All I want for Christmas is CONCRETE!

Timing is always something that has been an interesting part of this project so far.  Timing for things to happen on the property, timing for things to change in our personal lives, timing for finances to open up just when the call comes in that we need to add to the budget.  I know it's not a coincidence....

This week was another great scenario.  We got our Stem wall poured on Christmas Eve!  It very well was the most exciting gift I got this year (although the wrapped ones were all a close 2nd).

(this is a view of the house from the left corner of the house.  The garage is right out of site on the right side.)

Thankfully Seth's hard work saved us a lot of extra fees with the re-framing and pour of the concrete. We took a little jaunt over this weekend to check on everything, and it looks great!  It's funny how the concrete makes it feel small, in a strange way.  Luckily I was told to expect that.  I really felt that there was NO way our car would fit in the garage, but I'm sure it's fine.  And, if anyone knows the amount of things we have in our garage, I'm not expecting to drive the car in the garage right away, anyways!

Tearing down to build up

December 12th update: (I accidentally sent this one to draft, and managed to delete the pictures, so this is all you get!)

The last week has seen a few steps in the right direction, but we did have to take some giant steps back to take some baby steps forward.

First of, lets discuss double-dates.  I'm sure most of you would think it would be dinner and some kind of fun activity with friends.  Conversation, laughing...no kids.  Always a night to look forward to.  This week we had a double-date with my brother and his girlfriend.  It involved dim lighting and lots of laughing, but also head lamps, ice, rebar, 2x4's...and some impromptu ice skating.  Fun times.

In an effort to save costs on re-forming the foundation, we opted to tear down the existing forms ourselves.  We learned on Wednesday that our dirt guy was coming out to fix the compaction issues on Friday, which meant we had very little time to get everything ready.  And when that happens, you call in reinforcements.  So we left six kids, chicken nuggets, french fries and ice cream bars in the capable hands of Papa and the four of us went to work.  Surprisingly, it only took about 4 hours to pull up all the forms, and rebar and stack it neatly on the side of the property.  It think it would have went even faster if we weren't working on top of thick layers of ice from the freezing temps we had earlier in the week. There were a few falls and some impromptu skate moves, but we got it done!

So, with that done, we had our dirt guy come back out and fix everything and now it looks pretty and the Geologist thankfully agreed.  So, onward and upward we go.

Patience.  This is something I have never had much of.  I peeked at Christmas gifts when I was young, I always read the back of the book to know the ending...and Seth will probably a very embarrassing story about my lack of patience and the ultimatum I gave him before we were engaged. Yea, safe to say patience is NOT something that comes naturally to me.

Remember the Foundation

This month has been full of some ups and downs.  And I'm told this is the normal for the building process, so I'm just going to go with it.

The ups were when we got the forms placed for the foundation!  It was pretty exciting to be able to stand in a place and say 'this' will be our view from this room...'this' is what we will see when we open the door...things like that!  For a visual person like me, seeing the outline of the house really made it feel like a reality.

On the day of the pour for the footings for the concrete, we had the inspection and everything looked well and good....until he asked for the compaction report on all the rock we put under the foundation to fix the drainage issues.

Dum, dum...........DUM!!!!

For reasons I'm not going to dwell on, there was no compaction report done by our dirt guy.  So, we had to cancel the concrete and get the inspection done.  Which naturally meant more money and more time delays.  When the report came back it was noted that certain spots in the rock were not compacted as tightly as they would like-mainly around the edges- and there was more space between the forms and the rock than they would like to see.

What does that exactly mean?  It means that our dirt guy has to bring in more rock, re-compact certain areas and then bring in even MORE rock to elevate the edges of the dig out to be closer to the bottom of the forms.  Which means more money.  But, obviously, this can't be done without moving the forms that have ALREADY been laid for the foundation.  Which, again, means more money to re-place them once the rock is correct.

Add in some crazy cold temperatures so the ground is frozen and we have to wait until it thaws a bit and you have a scenario of 'two steps forward, TEN steps back'...and a very frustrated me.  I'm beginning to understand why we get those sympathetic looks when we tell people we are building a house!

But, with all the setbacks, I'm still trying to stay positive that there is a reason for it.  In fact, God has blessed us in many ways during this time, as if to say 'Remember, I GOT this!'.  So, I am trying to be diligent to remember OUR foundation and the blessings He has given us, especially in this season!  The baby steps forward on the house are still that...steps forward.  And even though it's not necessarily in the timeline we'd like to see, it's still a goal that will happen and this labor of love will be so worth it in the end!

Cha-Ching!

Big Progress is being made on moving forward on the house, and with the big machines out there and people actually doing things, it makes it feel so much more real!  This month was a month of a lot of 'behind the scenes work'.  Power is in, water is running and we have made strides in getting the foundation ready!

Lots of activity happening this week!!

Power is a beautiful thing!

Silly Bennett...he loves watching the big trucks!

Before all of this started, I was looking at the calendar and realizing that we would probably be building in the rainy season, and I really contemplated having a conversation with Seth about waiting until the Spring to start building.  I've heard nightmares about building in the rain, from foundation issues to creaky floors to warped walls....not something I really want to think about when we are investing such a big part of ourselves into this project!  But, I pushed the fears aside and believed this was going to work and we moved forward.

Muddy day

The Result of stepping where I shouldn't have, thankful for tall boots!

We had  a crazy amount of rain in October.  I think it rained, and by rained I mean down poured, for about 10 days straight.  There was flooding happening all over the place and we had our own share of issues with the property.  Building in that area, the water table is really high.  We had been warned to be sure to do a good grade away from the foundation from our neighbor to avoid any water issues on the property.  As it rained, we realized what a he meant and what exactly a 'worst-case scenario' looks like and had to make some quick changes to get it fixed.  We had to bring in a ton of rock and will also have to instal a sump pump on an automatic float to be sure we have no issues under the house.  It ended up resulting in about a 6k increase in the cost of the land prep to do all this, but could you imagine having to take care of it AFTER the house was built?!?  So, in hindsight, I'm actually really thankful that we are building in the rainy season because we can be prepared for whatever mother nature throws at us and not have to worry about waking up to water under the house.  Whew!

Foundation dug!!

Lots of days of doing this!

Bennett loves running into the 'big hole'.

              

So, as of today, we are set to pour foundation and that should happen sometime this week.  Thanksgiving week is approaching and we have SO much to be thankful for.  Once the foundation is poured, walls and floors will be going up and we should be moving forward with the countdown and finishing in about 150 days!!  Spring can't get her fast enough :)

Looking forward to driving home and seeing this view!  (We don't have a view from our house, but this is good enough for me!!)

Not for the faint of heart

Housebuilding.  It's sounds exciting, it sounds fun....it sounds expensive.  And all of that is true (especially the last one) but what I didn't realize is how stressful it is from day one.  It's not the stress of matching the cabinets with the counter tops or deciding between stainless steel or brushed bronze hardware, it's things like 'will the excavation happen before it rains?', 'will our permits make the deadline?', 'will the port-a-potty be delivered on time?'  (Yes, the last one is a stress!!)

We are actually having a very fortunate experience so far.  So much of what takes so long for most people has easily fallen into place for us.  And with each baby step we take, I'm trying to remain thankful and very aware that it's not our work that is making this happen.  We sold our house quickly, we found an amazing rental with no long contract, we found amazing property and negotiated a great deal, we have wonderful future neighbors.  It's been such an affirmation for me that God has this in his control.  We haven't had to force things or try and make square pegs fit into round holes.  It's just happened, and with each step that takes place, I'm reminded of how awesome it feels to know that this plan that WE have wanted for so long - God is giving it to us.

This week was no different.  Without writing a novel, the bank decided to change some of the rules on funding the loan at the last possible minute.  It didn't pose a risk to us losing our financing at all, but it did threaten to cause a lengthy delay.  With the delay would have come the headache of re-signing, resubmitting, re-applying for a lot of things that were already done.  I quickly realized that I'm not a fan of anything that starts with a 're-'.  And as we spent the week trying to fit the pieces together to force something to work, God reminded me that he's got this,  this is not something I need to make happen.  Miraculously enough,  all the permits for building the house got approved in a mere 17 days.  This process normally takes 6 weeks, when things go smoothly.  And we've been coached to assume nothing will go smoothly with building a house.  And why do I think God did this?  Because we will close on the land and be one step closer to our dream home on our 14 year anniversary.  And I firmly believe that is no accident.

I know there is a long road before we are going to be inviting people over for dinners and play dates in the woods, but I keep getting reassurances that this project is all part of God's plan for our family, and I just need to try and sit back and enjoy the ride...as hard as it is for a control freak like me :)

Day One

The start of something big

So, third times a charm...right?  I have huge aspirations to blog weekly about our lives, and that exact thing is what gets in the way.  I suppose that it isn't necessarily a bad thing, you know, letting life get in the way of computers :)

I'm hoping that now that I have something to blog about (because life with four kids is super dull) that I might get around to posting without constantly feeling like I'm starting over again!  Our family is starting the long, stressful, fun, expensive, crazy, nerve-wracking process of building a house.  It's something that's been a dream for many years and it's so amazing to have it finally happen.  Although we are learning that the steps towards building are long, slow and backwards at times...we know that the end result is going to be great.  And it feels so good to know that soon we will be in our forever house.  The house where our girls will bring home first dates, where we will be able to host gatherings and bible studies, where eventually our grand-children will come and spend the night.

There are so many daydreams I could list that flood my mind, but for now, all we have is this.  But man, it's going to be so much more than just this soon enough!!!

Lets Catch up....

I told you I'd be really bad at this.  Like, 'lets not post for over a  year and expect someone to have been posting for me' kind of bad.  But, you were warned over a year ago, and less than four blog posts ago that this whole blogging thing is not high on my radar.  I wish it was though.  With every child I have it gets worse, I'm afraid.  For example, I started a tradition with Madilynn that I start a journal where I write letters to them from the moment I find out I'm pregnant.  I did really well with Madi.  I have almost a whole journal filled with her first steps, first words, first day of school, riding a bike on two wheels.  But, it went downhill from there.  So downhill, in fact, that I have to look at pictures from almost a year ago to remind myeslf of what happened at that time so I can go back and write posts I should have written then.  Sad.  I have such good intentions...but when you multiply it by four kids, times it by all the memories and firsts they have and then divide it by the amount of hours in a day....well, my math never was that great.  So, I do what I can when I can and tell myself it will probably be enough.

Bennett.  Now a big 17 month old chap.  He's just the cutest thing ever (mommy goggles...heck yes!) and he's spunky and energetic and very much a boy.  Thankfully that's all in his genes, because raising a boy was something I was skeptical of.  I figured he was destined to play with dolls and have tea parties.  And while he has had his share of dress-up in tutus...he's still all boy.  Trucks, basketball, cars, dirt, mess, noise....it's him.  Currently he's teething with four eye-teeth, so the noise has reached heights I don't even want to talk about, but it's a phase and if I've learned anything from having four kids, it's having the mantra 'This to, shall pass'.

Going up the ladder is Avery.  Starting kindergarden, um, today!  She is such an introspective kid.  She can easily go off by herself and play all day long if I let her.  She's painfully shy, but loves to talk when she opens up.  She gets lost in movies, books and anything else she focuses her attention on.  She's a free spirit, and there are days I wish I was in her mind to see the thoughts that float by.  Despite being 'flighty', she's so smart.  She taught herself to read, and I think she inherited 'bartender ears' from her dad because she remembers everything and hears conversations you think are private.  I was busted more than once for saying things when you think she's not listening.

Hannah is the most mellow thing.  Totally even about 99% of the time, and the 1% she does loose it, she looses it for the other 99% of the time she didn't.  Thankfully those melt downs only happen about once a month or so, so I'll take that.  She's our tumbling, bouncing, jumping gymnast and it is so amazing to see her learn things and flip around the gym in ways that I would have loved to do when I was little.  Now days, I'd break something.  So, I'll be content watching her and cheering her on.  She was invited onto the gymnastics team, and the practices are grueling, but she's doing it with such a focused spirit.  Olympics maybe?  You never know!

Madilynn is the oldest and embraces that position with open arms.  She's at the age where she's still little, but not-so-little any more either.  I look at her with her feet that are almost as big as mind and wonder where the heck the last 10 years have gone.  She LOVES her family.  Bennett will go to her almost over me most days.  She is my best friend, even though we butt heads daily.  She is a super-star swimmer.  She's so brave, I could never do at 10 what she does.  She always gives 100%, and is willing to try anything, even playing baseball with a team of 6th grade boys all summer.  She is confident, smart, beautiful and I feel so undeserving to be her mom.

So, that's the catch up on the kids.  We are beginning our 2nd year of homeschooling, which is always an adventure.  More on that in another post. Maybe even this week.....well, let's not get too ahead of ourselves :)  Maybe this month.