Weekend Five

We were certainly under the wire this week.  Dustin was at the house every single night.  Again.  But, we're losing daylight now that winter is heading our way.  He even had to have me drive out early in the week and we unloaded more forms off the trailer by the headlights of my 4-runner.  This led him to make the decision to bring in a few other guys from work to help them get caught up and ensure we are ready for the concrete trucks again next week.

This weekend was our son's 13th birthday, so he had a friend stay over Friday night.  I've got to give them props...they knew Dustin had to get up early to go work on the house and although they did stay up WAY too late, they did it quietly.  :-)  By the time I took the friend home on Saturday morning and got out to the house, the progress was incredible.  What a difference some extra hands makes!

They were able to set all of the walls on Saturday!  Yep... ALL of them!  Woohoo!  They worked a full day and had me running all over the place for food, drinks, trips to Lowes, etc.  But at least I was doing something to be helpful.  I'm completely lost when it comes to this building stuff.  The picture below was taken from the corner of the garage.

This picture was taken on the opposite side of the house.  That square you see right in front will be the safe room on bottom and the porch on top.

This one was taken from the back side of the house as they were getting ready to start putting up the back wall forms.

On Sunday, it was back to just Dustin and Johnnie.  Those long pink things are foam and they are used for brick ledge.  This serves as a ledge for the brick to sit on.  Again, more stuff I had no clue about...  I do know it took the two of them most of the day to get it all done.

While they were working on that, I decided to snap a quick picture of the finished back side of the house.  This is on the back side, but the opposite of the one taken yesterday.  Here, you can see part of  the garage on top as well.

I cannot begin to express how hard these guys work.  It's amazing.  They're like little energizer bunnies.  They work and work and work.  What was I doing?  Well, I picked up trash around the job site since our trash receptacle had been delivered, I brought them little things they needed here and there, and I set up a camping chair to enjoy the breeze.  :-)

Next week, we should have WALLS, my friends!  I honestly have no idea what comes after that, but I'm about to learn.  See you soon...

Weekend Four

This first picture actually took place before the weekend.  Dustin spent every single night after work this week making the most of the daylight and working on tying rebar until he couldn't see.  Every. Single. Night.  :-(  A few nights, Jaden and I were able to stop by and spend some time with him.  Late nights = super late dinners, little family time, and a worn out dad.  He's keeping a pretty good attitude about it and his eye is on the prize.  Me...that's another story.  Remember that very first post when I told you I didn't really want to build a house?  THIS would be one of the reasons why.  I know, I know...suck it up, buttercup.  It will be all worth it when it's finished...blah, blah, blah.  The truth is:  right now it sucks a little so I'm throwing a little pity party for myself right here on my blog.

Saturday, the guys spent the morning running around gathering things they needed to continue working on putting up the wall forms.  Here, we've got more rebar tying.  Who knew there was so much rebar inside those concrete walls?!?!

Oooh, oooh!  The wall forms started going up.  See that big guy right in the center?  That's Dave.  You may not be able to tell in this picture (unless maybe you know about how big Dustin is and can see him over on the right and begin comparing the two), but Dave is big.  Like B-I-G.  I like to call him a bear.  I think of him more of a big teddy bear, but I believe that if you got on the wrong side of this fella, that wouldn't be the comparison you would use.  And the guys at work probably wouldn't agree with me, either.  At any rate, it's pretty entertaining to watch him pick up those big, heavy forms like they're little sacks of potatoes.

Johnnie and Dave got a good start on setting up the wall forms...

....while Dustin kept typing rebar.  Does this part EVER end?!?!  (Says the girl who just takes the pictures, runs the errands, and delivers lunch.)

Finally, Dustin gets to jump into the wall form game!  Once they got going, I got a better idea of how big the house is going to be.  You see, this house is going to be kind-of a surprise for me.  Yes, I've seen the plans and was actually a part of those decisions.  However, I just don't have that spatial sense that some people have.  I know how many bedrooms and bathrooms this house will have, and I even know the square footage.  It just doesn't mean much to me because I can't "see" it in my mind.  The wall forms are helping a lot with that.  I'll be glad to "see" it in real life!

They completed one whole side of the house and got a good start on the safe room, but didn't make as much progress as they had hoped.  What does that mean?  It means more late nights for Dustin this week and pushing back the concrete one more weekend.  Well, I suppose we ought to go ahead and get used to being flexible with the plan!

I'm sure Dustin will be super excited that I decided to share this picture, but it's part of the building process, and I feel like in order to stay true to that process, I had to include it.  Apparently, a piece of rebar got a little sassy and decided to take a small chunk out of his nose.  #ouch

What do you have to look forward to?  We hope to have the rest of the wall forms set by the end of next weekend.  I guess we'll see if we can get that done.  (It's also our son's birthday next weekend!)  See you next week!

Weekend Three

Saturday morning, the guys started bright and early so they could meet the concrete trucks!  I have to say, I was really impressed with the concrete company we are working with.  The drivers were on time (a little early, actually!) and very polite.  So far, I would highly recommend them.

Finishing the concrete and making it look pretty.  This part is pretty time-sensitive because the concrete starts setting up and gets a little more difficult to work with.  It's a good thing these guys move fast!

 

Dustin is adding rebar to give the walls strength.  You may already know this process, but I'm learning something new every day about home building!

We took a little "break" so the concrete could set up and came back to start stripping the footing forms.  Looky there!  It's starting to look like something...

Just in case you were wondering where the boys were....they were busy building forts, digging, and generally being boys.  It's a wonderful thing to see and quite entertaining.  There just wasn't as much "work" they could help with this time, so they made the most of it...and they were WORN OUT (and the big boys were, too)!

The next step is tying rebar and setting up these forms for the walls.  That's what you have to look forward to seeing next week, folks!

Weekend Two!

Weekend two was spent setting footings and tying steel.  I only took pictures the first day because I spent all of today trying to stay caught up with the things we normally do during the weekend:  grocery shopping, laundry, more laundry, and add in getting my phone fixed.

While Johnnie and the boys worked on setting footings, Dustin spent time in the mini excavator digging the footings for the garage.  Isn't he handsome?! :-)

Those boys were certainly put to work!  They measured and bent rebar, put it in the footings, drug rebar to the basement, and did everything else they were asked to do.  They were real troopers and I'm so proud of both of them!  

At the end of the day, they both desperately needed baths, but they had a lot of fun.

Like I said, I didn't get any pictures on the second day, but everything is set to pour concrete footings this week.  Happy Sunday!  Everyone is off to bed...they're whipped!

Weekend One

We spent the weekend working to prepare for the house.  Okay, okay...Dustin and Johnnie spent the weekend working.  I really had more of a support role, so I guess you could call me the supervisor.

Dustin left super early Saturday morning and I reminded him to take a picture before they started working so we could remember what it looked like "before".  I'm thankful he remembered to take it so you can see how dense the trees were.

As you can see, there was A LOT of clearing to be done and the boys got right to work.  Jaden and I showed up with breakfast and could tell they had already been super busy.  Bummer...I guess we missed some of the physical work there, sorry guys!

Once they got the trees and brush cleared, Dustin and Johnnie started measuring. and measuring, and measuring.  Followed by marking, and marking, and marking.

At this point, Jaden and Johnnie's son, Andrew, decided it was time to go meet our new neighbors and they needed a chaperone, so I volunteered for the job.  If I'm being completely honest, I didn't really plan well for helping with the "dirty work" since I wore my expensive jeans and newer Sperry's. Mental note: wear something more appropriate tomorrow.

So, here's something interesting...our new neighbors are tigers, and lions, and bears (not really), oh my!  The National Tiger Sanctuary is less than a mile from our soon-to-be house.  It certainly is worth a visit if you have the time.  We watched the animals get fed and learned a lot about each of them.  It's so funny how they each have their own personality.  I believe the kiddos had a great time, even though I'm pretty sure if the fences hadn't been there they would have been eaten.  The boys may or may not have each walked away with a souvenir, but I'm not at liberty to say.

After our little field trip, the boys and I went to pick up lunch and returned to see what progress had been made.  I have to say I was pretty surprised and impressed with how far they had gotten.  The basement is beginning to take shape!  They continued to work until almost dark and then called it a day.  Dustin was pretty tired, especially since he's working on this project on the weekends after working 12-16 hour days during the week.  The man has a work ethic, I'll give him that!

Day Two

Day two of the first weekend brought more clean up and pushing dirt.  The guys arrived early, and the boys decided to stay home this time. When I arrived later in the morning, Dustin was busy with his chainsaw and Johnnie was in the track loader.

Eeek!  It really looks like a basement, or at least a really, really big hole.  It sure is nice to know people who do this kind of thing for a living (or to be one of the people who do!).

 The guys worked for a few hours today, but also left themselves some of their evening to relax before they head back to work tomorrow bright and early.  The project is really beginning to take shape and after all the kicking and screaming I did to NOT build a house, it's starting to get a little exciting.  (But don't tell Dustin!)

And so it begins....

The journey seems like it has already been going on F-O-R-E-V-E-R, but today it got real, folks. Like, really REAL.  No backing down, no backing out.

Let me start with a short backstory to catch you up to speed.  We put our home of 11 years on the market and within a month, it sold.  If you've ever sold a house, you know what kind of stress is involved in that entire process and I could hijack this first post already by simply sharing the many frustrations and nightmares involved.

Then, we were homeless.  Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.  We weren't homeless...we moved into my mom's basement.  Yep, 40 years old and living in the basement with my husband and our 12-year-old son...every girl's dream, right?  For many reasons it has turned out to be a blessing in disguise and I am thankful that we had that as an option.

But...I want to focus on the process of this entire house-building journey for us to look back on, for friends and family to see, and maybe to share the laughs and tears with strangers who can relate...maybe even learn from.  So, here we go........

First, we found land that met all of my husband's ridiculous list of wants (bless his heart).  Here is a picture of the land when we purchased it.  It looks pretty different today because this was taken at the beginning of the summer and now we're in September, so there is a LOT more green.  I'll post an updated picture soon.

Three acres of beautiful land covered in trees and overlooking the Ozark Mountains.  It really is an amazing view and I'm looking forward to drinking my coffee on the back deck on a crisp, cool morning.

Today, September 13, 2016 marks the day we officially begin the house building journey because we closed on the construction loan.  The shear volume of paperwork and the promise that I'll pay with blood, sweat, tears, and more money than I care to disclose makes me want to vomit.  I'm pretty sure somewhere in there I may have signed away my first born child.  But, for better or worse, here we go.  May the odds be ever in our favor!