Slammin' the Slab

Great news! The inspections passed and they're pouring the slab today! I was a little concerned about the weather (an occasional drizzle), but I imagine the workers were happy to not be working in the direct sun.

Here's a view from the North side of the house.

And here they're finishing the front porch.

A Sketch

Here's a pic of what our home will be like when finished.
(Imagine grass, bushes, flowers, and oh yeah, ground and sky too)

How Firm a Foundation

Here's a pic of the foundation formed out and ready for concrete. All the plumbing is in place, anti bug spray is down and covered, and although you may not be able to see it, the metal wiring is in place to help strengthen the concrete.

Once the inspections are passed, the slab will be poured and, in about four days, the concrete walls will be raised and bolted to each other and the slab.

Breaking ground

Ground has been broken!  A hole, which will eventually be a pond, has been dug and the dirt was supposed to be used to form the foundation.  However, after trying to compact it, the dirt was too wet to use so it had to be scraped off and dirt trucked in.  Thankfully, they were able to get it from 2 properties over so it saved on the cost.  Below are pictures from when Mike, the girls and his mom went out to look at what had been done.

Our front view

Down the side of the property

Looking towards the back of the property. 

Our property line is equal to the front of the white shed.

Weeds and Blackberries

When we first went out to walk the property, we found that, in addition to the tall weeds, there were lots of plants with very prickly thorns.  Ouch!  In order to prep for construction, we rented a bush hog and Mike went to work on the front part of the property.  It took him a Friday afternoon of about 4 hours and about another 4 hours that Saturday morning to clear out the area for the pond and house.  At least we could walk without being stabbed every step.

The beginning...

Our story is a long one that began back in 2007 when we decided to sell our house after some major life events.  The Lord did not allow our house to sell until August of 2009.  While we had plenty of time to look for both existing houses or land to build on, we could not put feet to those plans until the house sold.  We then began exploring options beginning with existing homes.  When that did not turn up anything, we looked at land and building options.  Modular houses were our first option but it did not work out due to room size restrictions so we were led to a builder who had a program called Castle Homes  Now our task was to secure a place to build.  The first property fell through and, after some tweaking of plans, an offer was made on a 5 acre property.  We then got on a merry-go-round having to try 3 different banks, through no fault of our own, to secure a loan.  After many problems with the 3rd bank, Wells Fargo, we were finally able to close the end of March 2010.  We were now the owners of a 5 acre piece of former pasture land and ready to build a house from the ground up!!