These Weeks Are Going By Fast!

Ok, Ok, I have been catching heck because it has been over a week since I last updated, BUT I have good excuses!!! Last Tuesday was my birthday, so I spent time with my family, last Wednesday I was busy finding people to go white water rafting, Thursday I went to the house and took pictures, Friday Mike’s Uncle Howard, Aunt Barb and crew were at Pop and Nan’s so we went there for a picnic, Saturday, we went for dinner and rafting supplies and Sunday we went rafting.... So we have been incredibly busy! Yesterday I spent most of the day recuperating from the white water rafting and mom and I got a good jump on sanding trim (Mike Barr made all of out oak trim for our house, it is absolutely gorgeous!). Last week the basement was poured at the house, this week Uncle Chuck has been on site, they put up the basement walls yesterday and today, tomorrow they are pouring the concrete into the exterior walls and I half expect to see a sub-floor by weeks end! Exciting stuff!!!

Poured Basement Floor... It is wet because they just sprayed it down

with water to keep it from drying to quickly.

Here is Uncle Chuck working on the Basement Walls!

All the Basement Walls Are Up!

Garage, Tar, Check, Check!!!

Uncle Chuck was on site last week to help dig out the foundation for the garage; my dad did the digging (that was quite the site). The masons came back out on Friday and laid the blocks for the garage and sealed all of the walls, I took them up cookies on Friday morning, what a miserably hot week to be laying cement blocks, they did a wonderful job though. This week Mike and his dad are tarring the walls, I give them a ton of credit, I would not want to be down in that hole with the tar for nothing! Also this week, Uncle Chuck will be back on site pouring cement in the walls and pouring the basement floor! We had our final inspection on Saturday for our septic system, everything passed and we got the go ahead to cover it up, so I am sure that is to come this week as well! Busy, Busy, Busy!

Chuck, Mike & Dad Digging For the Garage

The Garage after the blocks were laid.

Mike & Dave, slapping on the Tar!

Check off the Basement

The basement is done! According to the foreman (my grandpa) there were 5 block layers and 3 laborers and they were able to get the entire basement up in 3 days. Tomorrow they will be sealing the outside walls with concrete which will leave Mike and me to tarring this weekend. Mike, my dad and Uncle Chuck will be meeting on site tomorrow to dig out the basement. Keep your fingers crossed that it goes well, haha. We are ready for our septic inspection as well. I believe Mike will be calling tomorrow to get that set up. It is becoming so exciting because I actually have something to present to people and it is also quite humorous that our basement/foundation has become the town meeting place during the evening! Stop by and see us!

This picture was taken last Thursday (7-3-08).

This is the finished basement, complete with windows!

My brother came home to see how things were going, we got really exciting news this week that him and Gabby are moving home! YEAH! I am super excited!

Mike is carrying me over the threshold!

Building Blocks are Here!

We have blocks! I was told the blocks were delivered on Friday when I was in Baltimore (which by the way was a wonderful time. I got to see Ade, Stephanie, Steve and Amanda! It was a nice mini-vacation before the real fun of house construction starts!) Mike has informed me that the masons will be on site tomorrow and will be starting the basement walls. Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

These are the two septic tanks that feed into the sand mound.

Here are the blocks for the basement walls!

Not Much to Report...

The footers have been filled in, the french drains are installed and the septic system is just about complete. We also installed our mail box post! We are still waiting on the block layers to show up on site. I was hoping they would start this week, but no such luck yet. I will be in Harrisburg tomorrow and Friday for Finance Training and then it is off to Baltimore on Friday afternoon! I am going down to stay with Ade and Steph for the weekend so there won’t be any updates until I get back on Sunday!

Footers Are Done!

The footers are poured! The cement truck was here today and they poured the footers, yeah! So now we are waiting on the first available team of block guys to show up! It is actually starting to look like something other than a hole in the ground. Hopefully the next set of pictures will show basement walls, which will be followed by pictures of Mike crawling into the hole to tar the outside walls... ewww!

70 Elephants, That is CRAZY!

Not too much to report this week. Mike and my dad pretty much kicked the septic system in the pants! We ended up needing 9 tri-axle loads of sand which I believe ends up being 207 tons!!! That is insane, a full grown male elephant weighs 3 tons, so we are talking approximately 70 elephants here people! And on top of that we had to get 2 tri-axles of gravel, the septic system is HUGE! Not to worry though, I fully intend to put a nice picket fence in front of it and make it look pretty! Uncle Chuck and crew framed the footers on Friday (you can see the pink flags and orange lines in the first picture). By sounds of things I am told a cement truck will be here on Monday to poor the footers and then it’s on to blocks! Mike told me that once the block guys come in that the house will be up and under roof in a matter or weeks. I am a bit skeptical but I will take his word for it at the moment. Check back this week, I may be able to present a basement!

Getting ready for the footers!

My Dad, moving the 70 elephants worth of sand!

Mike playing in the gravel!