"Why..."

Ah, the common question - "why don't y'all just buy a new house?" It's simple, yet complicated. First, well, actually trying to put these reasons into numerical order is fruitless, but anyway...first, we have super neighbors (except for the sore guy down the road that we don't actually know). I mean, these are the kind of neighbors you can't get twice! Second, we love our neighborhood. We often find ourselves saying out loud "I love our neighborhood" as we're driving home. The mature trees, people out walking, etc. just make it lovely.
Third, we looked at 65 houses in town before this one (and that doesn't include the ones online or the ones we drove up to but decided weren't for us from the street) - there aren't any other houses for us. God gave us this house! The quick version of His work is this: we looked for months, Brent rented an apartment for us on a Monday, the sign was posted in "our" yard on Tuesday - I saw the listing online at home in Nashville and called Brent while he was parked in front of it - all he could tell me was "this is our house," Brent looked at it and bought it (his was one of three offers that day) on Wednesday, the kids and I drove up to see it (no, there weren't even any pictures of it online) on Thursday, and we accepted an offer on our house in Nashville on Friday (the first offer which happened to be on the last day of our listing).
Finally, the house we are creating is perfect for our family. Any other house we would buy would require at least some redoing, so we might as well have exactly what we want in exactly the place we want to be! So as crazy as this whole project may seem, it's no biggie for us because we started it mentally the first day we saw our home.
love to all!!tara

a foundation

Here's where we're at: the foundation/basement walls have been poured (but not without a terrible disfiguring trimming of a tree in the front yard unbeknownst to us). The forms are being removed to reveal that foundation. Then the area around the foundation will be backfilled with dirt. The slope in the backyard will be graded to reveal a new and improved flat yard ("but where will we sled?!") and the excess dirt will be trucked away. Then the new garage slab will be poured.

That brings us to another interesting point - we'll call him "sore loser neighbor." I received an email from the builder's office asst that our next door neighbor was challenging our easement. We were floored because we know our neighbors and have spoken with them about the project and everything was fine. So I contacted the builder's asst to discuss, and after a little research found out that the so-called neighbor lives 2 streets away! So I talked with our real neighbor today during my visit to "the site," and she said this gentleman had been over talking with her husband about the addition they did about 5 or 6 years ago and about our current addition. Apparently he wanted to put on an addition that went well over 5 feet into the easement and was subsequently denied and now he's looking to make trouble (that's my take on it not my neighbor's). So, our builder was "warned" to "not go 1/4" into the easement." We were so close to the line that he brought the surveyor back in to stake the property line with a huge stake and vibrant pink ribbon because our property line is not a straight shot from front to back. The back edge of the small bump-out on the garage is 1" from that line, so we may shave a few inches just to insure our project won't be a legal disaster.

There's been alot of action during these last several sunny days. Cement trucks have been lining the street waiting to back in the driveway and load the pumper truck. Oh, and Bennett has loved every minute of the big trucks!

On our visit last night, Brent and I discovered the tree and noticed the overall disshevled state of our precious home. I said that I felt I was having something akin to buyer's remorse and he said no, he felt it too, and it's just a sadness to see our house in such a state. Of course he was right because it's going to be a great house for our family - our own little "Father of the Bride" house.

Easter

Well, there was some pretty exciting work being done last week when it wasn't raining, especially if you are a 5 yr old boy who likes CAT machines. Forecast looks favorable for the majority of the coming week.
Due to the heavy amounts of rain, it was necessary to "sling" gravel into our yard in hopes that the heavy truck pouring rock for the foundation wouldn't get stuck. It worked, but just barely! I said the cement could be mixed for the foundation if someone would just pour the bags into the water and work really, really fast. Trying to keep a sense of humor!







Today we enjoyed the Easter holiday with friends. It actually snowed briefly this afternoon, but luckily we'd already completed our egg hunt.

here comes the rain again

Maybe you too hear the voice of Annie Lenox when you read the title. Anyway, here are the pictures from Monday's work before several days of rain hit. These are the "footers" for the foundation. We'll be securing the original house to the addition with some properly placed re-bar. Here's to hoping we don't continue to settle and patch the same cracks we've been patching for 4 years.

pictures speak for themselves

the basement and crawl spaces have been dug and the footers are being poured tomorrow - pray that the rain holds off

YIPEE!

Finally, after 5 weeks it begins! Last week the bobcat took out all of our shrubery and some scrubby trees as well as the back patio and walk. So, it looked like a footprint of the house in dirt. But today, the excavation began. I think the pictures speak for themselves this time.

SOME progress

Well, it's not house progress, but these kids are cuter than any house project. Just thought I'd share a few recent pics - Bishop is having his first rice cereal in these shots. Oh, and no comments about the bumbo seat or it being on the table - we are fully aware of the recall info and do not leave our children on table tops -- only for pictures : )

Actually, there has been something done at the house. Brent went by today and the basement carpet and pad are GONE! The drywall appears to be ok. Not sure where the carpet is though...

We made tremendous headway in the rental today. Brent cleared and organized the garage so that the kids can now get to their bikes and we can park in the garage AND he programmed the garage doors - YIPEE!!