In my previous post I mentioned the end of the saga of the "west wall". It was a saga that began with a rumor. When we returned from our winter travels we were told that the new mega-million dollar condo development, in our area, was sinking into shifting sand. Wow... instant ghost-town! How are they going to salvage a project like that? I could imagine how that developer must have felt. About three weeks went by before we learned that the vicious rumor was started by a rival real-estate agent. The new development was not sinking at all. All was well again along the river.

However, not long after that I discovered a hairline crack in the west wall of our house. It was a stairstep affair, in which the concrete blocks that makeup the outer wall were separating. The soil beneath a corner of this nearly 20 year-old building had settled. I could see it with my own eyes. This was NOT hearsay.

Now instead of feeling sorry for some faceless milloinaire developer, it was me who had to figure out a solution to a sinking building. I gathered proposals and ideas from engineers and soil experts from all over the state. The cost estimates ranged from the equivelent of a well-equipped laptop computer all the way up to same price as a pretty nice used car. Contractors take no mercy on you when they see a 44-foot sailing vessel in the backyard. I, in turn, took no mercy on them.

I sifted through all of their ideas and proposals. By this time I knew what needed to be done. I called an engineer who gave me an honest sounding estimate and discussed my version of the plan with him. We came to an agreement. He started on the project two weeks after that discussion. See Next Image