Project Homestead - Part 2 - Getting Dirty

I'm pretty sure the neighbors behind our lot don't like us.  They purchased their home about one month before we purchased our lot. The home formerly belong to friends of ours and they said the new owners were happy the lot behind them was vacant so that they could move trailers and other items through to their back yard.  I hope they made good use of that feature for the two months prior to us excavating because we definitely messed that up.
At the end of August, I made arrangements with an excavator to dig out for our foundation and basement. Leslie and I measured and marked the lot and a few days later, there was a backhoe where our dirt had been!  The kids were getting a little bit excited about things but they didn't really get what this meant for our dream of being in a house again.

LESSONS LEARNED:
1) A soil report calling for "shale soil" and very likely water problems isn't necessarily a death sentence to your basement. We lucked out and had no problems at all. We also set the basement three feet shallow to hopefully avoid problems later.
2) A quality excavator makes life easier. Kerry Krompel did a great job and actually had the hole flat and level. The concrete crew had an easy time setting the footing forms and we didn't waste any concrete trying to fill low spots.