Oh Well!

Family Reunion with 37 people and a stomach flu! Yay!

The well, by far, has been the biggest and scariest unknown and it seems like it enjoyed sucking money out the window with every foot!

They hit clean water at 110 feet but went to beyond 300 feet to find water that would last. They hit a cave though, and it kept caving in and bringing up debris. So they dug to 600 feet and hit 240 feet of water and sand. The flow is ok, but not as much as you'd want or expect for a $30,000 well. We're crossing our fingers today that the water comes out clean enough to case and call it good. This was quite a chunk out of our pockets, but I guess it's worth it to find good, forever water. It sure beats drinking water that tastes like chlorine all the time from city water.

 It was kind of amazing to see all the machinery and watch the water come gushing out. It's hard to imagine that the machine is puncturing three football fields deep. It reminds me of a giant mosquito.

The house is almost finished being framed. They have to finish putting the sheething on the second floor and then they'll do the roof trusses and finish the stairs. I was finally able to go upstairs! 

FUNNY STORY: It was driving me crazy that I couldn't walk around upstairs, so James took me out one night after the crew was gone and we climbed a HUGE scary ladder to the second floor. I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but I had a hard time getting in and out of the windows. I am not tall, and my legs would not reach from the window sill to the top of the ladder. If you can imagine, being over twenty feet in the air, on a window ledge and trying to get onto a rickety ladder! I kept saying, 

"I can't! I'm going to have to stay here forever!" I was on the verge of tears and I think my son was a little worried that I would actually be stuck forever. James threatened to come up and get me, which made me even more nervous! I don't think I'll be doing that again. I don't think I was supposed to be doing that anyway. 

We spend a lot of time just sitting around in lawn chairs on the land and when it's hot, we sit in the living room. We try to go early in the morning or later to watch the sunset when the workers are gone. The kids play on the dirt pile or go explore in the creek bed. Kyler likes playing with the scrap wood and making machines with pieces of 2X4's. 

This view is from the kitchen into the dining room. The pictures don't do justice to the mountains back there. They are so much bigger and prettier in person.

Living room view. I can't wait until there's snow flying around and a Christmas tree in the corner. (I hope we're in by Christmas!)

Right now it looks like an ugly office building without the roof and porches. They'll do those next. We also went and picked out windows and doors. That, I was NOT prepared for! I hadn't looked at any brochures or even knew they existed to look at. I had to pick everything on the spot without prices in front of me and the guy at BMC wasn't as informative as I would have liked. He was in a rush I think and I had no idea what was in our price range.  I also have a terrible, "Champagne taste on a beef budget problem...actually I don't drink either of those, but you get the drift) I finally just pointed to some that I liked and he jotted it down and that was it. Later, we realized we hadn't even picked out the pocket doors for the offices, which is a big deal. It was kind of a disappointing meeting. 

What's next?

They have to wrap the outside of the house in Tyvek

put the roof trusses on...shingles on next

get the plumbing, electric and

sewage system set up

install windows and doors

insulate

sheetrock and mud 

THEN WE TAKE OVER! 

We are going to ask for help with sheet rocking and mudding the walls. I do not know how to mud, nor do we have time in our building schedule to wait for amateurs like us. James will sheet rock, paint, lay hardwood and tile, install trim, and cabinetry. Then we'll get a bathroom and the kitchen set up and we'll move into the main floor and basement while we work on the upstairs. 

We got all of our material for the kitchen but still NO APPLIANCES! Why can't we commit? Because there's so much junk on the market! I don't want the silly gadgets that talk to you and ask what you would like to drink or eat and connect to the phone. That is not my style at all. I want it to do it's job, without glitches and I want it simple and sturdy. I also want the stove to work without power...power outages are a real thing up here in the winter!

We have already closed on the house, so that part of it is all done. There's nothing left to do with the bank, we just have to get a certificate of occupancy. Once we're in, we have until January to finish the upstairs and the bank will send someone out to take pictures and make sure everything is completed the way the bid says it will be. (WAY different than an FHA construction loan.)

This has been such a huge project! It's so much fun, but huge!