Preparing the Land, Driveway, and Footings

The work has begun on the land. This is third house I have built. The first house was bad enough, and I said I would never build another house. That was in 1999. Well, that didn't turn out to be the last because it was best for our family to move closer to town. And there is/was no way my husband could buy a ready-made house. He knows too much about construction to be willing to take a house that has issues. And as far as he is concerned: every house has issues. That's what you think when you are used to new construction. Besides, honestly, if you have the know-how building a house is the cheaper way to go! That is if you do the majority of the work yourself, and of course, we always do!

That first house had Ray building most of it himself with a wee bit of help from Colt and Dane, and then of course, I had my work cut out for me. The next house was easier with Colt and Dane doing the lion's share with Ray, but I still had to help on foundation, tar the basement, frame, insulate, mud the drywall, and then paint the entire house.

This time, I will be even more involved, but we will also have Colt 19, Dane 17, Cassidy 13, Austin 11, helping us. So that will help. But this house is also the biggest one we have built, so it will need all of us on board to get it done!

The first thing to do was prepare the driveway.

The Driveway 'Before'

View from the back of the house all the way up to the top of the first part of the driveway. Once you get to the top you take a right and drive along the pond front.

The Completed Driveway

From the Other End Looking Down From the Pond End

The Turn-Around By the House

After this was done we had to excavate the foundation and then build the footings.

The Foundation

The plan we have chosen is a wonderful one with a large main floor. We have also decided to put in a full basement, since the cost of concrete in the basement going from 4 foot to 8 foot walls is not much. Our goal is to finish the basement in stages, but at least we will have a wonderful large space for a media room, playroom, guest room, big boy's bedroom, games room, and storage room.

Cooper Helped Put Rocks By the Footings

We popped over one day to see how things were going.

Running to See What Daddy Has Accomplished

The children are asking what is what in the room. Savannah is stepping into the guest room, and the boys are leaping into the boys' room.

A few days later, it was time for the footings to be poured. This day we all had to work. There was no sitting out of the job, not this time! I headed to the land at 3:30PM, as Ray had asked me to do. As I drove along the road I could see the concrete truck directly in front of me. I was almost late!
As we drove into the driveway the power line guys were still working on installing the nine poles to our house. From our driveway entrance to our house is 1/2 a mile, so it takes a lot of poles.

Little Ones Watching the Action

Smoothing the Footings

After a hard few hours work it was time for dinner. I did not see myself heading home to put dinner on the table, so I headed to town and bought dinner.

What It Takes to Feed My Family

Skinny kids and look how much they *all* eat!! Even my Ethiopian daughters eat like the rest of the clan!

End of a Hard Day's Work

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