Clearing and Driveway – Site Prep for our Small Modular Cabin

While we wait for permits, we can put in the driveway and clear and level the site.

Nothing happened for a few days. While we waited for the contractor to get back the estimates from the subcontractors, it rained. And rained and rained and rained. We got all of the rain we didn’t get last year in just a few days.

When we got the estimate back, we realized we can’t afford everything we want right away. We went back and forth and found a compromise that we can afford. We signed the contract on January 17^th.

The next week a deer strolled across the yard and trucks started dropping off equipment.

And trucks started showing up, dropping off machines.

The permit paperwork was filed. While we wait, we can put in the driveway and prepare the lot.

We decided we could save some money by using a driveway that was mostly already there. The city had used our yard as a staging area for the Streambank Restoration project. The driveway they put in went almost all the way up to where the cabin will be.

There is a driveway that is part of that lot, but my daughter and her husband are using it to park their camper. They put in power so they can leave the camper plugged in when they aren’t on the road. This way they can leave the camper there.

The bulldozer started making the driveway where we pointed out while the excavator pulled out brush and trees that were in the way.

They got right to work, pushing the topsoil away from where we want the driveway. They are saving the topsoil to level around the house.

I was beginning to wonder if they would ever find gravel. So far there has been nothing under the topsoil.

But when they scraped close to the road, there it was. We had just started a little further over than the gravel is.

We thought we would need a stump grinder, but no. They just pull up the tree by the roots.

They cut the trees into manageable lengths and piled them up.

This is the area where we worked so hard to clear the briars and brush. It took us hours and hours over two days. They pulled the rest all out in about 10 minutes.

They picked up and dropped the root ball over and over to shake all of the dirt off, then stacked it with the brush and trees.

Here it comes! Our first load of gravel!

They spread load after load of road bond.

The gravel came from Penrose Quarry. I went to school at Penrose Elementary. The school would shake every time they blasted for gravel. And now some of that gravel makes my driveway!

The excavator loaded the trees. It smashed them down to fit as many as they could into the truck.

As each load of gravel was spread, they filled the truck up with brush and trees and took it away. There is WAY more brush and trees than we thought.

They dug a trench to put up a silt fence.

They were nearly done when the excavator helped finish the center.

They used the excavator to push in the silt fence stakes.

It’s been cold and drizzly and now it started to rain.

All of the work is done by Fowler Excavating. Taylor Fowler lives near here, between Brevard and Hendersonville in North Carolina.