Still waiting...

Well, we're still waiting for things to dry out. We are to have 5 consecutive dry days here, so that should help. The main question is; is the water inside the foundation walls from pooling rain or has the water table risen so high that we won't be able to pump out the excess. Tim hopes to find the answer to that question tomorrow. In the meantime, our SIP panels are complete and waiting for us - as is all the heavy timber! So that means once we get the foundation poured, things will really happen! Keep your fingers crossed.

Stained Concrete

These are a couple images of the concrete stain color we are considering. We will not finish it with such a high-gloss, but the color is about right.

Here comes the sun...

...and it has some work to do! These are a couple photos of the garage foundation walls...there's quite a bit of water that will need to evaporate/be pumped before backfilling can begin. Today could not have been more beautiful - and tomorrow should be the same, so next week should be better for construction. (Liz - despite this picture, Matt has been wearing his new t-shirt!)

Plumbing fixtures

These are a couple fixtures we've selected for our sinks. The first is our kitchen faucet, the other is our bathroom faucet....we're checking off our list one item at a time!

While we wait for the waters to recede....

Just thought I'd post a couple fixtures here, since nothing is happening at the site this week. This fan is currently our top pick for in the stairwell and our bedroom, and we have ordered three of these wall sconces for the master bathroom. It's so fun to browse http://ylighting.com and imagine all the possibilities! Despite our frustrations with the non-stop rain, it has been a good test of drainage - and so far it looks fine. Let's hope for some sun this weekend!

Garage foundation walls

Despite all the rain, progress was actually made today! The foundation walls for the garage and posts for the porch and entry were poured. It is a mudhole out there - and 3 year old boy's paradise. Once things dry out a bit, foundation work can begin - hopefully Monday. It's really fun to see how the couryard area between the house and garage will look and where the screened porch will be. Judging from the onslaught of mosquitoes this week - it will be a very important room in our house!

Should we build an ark?

We were out of town this weekend, but from what we hear, we had 5 inches of rain! A brief stop at the land tonight showed that the garage footings have been poured, but are covered by about 6 inches of water. The house foundation walls have been insulated and were backfilled last Thursday. Now the tubing for the sump pump will be placed, as will all that needs to go into the foundation; tubing for the heated floors, plumbing, electric, etc... The weather forecast looks very wet, so who knows what this week will bring.

Foundation walls

The outline of our house is emerging! This is where we're at...this week we hope to get the walls lined with Styrofoam and then back fill against them. Once that is complete, slab work can begin and the garage footings will be started. It absolutely poured last night, of course, so who knows what will actually be accomplished today. Rain is predicted for the rest of the week.

Stuck in a rut

This photo was taken 2 days ago and since then, the ruts have only deepened. Because of all the wonderful rain we've had this week (wonderful for the rest of Madison), the cement truck is now unable to get to our site...so any further pours have been delayed until at least next Monday. About half of the foundation walls were poured yesterday, and the crew will finish framing the rest of the walls today....and then we wait. The start of our construction is so frustratingly slow!!

Getting a good footing

Despite a torrential rain Saturday night and some collapsed sides of the excavation, most of the footings were poured today! The Northeast corner has quite a bit of water in it still, but Tim may be able to pump that out tomorrow to finish the footings. If it's not raining too much tomorrow, we hope they can continue on to work on the walls. (It figures that after 6 weeks without a raindrop, the week we need it to be dry, it is forecast to storm every day!) The turkey photo is from yesterday - 6 of them wander in and around our property.

Big Excitement!

What a big day. First, and foremost, we broke ground! The excavator arrived at 7 AM to begin digging the footings of the foundation....which was done by noon. We had much fun tonight walking the maze that will be the support of our home.

Almost even more exciting, though, is that today we accepted an offer on our current house! What a relief. We will need to move out in October and find temporary housing, but we just feel so lucky to have sold our home (without a realtor!) in just 2 weeks...especially in this market.

The final bit of excitement today was the delivery of our new (old) bathtub. We all tried it out...and can't wait to really soak in it.

What a great wedding anniversary! (our 9th - yesterday)