Man with a Plan

I just realized we've never shared what exactly we're building! Here is the front elevation rendering. Jeff Mininger did an awesome job with our blueprints.



And a floor plan.

If I had a Hammock...

This photo is taken from inside the basement looking into the back yard.

















They are framing the front walls & preparing to raise them.















The doorway opens to the garage and the large window on the right is a double window that is in the middle bedroom.
















This photo is taken from the front yard.















This is one of our favorite spots on our land. We hope to get it all cleared out eventually. Notice our little "bat" on his hammock in the background. I wish I had a pic of all of us in our hammocks. Someone had to take the picture! One day, we'd love to dig out the pond. The neighbor tells us there is a spring here.

Now We're Talking!

Building Walls! We chose 2x6 construction in order to allow for additional insulation. We'd love to be LEED-eligible but it's doubtful we'd ever pay for that. Our framer offered to put insulation in the headers above the windows and doors, which is an area often overlooked.





These are TGI floor joists. This photo was taken while standing by the garage door.


This picture shows the basement which is to be finished at a later date. It worked out nicely because we were able to incorporate a wall down the center into the future floor plan for the basement, providing structure for the floor of the house itself. This allowed us to save some time later and avoid having columns in our basement.


Standing in the front yard looking at the house. When we left today, they were gluing and nailing down the subfloor. We'll see what tomorrow's weather brings. Looks like rain.

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!