And now the foundation...

Two weeks ago we headed off for our first vacation in two years. We visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and had a wonderful time hiking, sitting in the hot tub, and seeing 5 bears. While we were gone, we hoped the foundation would be poured for the house, however, it rained and rained and rained here in St. Louis. So they weren't able to pour until last week. We went out there yesterday, and found that they had taken the forms off and sealed the foundation. These pictures are taken from the back of the house, the metal object sticking out in front of the foundation is the egress window.

-Cara

The Pit Takes Shape

Tonight, we went out to the lot to see the basement that they dug. In the next week, they should be bringing in the forms and pouring the foundation. This picture was taken from the giant mound of dirt that they excavated and piled on the back of the lot.

The garage will be on the left side of the picture where the black Civic is. Where Cara is standing will be the front porch. It should be exciting to see the basement in place after we get back from vacation. -- Josh

The porch swing

Yesterday, my parents' neighbor threw out his old porch swing. Josh went over and asked if we could have it. He said sure, and he is planning on getting rid of a bunch more stuff which we are welcome to take as well! The porch swing needs some work. Josh took it apart, and found a couple of boards that need to be replaced, along with a few carriage bolts. We will also have to buy some chains for it. We hope to keep the whole project under $40. The cheapest new one I could find was $100. So quite a good deal!

The great dig!

Today, they finally began excavating our first house. We are all unbelievably excited! Josh thinks that the foundation and subfloor will be in by the time we get back from vacation next week. We will have to see!

The house is beautiful. It will be 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It will have vaulted ceilings in the kitchen and living room and a main floor laundry. We picked sunny maize for the siding color and wedgewood blue for the shutters. It will have a large front porch that we can put a porch swing on and an aggregate driveway. The lot is nice and level, and over a quarter of an acre! We really think that, God willing, we will be here for many years.