Nothing brings out the neighborhood like a good old fashioned asphalt laying! :)

It’s actually pretty amazing how fast they are able to do it. The dump truck backs up to the asphalt layer and starts to dump.

It looked like the dump truck was in neutral and the asphalt layer pushed it along as the black stuff was put down.

One guy in the truck, one on top of the asphalt layer, and two in the back making sure it’s going down on the right place.

Then there’s the “Rolley’s” as Ryan called them. He said that he could roll them – maybe it’s a future career in the making?

(Warwick’s Finest! What a GIG! hehe)

Hmmm…I “wonder” which kid is going to take his chalk and draw on the new “canvas” that was put down JUST FOR HIM?!? :)

For some reason as they were putting the sewer lines in last summer, they buried the manhole in front of our yard. Didn’t make sense to us at the time, and it still doesn’t! In fact, just two days ago, they paved over the center of the road to build it up for the final paving, AND they dug it up again today to raise the manhole! Hmmm…

Oh well…maybe it’s just job security? Who knows…

BUT – all this work and noise does mean one thing…

WE’RE GETTING THAT MUCH CLOSER TO HAVING REAL LIVE SEWERS! Wooooooo Hooooo! (Can you tell that I’m just a little bit excited about that?)

At the same time, they ground up the end of our driveway so when they pave tomorrow, there’s a smooth transition!

Ryan got his big truck fix for the day, and I was hoping for some butt-crack pictures, but this is a G-rated, family site. Sooo….maybe next time! hehe :)

He was pretty much freaked out.

Many thanks for Richard, the guy operating the Excavator! :)

Bright and early…WAY too early!

Pulling out the dirt and sand.

Our streets are pretty narrow, so usually one truck at a time can get down. I thought this was pretty cool how the front end loader would pour the rocks into the bucket of the excavator, then the excavator would gently put the rocks on the pipes.

Hmmm….

Of course, Ryan had to do a little excavating of his own!

Look! It’s our manhole!

I’m completely amazed at how precise the operator of this HUGE excavator is! I could watch it all day!

Ryan likes to watch it too…for a little while anyway. Every time it makes a big noise, he says “Ba Boom!” :)

After the dirt and sand is taken out of the ground, a huge metal “thingy” is put inside to make sure that the walls don’t cave in while the guys are putting the pipes together, etc.

Check out how much the back end of this machine goes up when it’s lowering the metal “thingy” into the ground!

This big CAT and the metal thingy stayed the night in front of our neighbor’s house last night.

Yipppeeee!!!

I know, it’s a strange thing to be excited about, but we’ve been living with a cess pool since we moved in! (Never heard of a cess pool? It’s just a hole in the ground! Nope…no septic for us, we’re living in the “dark ages! hehe) I can’t WAIT to have a garbage disposal installed!

When we moved in, we were told by the city that we’d have sewers installed by the end of 2005. Well…they are running a little late, don’t ya think? The construction crews have been working in our neighborhood for a few months now, but are FINALLY doing something on our street! I brought Ryan outside to see the guy cutting the road. All he did was cover his ears and say noisy! Just wait kid! hehe We’ll be taking a lot of road trips when the BIG machines start on our street! They’re already really noisy and they are on other streets in the neighborhood!

Anyway…I’m sure that we’ll post the progress as it happens! Woo Hoo! Life in Warwick, RI – so exciting!

PS – see that paint mark in the road? Looks like we get our very own man hole right in front of the house. Fun fun!