Excavation and Forms for the foundation

The original plan was to have the guy that removed the stumps and excavated for the septic come in and dig the foundation but weather delayed him on another job. So....we decided to give it a try ourselves with our caterpillar and a new laser level from Lowes. It was a great learning experience and we all learned to shoot the grade and after 9 hours of excavating and alot of putting our heads together we finally finished. The next day we bought the wood from Lowes to build the forms for the footer. Our geometry knowledge was put to the test as we measured triangles to get the 90 degree angle we needed at the outside and inside corners. We used a plumb bob, the rotating laser level, tape measures and a carpenter's square to check and recheck our angles and measurements, and in the end (we are still only half finished with the forms) our hypotenuse was exactly the right measurement in both directions. HOORAY!