Drilling Holes

Is it March already? It seems like just last week we were sitting down to Christmas dinner and yet already the weather is starting to warm up and everyone is getting ready for a new working year (the calendar of which runs from April 1st here in Japan). Updates have been a little thin on the ground over the last few weeks and there are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, Yuko and I spent a couple of weeks in northern Spain eating all the ham and drinking all the wine we could lay our hands on. Secondly, due to schedule conflicts, the groundwork discussed in the last blog took forever to get started...but started it has.

Late last week, the contractors arrived to begin drilling the huge deep holes that will house the heavy steel pilings that will be supporting the land and forming a retaining wall around the steps and parking space. In total there will be between 6 and 8 pilings and a heavy metal 'sheet' that will be used to hold back the earth. It's quite a complex procedure that requires some pretty serious equipment and some very deep digging.

Since we were away when they commenced with the drilling, we weren't able to head to the site to watch, which was something we had been quite keen to do. Luckily, the building company had offered to take some photos of the work so that we could document it on the blog. I've put the three photos below for you to see.

We're hopeful that this is the last of any major deviations from the schedule and that we can get on with the more enjoyable task of actually building the house itself. Since neither of us is especially technical, it's really difficult to go into much detail about these complex engineering tasks other than to marvel at the huge machines and big pieces of metal. I think we should be able to provide a bit more interest and insight when we can get back to talking about things inside the house.

The pilings viewed from above

The big drill!

First pilings in place