Rain, rain, rain, and Windows!

Well, it's rained non stop pretty much for three days, and it looks to rain the rest of the week, but the windows have been ordered. Yes, if we ordered by the end of March, we got a free UV (some other technical term I forget) coating, so Brad ordered those today. The windows will be a little different from what's in the plan for various reasons, but it's still very neat!

Foundation almost finished

The basement is almost finished. The walls are up. They've been painted with waterproofer, and sometime this week we'll get the 12-inch blocks poured with concrete to make them solid. The underground part has to be solid fill. They switch to 8-inch block anywhere that might be above grade or close.....that will be sided with brick at the end.

Also this week, barring the rain that's supposed to happen every day, the plumber is supposed to come out and set the pipes for the basement bathroom. Those pipes need to be in before the floor is poured. But basically, within the next two weeks, the basement foundation should be complete and we'll get started framing up the house.

Moving on from the Basement....

Well, today's update shows that progress has moved on from the basement walls, which now look complete, over to the foundation to the garage and laundry room. It's kind of neat to see how it all connects.

To give you some perspective, I stood at the back corner of the garage to take this photo. In fact, this is the perspective I'm using most often because you can see almost the whole house from this vantage point. The L-shaped dirt area in the foreground and to the right is the garage and storage. The little square area inset in the garage will be the entry into the house and will be a laundry/mud room. From there you'll pass a small powder room and walk into the kitchen. I'll try to post the floor plan soon, but we did mirror the plans when we saw the slope of the lot, so I need to get a mirrored version for you all.

All the masonry equipment is still out there, and there's plenty of block left, but it looks like these guys have to be pretty close to finishing up. I haven't talked to Brad in a week....guess it's time to call for an update, huh?

Margarita, anyone?

Went out to the house Friday night thinking I'd see lots of progress in the two days I'd missed. Unfortunately, nothing has been done. Philip thinks it was too muddy on Thursday for them to work, and perhaps they took Friday off??? Who knows? I'm just pissed off...I don't care why. And the worst part is Philip saying "I told you so." I really think he thinks it's funny to see me get worked up. Well, think heck, I know he thinks that's funny.

Now who knows when they'll be back to work. Monday is a holiday too, plus it might rain, so there may not be any more progress until late next week. Knowing my luck, they started some kind of indoor job during the rain and will have to finish it first.

I really am going to pull my hair out, and I haven't even really gotten to the stressful part yet. I don't think I'll look good bald, so maybe I should take up drinking a few glasses of wine each evening, or a couple margaritas. Everything goes better with margaritas, right?

Gas Prices

Well, most of you are making fun of me for taking photos of the progress every day, so you'll be proud to know I'm purposefully taking a couple days off. Well, Wednesday was pretty much a washout. I'm hoping work was done today if it wasn't too muddy, but I'm NOT going to check. Aren't you proud of me? I'm going to wait until tomorrow. And in reality, after learning that it took $70 to fill up Philip's truck with gas, I am stupid for driving out there daily.

Anyhow, hopefully, I'll have some new pictures for you all this weekend. Our plan for Easter weekend is to do a ton of spring cleaning around here to get the house ready to sell. Wish us luck!

More and Bigger Walls

Luckily the weather has cooperated for several days. The rain last week waited until later in the day on Friday, and Saturday's rain didn't delay us. I don't know if we'll get so lucky tomorrow. Rain was forecast all day Wednesday, but now it is supposed to start late in the day. Perhaps we will get a full week in....who knows?

Everyone is making fun of the gas I'm wasting driving down there every day to take new pictures, and since it's only getting more expensive, I suppose at some point I'll have to start just going once or twice a week. That's going to be EXTREMELY hard for me though....I'm still too excited to see every little bit of progress. I need a weather-proof webcam out there. With what I'm spending on gas, I probably could buy one!

Basement Walls

I'm liking it so much better with walls! LOL! If you look carefully, you can see the beginnings of a basement window. That will eventually be the workshop window. I'm both excited and anxious, as you can imagine (or as you've heard over and over if you're around me enough).

It's just so neat to see it finally going up!

Hard at Work! LOL

Brad, my contractor, and Philip, the hairy one, are working hard! That's my aunt's house in the background.

Beginning a House, Finally!

Lookee! Lookee! Now I think I can actually say I'm building a house because now there are actually walls going up. Before now, it seems we just pushed around a lot of dirt. This was by lunchtime on Thursday. I'd like to go see where it stands tonight, but it's supposed to rain, so we'll see. Although I want to see the progress, I'm not anxious for a mudbath either.

Footings Finished, Power and Water

So, the footers are finished and the temporary power is connected. They've attached a spigot to the water tap. The block, sand, and cement have been delivered. The only problem is that no real work has been accomplished, which is why you get a lovely picture of my son, giving me his fake smile even though it looks a little like a grimace.

The mason was scheduled to begin last week, then Monday, then Tuesday, then today, and now, perhaps tomorrow. Actually, we are meeting Brad out there tomorrow do or die...I'm taking the day off work and something is gonna get done (I hope). If not, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have a stroke!

It was nice to see my aunt and uncle when I went out there this evening. We're basically building behind their house, but so far when we've been out there, they haven't been home. I'm guessing they work a lot. Anyway, we got some of the neighborhood lowdown. Although I practically lived down there as a kid, I haven't been down there much at all in the last 15-20 years. Gosh, that makes me sound so old! Anyway, whole housing developments have gone in since I used to spend time with my grandparents. Luckily for me, it doesn't seem that much different than my current neighborhood: a couple good neighbors, a couple crazy ones, the cows behind my property still get out of their pasture on occasion and have to be herded back in, etc. I think I can handle that!

Okay, enough for now. IF, IF, IF some walls actually start going up tomorrow, I'll be sure to post a pic!

Footers Poured and Porta-Potty Delivered!

Monday, March 3, they inspected and passed the footers. So I think Brad had the concrete truck out there waiting so he could get them poured before the rain on Tuesday. We lucked into getting there just as he was finishing up, so the kids got to see the concrete truck. We also had the porta-potty delivered Monday, so I really had just gone out there to take a picture of that for my album. (Philip thought I was completely nuts, especially with gas at a whopping $3.10 a gallon, so I'm doubly glad there was something else going on to justify the trip...LOL!) You can see in the upper left-hand corner where they ran out of concrete. Oops! Hopefully, that won't slow them down any. They can begin laying block on the other side. I wonder how long that concrete has to dry....I forgot to ask Brad.

Anyway, we also noticed the power line has been completely moved now, and the two new poles are in place. Last week, one pole had been placed in the ground and one was lying off to the side, but now they've installed the poles, guywires, and moved and reconnected the power lines. Neat, huh?

I have to include the requisite porta-potty picture too. Everyone wants to see that, right? I'm currently looking for a welcome wreath to put on the door.

Footers Dug--February 28, 2008

The footers have been dug. Next they have to be inspected, and you guessed it, that will happen next week! LOL--One day a week.

The Big Hole in the Ground!

After two days of digging, they finished the rough basement hole. Of course, it rained for three days immediately afterwards, so they waited a few days to dig the footers so they wouldn't fill up with water. The plan was to dig and pour the footers the next week, but no one seems too concerned about the schedule yet. I'm seeing work done at the incredibly swift pace of about one day a week. I seriously went into the wrong profession. One day a week! Ha!

Well, at any rate, this pic was taken Feb. 21, before the big rains. Oh and by the way, yes, you can thank us for single-handedly putting a good dent into the worst drought ever. I'm pretty sure that since we're building this house, the rainy season is now upon us.

Groundbreaking on the New House

We officially broke ground on the new house on Feb. 19, 2008. I am so incredibly excited to see earth moving finally!