Let the construction begin!

Honestly, it's about time. We bought our acreage with full intentions of beginning the building process this March or April, but for many reasons that only God Himself knows, it didn't happen. That's okay, though. We were able to close on our construction loan and get the process rolling this past month, so we're now on our way to having our house built and early next year we'll be able to move in and call it HOME. We won't have to say "our property" or "our homesite" or "our future home" anymore.

The actual ground-breaking was supposed to take place August 18, but an unfortunate set of circumstances (that I won't go into) pushed it back to August 20. Jeremy was out of town that week, so when I drove up there the day after they started digging to see what had been done I was amazed. The kids and I took Jeremy up that weekend and the footers had been poured by then. We all went back up on Thursday (8/28) and the block for the basement walls was on site and gravel was in what will be the basement. Then it rained a little for a couple of days, so we weren't sure if anything else would be able to be done until after Labor Day. Much to our surprise, they have started putting up the basement walls! We couldn't resist the urge to drive up there this morning and check it out- even if nothing else had been done! So, here it is- Labor Day- and it's gorgeous outside and we were pleasantly surprised to see the beginnings of basement walls! Here are a few pictures of the progress so far:

This was the day the ground was staked out for the house. It's hard to see, but the stakes are there! I promise!

See, there really are stakes... these just happened to be left over from what was used to stake out the corners of the house.

And here we have a view of our car parked in our garage... well- it will be in a few moths!

Here is a view of the future garage... notice the indentions for the footers around it and below

Here is a view of where the basement will be. The "trenches" are for the footers- although Michael thought it was going to be a river!

Here's another view. Jeremy took this picture from the top of one of the piles of dirt surrounding the site.

This view is from the basement. It'll be a walk-out. Yes, that's me waaaaay up there and Megan is standing next to me.

Look! Footers are in!!

Here's another view of the footers- they're all in the basement...

So here's another view of the block for the basement. Do you think there's enough? I'm not sure!!

Can you see 'em? There are walls going up!!! WooHoo!! It'll be looking like a house soon!

Another view. This one is from outside where the walk-out will be. You can see that there will be a window there. It's the first of four that will be in the basement.

This view is looking into the basement area. The boards lead right into where the doors will eventually be for our walk-out. Jeremy has a hard time visualizing it, but I can "see" it!

Hi Ant Barb and Unlce John!

Okay, so there you have it. I know this was a bit long, but at least it's now caught up... We'll post here when we put updates (i.e. more pictures!) on the construction process... most likely o a weekly basis. We hope you'll check back and join us on our journey to our new home! It'll be a thrill ride, that's for sure!