All great stories start with "Wanna take a road trip?"

May 29, 2019

All great stories start with "Wanna take a road trip?"

It all started with a simple question - "Wanna take a road trip?" What an epic road trip it turned out to be. In February, 2016 we wandered into eastern Kentucky just to take a look. Three years later, our entire lives have been transplanted to Elliott County where we bought the very first property we looked at. Maybe we should have looked around a bit more, but with 180 acres of woods, streams, waterfalls, and cliffs, and another bidder waiting in the wings, it was hard to pass it by. And then we found the 100 foot waterfall that sold us completely.

Last fall, Scott's 60th birthday was a watershed day. In addition to turning 60, he received notification that day of the voluntary separation program that would lead to his retirement this past March. That very same day, I got a call to interview for the job I now hold at Morehead State University. I had been looking for over two years.

Now, eight months later, on MY birthday, we broke ground for the new house. Things have definitely fallen into place. After months of looking at a bazillion plans and finally getting our builder to commit, all we had left to do was clear the land we were hoping to use.

Day One - my birthday and the digging begins. It doesn't look like much, but you gotta start somewhere!

Next step - footers. I have to admit I had absolutely no idea what footers actually are. I do now! I have a feeling I'm going to be learning a lot of new things in the next 6 months.

No we did NOT forget a wall! It's a walkout basement because the land is sloped. And let's face it, what land in eastern Kentucky isn't sloped!

Newly poured footers outline the stairwell. It's a half-basement so the unexcavated part beyond the stairs will be the front half of the main floor of the house.

I had an abstract understanding of how poured concrete walls are created, but to watch it happen was something else. In a nutshell, they build a form, pour in concrete, let it set, pull off the form, and voila! The actual doing of it, however, is a bit more of an undertaking.

The outer half of the forms are up and secured, next is the inner half.

Now the inner half of the frames are up and we're ready to pour some walls!

This was our favorite part so far as we can now see the outline of the back of the house. This will be the footer that will eventually hold up two stories of windows with a deck above and a patio below.

Like this!

Forms OFF! to reveal the newly poured wall.

One fun fact I didn't know - cement doesn't "dry", it cures. The water used in the mix becomes part of the chemical formula of the cement that makes it hard and also makes it non-porous - which is why a concrete floor or wall doesn't absorb water, it's already in there!

We also had a panic moment when it started to rain while they were pouring these walls. But after a little research, we discovered that it's fine as long as the rain doesn't affect the mix (which would take a lot of rain).