Slowly but Surely

I realize that I'm posting an update on the house the same day I posted that there were no updates. I guess that is what happens when you don't post for a month. I wanted them to be two separate posts, though, since they are really two separate events in the building story.

So here's a little photo timeline of what has been going on. The dirt guys finished clearing the lot, added drainage under our future driveway, and built up the dirt where our foundation will go.

Driveway drainage

Building up the foundation

After the dirt work was done, the rains came and they did not go away. We had so much rain, the side of the yard turned into a small swimming pool. We had to dig a ditch to make the water drain out of the yard.

It's hard to tell, but the ditch runs from the back of the lot all the way to the front. We had to dig it all out by hand with shovels. It was HARD work!

It was finally sunny and dry enough to start on the foundation. I've learned way more about foundations this week than I ever thought I would need to know. It isn't just about pouring concrete. There are several steps that have to happen before concrete can even be poured. The first step is putting up the wooden forms for the concrete and digging the footings. 

First step of the foundation

The footings are those deeper parts around the edges

The footings and the forms.

So that is where we currently are. The next step is for the plumber to come and lay out all the pipes for the house. We've had more rain the past couple of days so it could be next week before that happens. Hopefully it won't be another month before you hear from us again!

P is for...

This blog is brought to you by the letter P for Patience, something I have been learning a lot about the past few weeks. If you clicked on the blog today hoping to find some dramatic update on the house building front, well this may be a disappointing post for you. This is what our town has looked like for the past several weeks and why the blog has been so quiet. In the building world, no news does not usually mean good news.

Rain, rain go away!

I had no idea that we had a rainy season but apparently we do. It just so happens that this rainy season fell right about the time we wanted to pour the foundation. I know the rain is good for the farmers in the area but it was just frustrating for us. Because of the rain, we basically hit the pause button on the build. Every day we would wake up and look at the forecast. For more than 2 solid weeks it was rain every day. I always thought of July as a hot, dry month instead of a soggy, rainy month. 

I know we have a long way to go and this is just the first of many little bumps and delays along the way. The good news is we have a place to live until the house is complete so we aren't under a huge time crunch. In the meantime, we'll keep doing the opposite of rain dances, hoping it will stay sunny and dry long enough to make some progress.

Stay tuned! We have actually made a little progress in the past couple of days!