Slowly but Surely

Since we have had rain pretty much every day but the weekend (when the crew doesn't work) not much progress has been made. I have been a little stressed about it, but am trying to take it in stride. I know that it will get done, I just want it to be right, so I tend to micromanage a little too much for matt's liking. Here are some current photos of the basement.

The next step is to plumb the basement, then backfill the dirt around the perimeter. Our entire backporch (excluding the footers) fell in. So that will have to be completely backfilled and packed. Then, the rock trucks will come out and shoot rock into the garage, basement and back and front porches. This will be a base for the concrete, which will be the next step. Once the concrete is poured and everything is backfilled, I will feel a lot better. We had a wet basement in our last house, something awful, so I have been so nitpicky on making sure that this house won't have that problem, because it will be the majority of our living space. Once the floors are poured, it will look like a different place, we will actually be able to SEE what it is going to look like, layout wise. That is very exciting to me. All of this will be complete hopefully by next week. Then, we FRAME! I can't wait til this thing is under roof, because of all the rain. however, I know that by the time it's under roof, it will be like mid-May to June and not so rainy...how ironic!

Concrete Forms

Today was a good day at the construction site. They got all the fallen ground cleaned back up and started putting concrete forms in the ground for the basement, porches, and garage. The boys, as you can see , had a blast throwing dirt clods at each other. While the workers took lunch, we went fishing. the boys were so extremely excited that they couldnt contain themselves and were running all over the place, grabbing hooks, swinging poles stepping in the water....mommy was stressed out. We stayed about an hour and decided we better get back over to the site. When we got there we found that they were already putting the pieces of the form puzzle together. Tomorrow they will pour the concrete and hopefully backfill before the rain comes in on friday. Then we are going to have a long stretch of rainy days. So I don't know when we will be able to start the framing. . . hopefully soon though.

final color selection

We have finally decided on every bit of the exterior except the front door!! The picture below is our final color selection. In addition to the colors in my last post (Buckskin ledgestone, cypress siding, and colonial white trim) we have chosen Musket brown siding. I think the colors are perfect. They even go with the barn well. I am so excited to see it finished. :) Yesterday we had almost 2 inches of rain. In the past week we have had about 3 and a half inches. Who said it was a good idea to build in April? No, its been okay for the most part. Despite the rain ALL DAY yesterday, the excavator was out doing finishing touches. The only problems that have really arosen so far are the fact that the amish that put in our basement, rutted up our yard (2.5 feet deep by 30 foot long ruts). We got them to halfway fix it but its still not right. Also , they dumped extra concrete in the yard, instead of putting it in the driveway like the should have. so now we have 3 piles total between the barn and the house of dried concrete in the yard. Also, the basement has a perimeter drain in it that allows moisture to wick away from the foundation. they overpoured and put concrete on the outside of the drain. our builder tells us it wont be a problem, but I am very skeptical on how the drain will work when both permeated sides are covered in concrete and there is no drain on the outside of a 4 foot section of wall in the basement. hmmm interesting. It will be fixed. I am learning that there will be surprises and that we just have to deal with them. ...assertively. oh....another big one is that the rocks/boulders that they found while digging the basement are supposedly like 5 ton rocks. When we asked the builder about moving them, he said, "what the hell am I suppose to do with them?" Excuse me, but you are not leaving them right there. Also, there is a 'lake' next to the site now. for only getting 2 inches of rain, we have been drenched up there. There is a foot of water in the low spot by the site. :( Not happy about that, but it will get bette into summer. The boys and I are going to go up there when they wake up from their nap and then we will see what all is being done. I will be glad when all that stuff is structurally sound, and all that we have to do is put the exterior on it. :))) the thought of that makes me smile!

Siding, Stone, and the basement drain today

Today the basement drain went in, we got our water line started, and we went to Evansville to General Shale and Benthall Brothers to pick out siding, stone and brick for our new home. Once we got the samples back to the barn, I held them up the the metal on our pole barn. The siding color has been a big dilemma for me because I LOVE the cypress green siding, but was afraid with the burgundy and gray on our pole barn that it would clash really bad. When I finally picked a stone and siding, we held it up by the barn and it looks amazing!!! I am so excited to be making this house "Our own". I still have a little anxiety over some things right now, like the fact that the rock truck left HUGE RUTS in our front yard and then the basement guys gave us a lot of resistance on fixing it and making it right. Another stressor is that we agreed to do our own clean up to save a moderate amount of money off the purchase price of our home. So, while digging, they found huge rocks where our basement was dug. HOPE AND PRAY they dont make us pay to have them moved or expect us to 'clean' them up ourselves. I will seriously cry. I dont want to have to even think about it. Might sound petty, but we are talking about rocks that are as tall as me and probably weigh like 500 lbs apiece. And there are TONS of them. I think that I will honestly feel 25% better when we get the basement completely poured. Then I will feel 50% better when it is framed and about 75% when the roof and siding are on. :) Im trying to take it as it comes.

Finally up and running!

Today at 11 am we broke ground on the last home we will ever live in. It seemed so surreal to watch the giant track hoe digging up our yard. They work quickly, we were there for about an hour and a half and they had probably half of it dug. The boys enjoyed eating their grilled hot dogs (grilling has been our only source of cooking anything for a while now) and playing in the extra giant bucket for the trackhoe. They thought it was awesome.

I have a feeling my comfort level will be slightly tested, as things are going to move pretty quickly. We are going this week to pick out brick for the foundation and look at siding and stone. I need someone to pinch me, because this feels like a dream.

Plans!

Our basement is officially dug. We are getting our footings poured tomorrow and we will get to pick out brick, siding and stone for the exterior of our house! I am so excited. I never thought through all the trials that it took to get here, that we'd ever get to this point of picking things out! SO excited. They had a little bit of a hard time digging I think judging from all these HUMONGOUS rocks that are piled by my future front porch.

I almost forgot to post pictures of what our house look like. And before there can be a house, there must be a plan...So, here you go

Let the Building Commence

So I haven't been on here in a while. Sorry about that. Life has been CRAZY. Last April when the boys were 18 months, we sold our 'starter' home and decided to build on our land that we had purchased a few years earlier. Come to find out, you life's a dance and you learn as you go. We had it all planned out. We were going to build a pole barn and put an apartment in it. We would then live there until we saved up enough cash to pay the majority of what it would cost to build our dream home. By my calculations, this would be about 9 years. haha! God showed us who was boss. We had to run electricity and water to the barn, to make it liveable, and Vectren quoted us 32,000 dollars. Additionally, Pike Gibson water quoted us 12,000 dollars to run water to the barn , and then septic was going to be 6,000 dollars. We were devastated. Since we had only a limited budget for these things, we ultimately gave up our dream of being debt free and chose to go ahead and build a house while the boys were young and could enjoy it with us. I feel more now (on closing day) than ever that we made the right decision.

However, the preliminary building process has thrown us many curve balls as well. Three builders, two banks, 10 months and a dozen house plans later, we are finally ready to build. We just signed our closing documents today. I still have many worries, and we have a lot on our plates, but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have been proved that God has a BETTER plan than I could ever dream up and he knows what's best for a family. He has taught me to follow my heart and not my brain, and I will end up exactly where I need to be.

We are living our dream. When we first got married we decided that we wanted 15 AC with a huge pole barn for matt and a nice home for our kids. We took the long way around, but we are here, 15.33 ac, a 40x60 pole barn, and a house that (conversely from our original plans) is perfect for us.

As soon as we drive up our driveway, we feel a sense of peace about us. It is up a windy driveway to the top of a hill. It is the highest point around and the breeze is always blowing. There is not a care in the world when I am there. Every piece of the puzzle just falls into place...for all of us. Matt is often found with a bottle of water just sitting in a chair looking out over the reclamation ground across the road. The boys are digging in the dirt, driving their tractors, picking dandelions, whatever little boys are suppose to do, and I am peacefully cleaning, planning, and dreaming about how wonderful it will be to get to live here all the time. Every morning I will be able to wake up and walk out of my bedroom onto the patio and feel the breeze on my face. Every evening I will be able to make my family supper in a kitchen that is big enough for all of us to be together. Every day is a miracle. and I am so thankful to have what we have.

So as today is closing I will leave you with pictures of our bare property, and a few with the pole barn. Starting tomorrow things are bound to look different. I will be posting updates often to show the progress of our building. Stay tuned.......I can't wait to see what God has in store for us.