After getting the building permits we hired an excavator to come clear the land and build up the earthen pad for the building foundation.

  Excavation required removal of
  vegetation, leveling and filling the drain
  trenchs of this former orange grove. The
  water in this picture shows that our
  ground water is just 12" below grade.
  For this reason, the code requires
  occupied dwellings, eg, homes, to be
  elevated a minimum of 3' above the
  nearest blacktop road as protection
  against flooding.  Our home, in the
  background, had to be 5 1/2' above
  the road because of our high ground
  water level.  Otherwise our septic
  system wouldn't drain.  The aquaculture
  building will be 3' above the road level
  for flood conditions.
 

  This project would require 100+ dump
  trucks of fill before it's finished.  The
  total cost of fill exceeded $10,000.  The
  excavation cost was $5,000. 

  There was a lot of earth moved around
  before this project began taking shape.
  The stake in the foreground represents
  one corner of the earth pad they are
  building just to bring it up to the
  blacktop road.  Later you will see more
  fill going on top of this to get up to code
  of 3 feet above the road.

  I didn't envision all of this while making
  plans living in WI.

  One of the problems I envisioned was
  overheating of the aquarium systems.
  I had planned to use geothermal cooling
  all along.  After moving to FL, I
  wondered if it would work.  The ground
  temperature in FL is always warm.  I
  began to give more thought to burying
  the pipe as deep as possible.  One
  problem in doing that is ground water on
  our property is just 12" below grade
  level.  To bury the pipe 3' I would be
  working in 2' of water.  Not a fun thing
  to be doing.  Raising our grade level up
  to match the road grade allowed me to
  bury the pipe just above ground water
  level.  Here you see me gluing 3" PVC
  thin wall pipe about 18" below ground level.

  There's about 525' of pipe in the cooling
  system.  Will it be enough to make a
  difference?  Frankly, I don't know. This
  is a gamble but having the pipe installed
  not only under ground but about 3.5'
  under a concrete floor made more sense
  than just buried in earth.  We will just
  have to wait and see.

  Here you can see the two stand pipes
  and more fill coming in, lots more fill.
  The stand pipes are out of the ground
  6 feet and buried about 2 feet.

  Beginning to spread fill.  Please, don't hit
  the pipes.

  More fill and spreading.

  My wife, Sue, standing at grade level
  showing the height of fill.

  Sue got to play with the Bob Cat.
  Actually, it's a Caterpillar brand. This
  toy operates with two joy sticks, one
  operates the forward and reverse, the
  other operates the bucket.  Sue had a
  blast.  Yes, I played too.

  Here is the pad rough graded.  Next is to
  finish grade and compaction.  It has to
  pass a compaction test before the
  concrete can be poured.

  This is me checking the risers.  The
  excavator did hit and crack one of the
  risers.  Luckily only the top couple of
  inches.

  The pad is now finish graded and ready
  for compaction and testing.

  After an acceptable test the concrete
  contractor can begin his work.  Here the
  forms for the footings are being put into
  place.

  The other end of the building.

  Discussing the pour with David the
  concrete contractor.

  By late afternoon the footings are set up
  enough, they removed some of the
  forms.  You can get a good idea of the
  amount of fill we purchased in this
  picture.

  Now that the footings have been
  poured, it's time to work on the floor of
  the building commonly referred to as the
  "slab".  The building specs called for
  footings running across the floor area.

  My thoughts were, this thing is built
  tank tough.

  The "slab" prepared for concrete.  The
  cross footings with reinforcing rod, steel
  mesh on stands and the plastic vapor
  barrier are clearly visible.  I'm impressed
  with the thoroughness of the building
  specs and the professionalism of David
  and his crew.

  Another shot of the "slab" area ready for
  concrete.  It will be here first thing in the
  morning.

  The slab as it is being poured.

  David is "floating" the concrete to give
  it a smooth surface.

  One important note here, when pouring
  concrete around pipe, never pour the
  pipes in solid.  Use a sleeve a good 2"
  larger than the pipe your working with
  to protect the risers from being broken.
  I used 6" PVC the full length of the
  risers down to the buried cooling loop.

  Our building arrived, December 3, 2007,
  a day before my 70th birthday, one and
  a half years after the original order was
  placed.  Happy Birthday!

  The building material is in the center of
  of the load.

  This is every thing you need to erect a
  25' x 44' x 16' tall building.  The
  covered loads on the truck were for
  someone else.

  Cost of the material with shipping from
  Toronto, Canada, $12,400 US dollars.
  It included 4,500 nuts and bolts.  A lot
  of work lies ahead.

  Unloading with a forklift made that job
  easy.

  A toast, on my 70th BD for the arrival
  of the long awaited building.  Yes
  Virginia there is a Santa Claus and
  maybe I really will get some corals
  growing in this lifetime.  Cheers!

  The Grey Goose was a BD gift from a
  friend.

  I think it would be a good idea to read
  the manual on this erector set.

  My son Keith flew in from Montana for
  my BD and to help with the building.
  We began bolting sections together and
  found it difficult to line up the holes.
  Clearly, we had to find a better way.

  I came up with stanchions to stabilize the panels vertically.  That did the trick.

  The use of drift pins to line up the holes
  eased the problem of getting the bolts
  into place.

  The crew and me bolting some of 4500
  nuts and bolts that came with the
  building.

  This represents two days work.
 

  After a failed attempt to erect the first
  arch by hand (as shown in the manual)
  we called in this Bad Bay crane.
 

  Three hundred dollars of crane time
  later, we had just two arches erected.
  We anchored them to the concrete,
  braced them for support and called it a
  day.  We prayed for light winds and no
  storms.  The arches are very susceptible
  to wind damage at this point.
 

  My wife came home from spending
  time with her mother (88 years young)
  and was jubilant.  She hasn't seen the
  bills, yet.

  This story is still in the making.  Stay tuned.

  New update in the making 5/25/10.
 
  WOW!  This story is way behind reality.  Go here - "The Rest of the Story" - for the update.