Block it!

A 3-Island kitchen!!

When the house-building gets stressful, I always go back to my special place--the kitchen!! Here is my rendering from Leslie at Classic Kitchens in Harrisonburg. She is the only one who had faith in our vision!! To the left of the refrigerator is a walk-in pantry. Still trying to decide if that door should be flush with the fridge door or flush with the back wall. Believe it or not, the kitchen is the only part of this job so far that has come in under-budget. My special place, indeed!

Kids on the New Block

Ashton had a great time climbing on the block today after the workers left. We're so excited to see something that is starting to resemble a structure. The block will probably take at least another week or so.

I don't have any new pictures to show you, but the footers are dug and poured. Block should be delivered tomorrow and the foundation started Tuesday.

Living with the land

The boys are in their element. We got all the rock out today. Then Ryan laid out the footers this evening. Tomorrow we'll dig the footers. Should be fun digging footers in the rock. We'll see how it goes.

We Rock!

We take comfort only in the fact that the Bible says "It is a wise man who builds his house upon the rock." Is that true even if it's accidental?

Rock

Bad news. Excavator just called. They hit rock. Don't know exactly what that means except that it will cost more money. Please pray that it's not too serious.

Digging

Ashton and Quinn dug the first bits of dirt from our basement.

Jenny felt like they were going to need some help.

Here she comes!

Scraping off the topsoil.

We're excited (as you can probably see) to finally get something done. The excavators are still out there working now so we should see a big hole by the end of the day. We'll be back soon!

p.s. Jenny didn't really drive that thing. She just can't control herself when it comes to a good picture opportunity.

The start. . .

We saw the first bit of work happen on the land on Thursday. Our excavator got the silt fence put up and cut in a little bit of driveway so the contractors have a place to park. It's raining this weekend, but hopefully things will dry up enough that they can dig out the basement on Monday. The block mason is going out of town Thursday, and wants to have the footers poured before he goes. Then he wants to start with the block when he gets back next Monday. We'll keep you updated.

It's time to blog again. Our dream is finally coming true! Work starts tomorrow on our new house. We've had a few holdups with weather and getting some things together, but we're finally ready to move. We'd like to be able to chronicle the events of our entire journey for all of you here. Honestly, however, we're not sure that either of us will have the time needed to keep up with it. We're going to do our best though. So, starting tomorrow, look for pics, videos, and updates over the next few months. HERE WE GO. . . . . . . !!!