Yesterday, the digger was on site and they dug down 12 inches to create a hole for the driveway sub-base.  This hole had to be approved by the City of Santa Barbara in terms of moisture of the soil and compaction.  It has passed and we can today move onto the next step.  Here we see the vibrator plate that was used to compact the soil under the driveway and the beginnings of the forms for the concrete that will be poured tomorrow (if our forms are approved by the City of Santa Barbara!).

This 2X16 board will form the inside edge of the curb, i.e. the edge of the curb closest to the house.

On the other side of the driveway, the curb and skirt have been created with the forms.  The board in the foreground forms one side of the skirt and the two other boards, slightly elevated from the first, create both sides of the curb.

Another view of the same showing the form for the curb from above.

Prior to building the concrete forms, the entire driveway was mapped out using posts and string like the one shown here which defines the fall of the driveway as it goes toward the garage.

At the bottom of the downhill slope of the driveway, we have a trench drain which will catch all the water flowing down the driveway and whisk it away down the drain thus preventing the water from entering the garage.  The trench drain has already been lain in front of the garage (it is visible in the photograph above).  Since the trench drain has to be placed prior to pouring the concrete drive, the drain is being mounted on cinder blocks and stuck to those blocks using concrete.  Below is a photograph of one of the cinder blocks encassed in concrete.

This work is all done by hand as can be seen here with a guy who is hand shaping the concrete around the cinder block and up to the trench drain

The concrete that is used for this purpose is also mixed by hand in a very familiar wheelbarrow.  Also visible is the next cinder block partially set in concrete.

While the one guy sets the trench drain, the rest of the crew shovel road base into the hole that will become our driveway.

There are still many more forms to be built, but that will all be finished before the concrete truck arrives tomorrow.