Pictures!

Here are some pics my mom took of just the kitchen and the outside since we are waiting on baseboards and such to go in. Might as well wait till it's done since it won't be that long!

Wow Time Flies

Well since my last post almost 3 months ago a lot has happened. Right after this last blog we ran into a problem with our power pole and had to replace it, that set us back a couple weeks so we were at a standstill for awhile. Come to find out the county was the one that told us we had to replace it but when Pacific Power came out after it was done they said we didn't need to :( The only thing keeping me from a murderous rampage was the fact that we had a nice, new, solid power pole. I was not happy about that.

So in the meantime the house has been coming along and we've just been watching the progress and getting more and more excited. It's been hard to find time to post between starting my first year as a 1st grade teacher and being pregnant, and then all the house stuff. So, this post won't have any pictures but I hope to get some on soon.

As far as the house goes we are in the final stages. It's painted, the carpet is in, all the cabinets, toilets, sinks etc. In fact it looks SO liveable but all we are able to do is lay on the carpet after work and then go back to the trailer at night time. Monday the outlets and all the lighting should go in, along with the stove and then I will be REALLY anxious because, well I COULD BE LIVING IN IT! Thursday the finish guy is coming out to do floor trim and all the other small odds and ends and Friday is our walkthrough with Adair. The only thing that will keep us from moving in is when the county inspectors come out. They have been good about getting here quickly to inspect so let's hope they don't start a new habit. I'm guessing we'll be able to start moving in by the week of the 5th so keep your fingers crossed. If it's not that week you might find me in a sleeping bag on my bedroom floor! It's just so close!

My mom is planning on throwing us a house warming party the last Sat. in November so anyone that is local is more than welcome to come! Well even if your not local if you want to drive all this way that would be great too! Ok hopefully I will be back with pictures but don't hold your breathe, you can see how well I kept up with this blog over the past 6 months!

Finally an update!

Ok so in my own defense I hadn't updated because after we excavated not much was going on for awhile so I got out of the habit, then things started going REALLY fast and I got overwhelmed by the amount of pictures I had to deal with, that mixed with trips, and the super slow internet we get up here and I was avoiding it like the plague. But enough excuses here is an update. I'm just going to show a sequence of events from start till now and probably not comment much. You'll get the idea. Our first clue construction would start soon :)

Ron and I leveling and releveling and releling............................

Pouring the footings.

Floor joists in.


Pouring the cement for the garage.


Garage and sub-flooring done.

All the materials made me happy!

Have I mentioned I don't get poison oak?

First floor starting to come together.

First floor view from the back.

Woo Hoo second story almost framed!

A view of our front wrap around porch, it's coming along!

Ok so there you have it, those are all the pictures of the house up until now. I have pictures of the chicken coop my dad built and the play structure we built (from a kit) but those are for another day. The framing should be done next week and the plumbing as well, then Ron and I will be caulking the windows and gaps and painting. So look for some more pictures. I'm not so behind now so I should be able to post more often!

I know I know.....

It's been forever since I posted. There has been lots going on and lots of pictures but I've just been slacking. It could be my job, or the car accident I got in, but more than likely I just don't want to take the 2 hours it takes to upload the pictures! However, I will be posting more in the next couple of days. We are all ready for building and Adair is just waiting for the permits to be in their hands. So we are looking at next week or the week after I think for them to start building. So look for some more finished shots of the house pad, the turn around, our swing set and the chicken coop. It's starting to really come together!

Ready for inspection

Well thanks to our family again for all their help! I think we are close to being ready for Adair to inspect and get started. I just can't believe how much this place has changed in the last few weeks. I know it's kind of hard to see from the pictures so I will try and post some side by side before and after pics to try and show you the changes.

As promised a picture of my father in law on a steep hill, he was moving too fast and I didn't get him at the highest point but it was pretty steep!

My brother in law Matt hauling a tree to the burn pile.

Our friend Matt using his level, one of numerous measuring attempts. I think we finally got it right ;)

You can see Ron at the top of the property clearing trees and brush, but we also made a tier so that there is not such a steep drop off. And there's dad working on burning brush.

I think it's time for some before and after pictures now :)

Here's before the house pad and after. Use the shed in the background for reference. Lots of work got done!

Here's how much of the hillside we had to cut out for our house pad. It was kind of sad to cut all those trees down but we are going to replant some in other places and we saved a lot for our wood stove.

This is a shot from one of the tiers above the house pad.

And now some fun shots, even though the guys were working, the rest of us were enjoying ourselves!

The Septic

One of our many concerns about building a house is the septic. We heard (after our property had closed) that the county is really picky and won't take an inspection from a third party as good enough to pass. So even though our septic passed before we bought, the county might find something wrong with it and not pass it (in fact I heard they look for anything not to pass it because they don't like old septics and want everyone to have a sand filter). This means we might have to put in a 14,000 sand filter :( Sooooooo we decided to get the septic all ready for the inspection whenever that may be, and started uncovering the intake and outake pipes. This is where we discovered the old, thin piece of metal (maybe a coffee can?) that was used to patch a cut in the PVC pipe, no glue to hold it on, just some bent metal and rocks on top of it. Something told us this wouldn't be enough to pass inspection so Ron got on it. Our good friend Matt came out tonight and helped Ron cut the pipe and put on some fittings to get rid of the hole and make it look a whole lot better. Sorry no pictures, didn't think anyone wanted to see human waste floating down the PVC pipe, but if you are really disappointed let me know and I'll hook you up with some pictures...........hey some people are sick. So that's the update today, more pictures in the next couple days. Thanks for reading!

Here We Go

Ok here is the first post for our homebuilding blog. Most people that visit here will know all the details of how we got here so I'm just going to blog about what's been going on the last couple weeks and what will happen in weeks to come.

Since we got here 2 weeks ago Ron has been spending every last second of daylight, cutting burning, and getting ready for the heavy equipment to get here so we could start some real progress. I've been inside getting things somewhat organized, even though there is not enough room for our stuff :( Oh well it's only for a few months, who cares if the roof leaks and my dog threw up in the living room last night.

We've decided to do as much work ourselves as possible because it saves us money, thankfully Ron's dad Mike works for a heavy equipment rental company and got us a good deal on renting some of the stuff we needed, plus he's quite the machinery operator, I never knew! So here are some pictures of what we have been up to the last couple weeks just in case some of you thought we fell off the face of the earth, sometimes I feel like we have.

The above picture is similiar to the one I have at the top of the blog, it was taken after one of the many rainstorms we have had lately. It's just so darn pretty up here!

Here's a view from where our future house will sit. The following pictures are just some different views from different parts of the property.

Here's Bayley and I mowing the front yard, it was just a little bit fun on our riding lawn mower. Probably won't be as fun in the heat of the summer but at least I can work on my tan!

Below is a view of the old shed that Nick and Ron demolished. We saved some of the good wood for the chicken coop my dad is going to help er......I'm going to help him build :) The old shed was right in the way of where we needed to dig for the house pad, so it had to go, plus it was ugly!

Here is where the house will be............


Here it is burning, alond with some trees Ron cut down...........


Here's Ron the mountain man cutting trees with his new chainsaw.......there sure are a lot of things we need to build the house and they all seem to be man toys! All I've gotten are some rubber boots and a promise from Ron for some work gloves :(


We now interrupt the progress of this house to stop and admire all the wildflowers growing. I had to stop and pick some the other day. Nothing like fresh flowers in a vase that you didn't pay anything for and that you did nothing to grow, well I guess if you think about it I paid quite a bit for them.......it's called a mortgage............oh well I still like them. Ok back to the house.




After a lot of cutting, getting ready for the heavy machinery.........

Are you sure this is hard work?...........

There's a lot of work to be done here, that whole hillside needs to be cleared and dug out.

Ripping out tree stumps like it's nothing..................

Making some progress on Saturday.........
My dad helping with the fires.........

My new sister in law Amanda, helping with the fire...................



Bayley knew she needed warm clothes and boots to come outside, this is what she came up with...
Digging with Uncle Matt...............


Digging with daddy................


Lots of progress




So that finishes one of the longest blogs I've ever created but we are all caught up now so only small posts with pictures from now on. Hopefully I'll have some more progress to report in the next couple days.................stay tuned!