Meg Zoller Houston Fine Homes

Sometimes you have a major "hiccup" . . . and we definitely had one! The log cabin that we're building at Artesian Lakes in Romayor, Texas next to the Big Thicket in East Texas has been a learning experience since we decided that we wanted to build our second home.

The workmen are digging out the square holes for concrete footings for the log cabin.

Some of the square holes for the porch are 2.5 feet wide, while the others for the main cabin are 4 feet square. The size was determined by the engineers so that there will be enough strength to support the weight of the house. While this home is being built on mostly sand, there is a little clay in the mix.

The holes which have been dug in this picture are the smaller ones. The footings here will support the covered deck.

Here is another hole depicting a clay presence . . . which is a "good thing".

A tool was used to drill out some of the dirt for the square footings. Then the holes were further shaped by hand.

The ground was spray painted so the workmen could tell where to place the footings.

Again, this picture shows how the holes were partially drilled out before the workmen hand shaped the square holes.

House footings in comparison to one of the footings that hit water.

This is where we had our first big "hiccup". The majority of the holes were dug. Then we hit water. This is a major problem when you're putting in footings. We had to stop operations altogether. It was time to contact the engineer to find out what to do next.

Long story short . . . we could no longer put in footings. We had to completely redo the foundation plan.

Bottom line learning experience . . . make sure your engineers actually go to the property and actually look at the relief of the place you intend to build. It will help them tremendously in figuring the right kind of foundation. No assumptions can be made then. The architectural engineers should not rely solely on the soil samples. Only 2 soil samples were taken on this site. Neither were on the low side of the building site.

This was a very costly mistake. Please learn from our experience. We don't want it to happen to anybody else.

Anyway, we shut down operations for about a month while the architectural engineer redesigned the foundation. The new design called for 35' and 40' pilings to be driven into the ground. Yes, I'm talking feet and not inches. I''ll update you more when I have more time to continue this picture story.

Our log cabin will be located in Romayer, Texas at Artesian Lakes near the Big Thicket of East Texas. Jim and I call our building site Zoller Point since it is on a point with the lake on a little more than two sides. This will be a second home for us.

The site was leveled at an angle so that rain would runoff toward the lake. I insisted on keeping my little hill in the top right of the picture. Right now I have a bench up there so I can sit and watch what goes on.

This area was cleared of underbrush so that we can have a place to set the logs, lumber, trucks, cranes, etc. when they come to the location. One of the workmen is at the northeast corner of the future cabin.

Lines are being run to show the perimeter of the cabin. The boards depict the southeast corner of the cabin.

More lines are being squared off for the foundation. And yes . . .that is water in the middle of the picture.

The lines are surveyed and the orange paint will be used to mark the location for the piers.

One of the workmen is assisting in the foundation layout on the northeast corner of the cabin.

I can't believe work is actually starting! We've waited for so long.