On the self-sufficiency...

One of our goals with buying this land is to grow as much of our own food as possible. We are afraid to wait too long to get started, so we're doing a few small things here and there as we are able. It's hard to know what to plant and where to put it because a good portion of the land will be graded later to create a level yard in front and back of the house.

These are our everbearing strawberries. The rocks came from the foundation of the house and the strawberries came with us from the house we just sold. So far, they are taking well to the change. I've already picked off 4 flowers!



These are our potato plants. We are trying a bag planting method. As they leaves grow, we will add more and more soil/compost over the course of the summer. By fall, we should have a very full bag of dirt and potatoes. We have 4 red and 4 white, all stored inside a rusty horse feeder we found on the land.

Coming soon...a mini orchard!

We have a floor!

This black stuff is called Platon. You can learn more here: http://www.systemplaton.com/ It was a (free!!) upgrade over the tar that is usually applied to a basement exterior wall.


The plumber came to rough-in the basement drainlines. The basement will be roughed-in for a full bathroom, kitchen sink, and utility sink-- to be finished at a later date (when we win the lotto).


Here you can see the guys pouring concrete in the blocks. One block every 4' had to be full of concrete (top to bottom).


They poured the concrete basement floor on Friday.


ProBuild delivered the basement walls and flooring system so they can get started Monday morning with the framing!

Foundation nearly complete

This is the basement, block is about done. The gravel is down, concrete will be poured when the plumbers are done. The concrete bar is where the porch will be. Behind that is the garage.



This back exposed wall will be framed then covered in brick.


This is the garage area.

Sandy Bottom Boys

The basement block is complete. The back wall will be framed. Framing should begin next week!


The boys were being naughty playing in the construction sand but they were having so much fun! In the name of choosing my battles, I decided to at least have them preserve their clothes.


Ashton and Daddy had a great day making this tire swing together. This walnut tree is at the entrance of our property and you can see the house site directly behind Ashton's head.




Stay tuned for the NEW kitchen renderings. We decided to go back to the drawing board to create more privacy for the adjoining bedrooms and bathroom. What fun!

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.