I have walls...well kind of.

front view

looking down

In a little over a week my basement is framed, the floor joists are on, and the garage is ready for cement. I'm sure there are a billion other little things they had to do to accomplish all the obvious tasks.


This week they tell me they will start on the upstairs. The temporary stairs they installed are great. Very solid and sturdy. Maybe they were planning for my klutziness by making a safe way for me to climb to the top and look at the wonderful progress. I haven't jumped up and down on the stairs, I save my happy dance for when I'm back on dusty ground. I'll let you know how well it goes this next week. With the holiday it may slow down, I guess we'll see.

 Through all this my neighbors have been awesome about all the noise, dust and extra traffic. I'd make them all cookies but I'm afraid I'd eat too many myself, not to mention the unbearable heat.

 In writing news, I watched a clip by Caroline Clooney that instructed to write. Writing builds on itself and gives you momentum. I can say amen to that. I haven't been writing as much and I can tell, it's harder to put aside work, reading, or just staring at my beautiful house-in-progress to sit my butt down and write. But I will!

Happy Heat Wave!

My awesome temporary stairs.

And so it begins

A rumbling sound came from down the street. It wasn't even eight AM on a summer morning. What could it be? The excavator for our house! YAY! Now the dead tree is gone and the footings have been poured.

 

Four days after the rumble the walls are cocooned inside their forms. A few days later the basement has plumbing and the cement floor is silky smooth.

 

We have some awesome people working on our house!! THANKS Barton Excavating, Parkside Concrete, and Layton Homes. I'm amazed at how quickly it's going but I know it will slow down with the interior. Thinking of, I have to look at my kitchen design again...can we just levitate the microwave?

 

This has all been great fun to watch. My son sat in his camp chair for hours watching them dig and pour, longing to put handprints in the wet cement. I've assured him that he can but not in all the walls. Are we really doing this? The process is so exciting and terrifying. The decisions I make now I will have to live with for the rest of my life.

 

The fascination with this once-in-a-lifetime event hasn't left me a lot of time to write, but I will get on it. HAPPY SUMMER!

Beautiful Dirt

I'm not an extreme gardener. I like to eat fresh food to I grow it. I have a few flowers in my yard and some struggling strawberry plants. But when a dump truck brought dirt last week I stood on the porch and jumped for joy. What am I so excited about if not to grow things. What else is dirt good for?

To answer, a history lesson. Once upon a time in Ephraim there was a railroad. The railroad track ran right in front of my house. In order to build up the track the railroad bought up dirt from our side of the road leaving is several feet below road level. Now for the answer: In planning to build a house our contractor looked at the lot and said the words I wanted to hear. "We could do a walk out basement." But for it to be a basement I have to have dirt in the front part. That is where the joy regarding the delivery of dirt. One less thing we have to buy in the long and expensive process of building a house.

 YAY Dirt!!