch and talked with the backhoe operator for a few minutes; he said that he’d likely be finished digging tomorrow. Here’s a couple of new views showing today’s work.   

          The village yesterday issued our Building Permit and in near immediate response, Rick got word to the excavators who sent the trucks this morning.  Thus, the DIG has begun. It’s a little hard to show what’s going on without getting “wet and muddy” but it looks like they’re either grading the […]

The tree-guys showed up on Friday to take down three trees left on the lot: a 20′ Magnolia, a 30′ White Pine and a 50′ Maple.  The Maple had quite the large trunk but for some reason didn’t have very well-defined rings.  Thus, we’ll never know its final age.  We guess at least 100 years. […]

Here’s what the lot looks like…undeveloped. We’re not sure where they found all the dirt to fill in the hole formerly known as “the foundation” and we’re looking forward to counting the rings on the big maple tree at the center of the picture.

The house that has stood at 215 Sunset Dr. since 1927 was taken down in less than two days.  The backhoe made quick work of everything from the roof to the foundation and from the garage to the old patio. Ironically, the backhoe operator grew up in Libertyville and was friends with a few people […]