Construction Progress- The Thompson at 2108 10th

We finally had a great week of clear weather here in DC and we were able to get a lot of foundation work done at 2108 10th St NW.  The first part of the project involved underpinning the foundation of the house next door.  Here's what this process looks like:

The underpinning is nearly complete.

Underpinning is the process of creating a new foundation below an existing one.  The house to the right has no basement, and our new building will have a full one.  We can't just dig straight down because doing so would remove the dirt that supports the foundation of the other house.  Instead, we pour a new concrete foundation down to the lowest point of our new building.  On the right, that building has a full basement so we can just dig the dirt all the way down.