"Operation SOS" (aka Save Our Springhouse) The Beginning

I'll let pictures do most of the talking here. I've shared a couple pictures here of the south and west sides of the springhouse, but none of the north side. It will soon be quite obvious why.

These first pictures were taken this Tuesday, knowing our masonry contractor was coming the next day.

Moving forward to late Wednesday. Note the concrete footer poured at the base of completely washed out foundation under the door.

Cramped working quarters:

(Sorry that last picture is grainy. I'm never there to take action shots of the contractors, so that's a picture of a picture.)

The rest of these were taken today.

That leaning pillar of stone between the door and window makes me nervous. Our mason has told us he is hoping that as he rebuilds the foundation and wall under this section he will be able to coax this part of the wall back into its correct position, and that once properly supported again it will remain in place. However, he has been upfront with us that this plan might not work. If not, he will have to dismantle this portion of the wall and rebuild it stone by stone.

Knowing the masons are working under the doorway just beneath all this precariously balanced stone makes me feel a bit sick to my stomache. We have told them repeatedly that if this project ever feels too dangerous that they should stop immediately. So far they've kept on the job.

After three days of work, the rebuilt foundation is within about a foot of the springhouse floor.

A picture of the south and west sides of the building:

And last, a picture taken through the small door in the west wall that you can see at the bottom of the building in the picture above this. The newly rebuilt foundation is to the left in this photo.

There's maybe four feet of headroom down there. God bless our masons. I really hope they can pull this off.