Foundation Walls Up!

The walls are up! The kids exact words when we drove up, "Woahhhhh!!!" We are all learning so much about the construction process. We even learned about hurricane straps! :)

Below - picture of the day!

Junkyard City

The workers are continuing to build the walls in preparation for the concrete pouring. The inspector signed off on his inspection today; we're ready to pour concrete for the walls tomorrow! WAHOO! Right now the house looks like junkyard city! :) I'll leave you with the pictures of the day - you be the judge. :)

On a side note, tonight we went out to dinner - compliments of our wonderful Fiesta 50% off card! :) Anyway, Alan took Katie to the bathroom. Conversation went something like this. Katie, "Daddy, there are boy places to go potty and girl places to go." Daddy, "Shhhh, just go potty." She finished doing her thing, then walked out to the boys, Jocie and I who are all BUSTING up laughing as he proceeds to walk out of the women's bathroom!!! By this time I'm almost in tears from laughing so hard. I felt like I should stand by the door or at least hollar in to warn Alan of his surroundings, but everything from the waitress walking out after using the restroom to a potential woman walking in and letting out a high pitched scream kept me in my seat dying of laughter. There - my funny of the day.

Junkyard City

Foundation wall prep

Goofy Kids - Goofy Dad

The kids are having a blast - but at times, it's hard to tell who's having more fun - the kids or dad. :)

Tomorrow - the inspector will be by and they hope to pour concrete for the walls!

Wanted!

Silly girls!

Goofy boys!

Getting ready to pour concrete!

Foundation Rebar

Having a hard time visualizing things, but it appears our house is going to have an AMAZING view. If you look at the first photo, we were told that the top of the rebar is the top of the basement. We'll have two floors above that. We're definitely finding that this is a huge learning process, much different than when we built our first house.

Looking at the 3rd/4th bay of the garage.

Looking at the daylight basement.

Jordan in the basement, Alan standing at the garage.

Another view looking at footings.

Fire!!!

Below is a picture that Alan took tonight of a fire across the highway from where the property is. The fire, which is now under control, burned approximately 1,000 acres. Unfortunately, we live near a lot of undeveloped property so dry, late-summer fires will probably be a little unsettling.

Breaking Ground

I guess it's official! We're building a house! The crews showed up on Monday to get started. As of today, the footings are in! The kids ask daily to go up and "visit the property". Not a clue if we are on track for our December closing, but we're hoping!! Alan called this morning to inform me that the bathroom was put in (a.k.a. a port-o-potty).

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Our crew - breaking ground!

Footings are in!

A view looking West. That small little bump to the right of the sunrise we believe is Mt. Adams.

Beautiful Aerial Pictures

A good friend of ours owns an aerial photography business. On a recent flight, he took a gorgeous picture of our new property. It is below. By the way, if you or someone you know is in the market for any aerial photography, he does an amazing job! I'd love to forward you on his contact info (yes this is a plug for him - he's great!).

The two yellow circles you see in the far off distance (which really aren't as far as they look - are our church on the left and the kids' school on the right).

View of the property.

Another view of the property.