From the Ground Up: Houston, we have lift off!

After an entire year of dreaming, planning, rezoning, negotiating, obtaining a variance, re-bidding, hiring a new builder, revising, re-engineering and permitting.... THE BARN IS ON ITS WAY UP!

Here's what they did last week:

Digging out the front area where the stalls will go.

This is where the stalls will be. They are dug down several feet for layering of rock, etc for drainage.

Setting the forms for concrete. The area shown here is where the concrete will support the
roof overhang outside the stalls.

Concrete is poured!

Shows how each stall is separated by concrete to support the stall walls.

Lumber is delivered!

About 3 hours worth of framing on Saturday morning

Getting the interior wall of the feed/hay room up

This next group of pictures shows the back wall going up in succession...

And there it is!

The barn framing should be complete by the end of this week.

Progress continues on the house. Albeit slow, but it is progress. Since we are not going to be in for Thanksgiving we have had to explore other options for how to ~~deal with~~ enjoy our holiday weekend in the rental house. Option 1 was to vacate the premises and head to Virginia or Utah. Prices for airline tickets are ridiculous right now, so we had to go for Option 2, which was to stay here but be in the rental house all together as little as possible. This will be the first year that I am actually not going to cook. Don't know whether to do a little dance or shed a little tear! (I'm sure when we are in the new house I will make Jim that homemade turkey dinner he is going to miss out on.)

Here are some things going on around the house:

Well #2 was dug

Once they drill it they let it run off and on for about 3 days. You can see this water is still dirty.

Here is where all the well water ended up! They will surely need to address this when they do the rough grade around the yard.

Well #1 up and running. Before it was capped off Jim tested the water and he said it tasted great! He is much braver than I am.

They started painting trim this week. Absolutely love the dark brown next to the roof line.

Progress has been made on the pool as well:

setting the forms to pour the deck

Robert on the fire pit

Ready for the deck pour

We have a pool deck! Unfortunately, they forgot to put in the anchors for the basketball hoop. And, they didn't account for adding tile to the back patio of the house, which abuts right up to the deck. So, now if we add tile there will be a "lip" which I'm sure would catch many unsuspecting toes. We are looking into staining all the concrete. Will these little "oops" items ever end?

view of the deck from upstairs. I can almost envision the blue water and the lounge chairs...

Robert in the deep end

I have just typed and erased a long paragraph about how lllloooonnnngggg it is taking the trim carpenters to finish inside the house. I am trying to be more positive, so I will not subject you to that particular rant. Here are a few pictures of the accomplishments of the week:

At the end of my last post, I mentioned that out of all the people we hired to work on this part of the house (designer, builder and cabinet company) no one picked up on the fact that the plans were drawn with an imaginary 24 inch washer and dryer! Maybe for Hobbits...

Here is how much space it is taking out of the walkway. By the time the countertops are installed, this opening will be about 32 inches. Well, it would have been.

Here they have moved all the pipes, wires and ductwork so that the washer and dryer can be stacked farther down the wall where they won't impede the walkway. Price tag: $400 plus additional cost for added countertop.