Game ON!

July 19, 2019

Game ON!

After a very long, excruciating delay, we finally got our basement poured and framing has begun!

The weather was a huge factor of course. Day after day of rain kept our subcontractors at bay. First we had the foundation treated for termites, which required 2 dry days in a row. HA! said the weather gods! And just like that a week flew by before he could come. The next step was pouring the basement floor. After 10 days of rain, the cement company was so backed up it was another 2 weeks before they could get here. They finally showed up at the crack of dawn one day last week (I mean that literally, they showed up in our driveway at 5:50 am!). By that time, our builder was going full bore on another build that was farther along than ours and our cement needed time to cure. Yet another delay.

Another issue we were having was the driveway. It's a one-quarter mile long single lane gravel drive with a 90-degree turn that's a little steep. Between the cement and gravel trucks, it was getting pretty jacked up. To the point where Scott had to pull the poor UPS guy out of the ditch with his tractor. But I think we're done with most of the heavy trucks for now.

During that time, Herschel the "dirt guy" finished grading our front yard. He had to clear a sizable area in order to give us the on-grade front porch that I really want and not have it practically in the woods - we needed some front yard. After he was done clearing, we had so much more space in front that it looked like someone had moved the house!

Then finally, this past Monday, hammers were swinging and our frame started going up! People have told me that it really starts to happen fast now, thank the Lord!

Which means that Scott and I have to get our butts in gear and start making some decisions about flooring, siding, windows, and a ton of other stuff. Fortunately, we are on the same page about almost everything. At this point, the biggest thing up in the air is the actual color of the house. Scott wants the house to "match" the outbuilding we already have. I agree in principle that it would look better if the two buildings were similar, but the problem is I detest the color of the outbuilding. It's a wimpy, washed-out, non-color to me. But after checking out our siding options, I may have a solution if we can afford it - more news at 11 ;-)

So we now have our basement framed and floor joists in place. Next week I'm hoping to start seeing some roof trusses go up. It should be interesting to see how they get those down our driveway!