Things are really happening now!
First lets just take a second and drool over this gorgeous commercial roll up door thats inside our house! Ignore that spring at the top, it's defected and we need to return it. Let's add that to our forever growing list of things to do during this build! But really, I'm envisioning this door opening up to a concrete pad, extending out to a grassy yard and gathering under that canopy at a picnic table having endless game nights, bon fires, and watching the deer come in for dinner!
Right now that seems way out of sight, but it's coming along! This house has been a huge process. Nothing has seemed to go right and we have had setback after setback. The key is, JUST KEEP GOING! The world isn't gonna wait for us, so we have pressed on. At the moment HVAC is almost complete with the exception of flex duct, plumbing waste piping is being wrapped up, and electrical has been started, windows are going in, and our standing seem metal roof is being installed as I speak! Everything was happening at a manageable pace until now! All of a sudden...BOOOOM...hit us like a wrecking ball! We are in a bit of a rush due to us being in our first extension of our loan and almost hitting a year on this house. In all fairness it should have been finished months ago but for reasons I cannot explain at this very moment, we are where we are.
I was just looking through pictures and wow...the progress that has been made on this land is insane! May 1st will be 2 years we have owned this property, time has skated by way too quick!
May 15, 2019 - Two weeks after we purchased the property. FULL of small trees and overgrown bushes.
August 28, 2019 - Cut the grass so we could see what we were working with. At this point we hadn't purchased Little Blue yet so we had some help from our neighbor and his tractor.
September 6, 2020 - Almost a year in between these photos, tons of brush and trees cleared. Every month our property looked like it was growing as we cleared more and more.
March 14, 2021 -Where we are today! Even though pictures will never do justice of how many trees and man hours it took to get this place to where it is...I think you can get the idea!
The driveway has really stiffened after the loads and loads of rock we had delivered and spread, with the addition of the delivery trucks driving on it to really pack everything down. We were super lucky to have been able to see where our water issues were when we bought the property. It had rained for weeks and water was pooling everywhere. Once the house went up and we built up around it, water issues have dropped significantly. There is still a ton of work to do around the exterior to get the grade right but we know we are on the right track!
April 21, 2019 - I took this before we purchased the property. We had walked several sites but we loved this one.
June 8, 2019 - Clearing had just started. There were so many trees we had to get rid of to make space for the house, it was impossible to trim branches and chop every tree into logs. There was also a TON and when I say a TON...it doesn't even come close to the amount of trash we collected in this process. Both above and below ground things were popping up. Entire frames of trucks, endless amounts of tires, clothing, phones, you name it....it was and still is like living on a landfill. Most of the trash has been removed but there are still some things further on the property that need to be cleaned up.
August 28, 2019 - So much had been cleared at this point and we finally had a better handle of where the house was going to go. The concrete pad you see is from an existing building on the property that had burned down years ago. We have been using it as a staging/parking area. It will have to get ripped out soon since the grade has risen around 48" where the house is.
August 14, 2020 - Three months after our builder was given the first draw this is where we were. Foundation footings dug, set and concrete poured. Already 2 months behind the game!
October 21, 2020 - Block foundation is complete, working on fixing the grade and bringing in as much dirt as possible. There is an extremely high water table where we are so we basically had to start at ground level and build up. If we didn't bring in as much dirt as we have, our house would look like its sitting on top of a funky hill. The goal is to blend that in as much as possible for a natural look and to keep the water flowing away from the house.
November 20, 2020 - House is half framed, 5 months in! See how quickly time goes?? We used zip board on the exterior instead of tyvek. This product is weather resistant for a year which, we fully appreciate now that we are so far behind!
December 1, 2020 - Garage is framed, now the battle begins with the mud and water. We tried to do as much around the exterior as we could to keep it dry and to build up the grade before the ground froze.
Now for a few of the back side! I didn't get a ton of pictures through the clearing process from this view since it took over a year just to clear and be able to walk to this area. The picture it taken from where our septic field would be behind the house.
December 3 2020 - Interior and exterior walls are framed, ready for roof trusses!
December 8, 2020 - Roof trusses are almost finished.
March 10, 2021 - Standing seem metal roofing is fully underway and halfway finished! Between the roof truss installation and now, a ton of sand has been dug our of Derrick's mini quarry on the side of the property to fill in around the house.
Now you have seen a little more progress on the house! Interior before and afters will be more fun when its further along. Right now we are focusing on getting the house weather tight, finishing all of the utilities and tiny things we need to do so that we can get our rough inspection finished. The concrete for the porch and garage need to be poured soon and then we can start insulation and drywall! Everything is happening so quickly now we can barely keep up!
Just want to give a little shout out and love to everyone that's been involved in the process up to this point. Wether you've helped us correct mistakes, came over on a weekend to lend a hand, or even just wanted to see our progress and show support. We love you and wouldn't be where we are without you!
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