Keeping up to date

It's been harder than I thought it would be to keep this journal up-to-date. All I talk about is house-building, but I don't often take time to sit down and write out what's going on. However, I do want a record when we're all done and what it was like, so I'll keep on trying to keep this as up-to-date as possible.

This weekend was exciting as Peter and I picked out and ordered or bought almost all of our flooring. That's some big decisions out of the way, and it's nice to get them done now and not have to worry about it when we're in the middle of framing the house.

Every time I come to write these entries I can't think of what to say! Anyway, on Sunday Mom, Dad, Emily, Nan, Gramps, Grammy, and Grampy all came up for a visit and to see the lot. They also brought lots of home-baked goodies - thanks! Peter's been very neglected lately . Dad helped Peter put a vapour barrier down that goes under the foundation.

Last night we went out and fixed the vapour barrier that had gotten mussed from the little bulldozer driving over it. We also raked out some sand that goes under the middle of the pad. Today we should get the rest of the sand, level that out, and Tom is going to build as much of the forms that hold the concrete as possible. NBPower is also supposed to come hook up the temporary power today. Hopefully they do, since Tom needs it to build the forms.

Our proposed schedule for the next week includes having the plumber out tomorrow or Thursday to put in the rough plumbing that goes in the concrete, put in the rebar and wire mesh by the weekend, then possibly next Wednesday lay the pipes for in-floor heating. Next Thursday we hope to pour the slab One thing we hadn't given much thought to was the fact that the plumber needs to know where the well is going, so we have to get in touch with the guy who's drilling the well and see when he can come up and do it.

I'm off to add a bunch of pictures. I'm writing this at work (we have to come in really early on Tuesdays) so the uploading is much faster here:) **ETA - for all our house pictures, visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peteandange/

We need how much rock ??!!

There are currently about 20 loads of rock on the lot, and we need another 10 at least to get the house above the grade of the septic field and driveway. However, after that the rock is done :)

Tom (Peter's Dad), Peter, and I have spent lots of time this week walking a compactor back and forth across the loads of crushed rock. There are a few pics posted in the picture section.

We found a good deal on laminate flooring last night at Kent's, so I'm going to check out a few more places and if I don't see anything better we'll probably order that before it's all gone. It's hard to believe that it's time to start lining that stuff up!

Not too much else exciting happening. Lots of phone time lately, lining everything up to happen. For someone who doesn't like calling people she doesn't know, I'm definitely out of my comfort zone! Oh well, it's good for me :)

Gotta run!

What it looks like after 4 loads of rock

Just a small update on the lot. The above link** shows the lot after 4 loads of rock, 8 loads of sand, and a septic tank. You can ignore the 1100 lb compactor that is ... well .... resting peacefully in the corner of the picture. It is not stuck in the mud ... really.

**ETA: This piece of evidence seems to have disappeared in the transition from the old blog site to this one. Instead, enjoy some pictures of us running the compactor.

Update

Well, I thought it was probably a good time for an update. We are still working on financing, although things are looking up (we think). We should know by the end of the week for sure.

Things in other areas are moving right along. Our excavator / septic contractor dug the hole for the foundation and put the septic tank in place today. Tomorrow he's bringing in the rest of the rock that will have to go under the concrete pad, since we're building on a slab. We arranged to have the concrete, rebar, joists, and trusses delivered according to our proposed building schedule. If everything goes well, we should be framing the house the second and third weeks in May. Yippee!!

Discouraged

The last couple of days have been rather discouraging as we've been trying to get financing, and while we had been led to believe that it would be no problem, a huge problem is what it's been. So, we've been doing a lot of praying (especially me for an attitude check - I'm very prone to pity parties) and contacting different financial institutions (thanks to our friends at those institutions!). I know that it's all in God's plan, but not sure what that plan is leading towards right now. I wasn't even going to post until it all got resolved, but it's good to have a balanced perspective on the whole experience - not just the parts that went as planned.

On an up note - our 8-year-old Tercel (Slammin' Salmon) passed her inspection with flying colours this week, so that was definitely an answer to prayer. We would definitely recommend a Toyota to anyone - ours has been superb!

So, not much to update on the house for today. Hopefully happier news in the future.

We have an address!

I finally got our address from the 911 people. She was very concerned originally that we would be number 14, but our driveway comes after that for number 15 (very strange - I didn't think it mattered since we're on opposite sides of the road!) I have to call now and get our blue house numbers and our postal code.

We just got a revised quote from the plumber. His price more than doubled and we didn't add anything to the house, so that's a little sketchy. That's Peter's domain, so he'll be checking that out.

That's all the news for now. I'll be posting often, as this will be a great resource when I go to do my scrapbooking! Hey ... I could just cut and paste :)

Here's where it all begins

Peter had a wonderful idea that we should keep an online journal tracking our progress through this adventure called building a house. Since I have a bit more free time (hehe) I thought I would be the one to try and keep it up to date. Plus it's always fun to recap what's going on in your life.

So ... on to house details.

Yesterday was the day we officially "broke ground" on the house. The excavator came in and removed most of the stumps and moved our driveway and culvert to the higher portion of the land. We also met with the bank, which was nerve-wracking - it's always scary asking someone for money. We had a little glitch there since I'm still in my original 6-month probation period at my job, but we're praying that everything will be approved. We should find out by tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. After that it *should* be smooth sailing.

We were going to bring in some rock for the driveway, dig the hole for the foundation, and bring in rock for under the slab today, but since it's snowing (eeks!) we had to put a halt to that. Hopefully by tomorrow we can get back to work (and by we - I mean Peter's dad - he's helping us out alot by supervising at the lot during the day when we can't be there).

Since this is my first post, I'm going to try and keep it relatively short (I tend to be long-winded) and I'm going now to try and post some pictures I took yesterday. Wish me luck!