Progress. Barely.

Everything is going very slowly on the house right now. A modular might be faster than having a construction crew come out and build a house right on your lot, but it ain't fast. They do about 2 or 3 hours worth of work about 2 or 3 days each week. I'm sure they're busy and we're not the only people, but some communication would be awesome. We never know who is going to show up or what they're going to do. Especially fun if they need us to be here or need to communicate with another part of the process. Like when the plumber needed to talk to the hvac guy but didn't know when he would be here to do that. It's hard to get the hvac guy to come out with no notice. So anyway the garage is coming along (my husband and his brother are doing most of the garage). It still needs shingles on the roof and siding, plus the overhead door, walk-in door, and windows (which match the house windows)

view from the north side-no openings on this side at all.



view from the west-there will be one more window and on the very left side, a walk-in door.



from the south



and the inside of the garage-the basement stairs are at the very end of it and the door to the house is right next to them.





The carpet was finally laid-here it is in one room (all of the carpet is the same). I would rather have less carpet or none but someone insisted on it in the bedrooms and living room.



And the floor in my sewing/craft room. I love black/white checkerboard floors and wasn't able to get them in the kitchen or bathrooms using sheet vinyl (which I wanted to make it more waterproof) so I got it in here. I love this floor.





And the porch. We're just getting a small 6 x 6 front porch and will be putting a medium size deck on the back of the house next summer. This porch is not done-there will be a gable roof over it and some posts, and a step on one side.

Backfilled - and some paint colors

Here are the pictures of the foundation after the backfilling. Not all that exciting, really. But the garage is filled up now and looks more like a floor.







Here are the paint colors we've bought so far. I'm pretty sure by the time we get done painting these rooms, I'll be ready to leave the other rooms off white for now. Not to mention-paint is expensive-even at 40% off! These are all Sherwin Williams colors.

the kitchen, kids' bathroom (maybe master bath too) and my craft/sewing room


and the girls' rooms




...

Waterproofing and the first visit

Last week they came out and sprayed some black tar substance onto the outer walls of the foundation. Waterproofing. It stunk for a day or two but we definitely don't want water in the basement.



current view from the end (this is the garage end)



They also poured the basement floor. See that beautiful sump pit in the corner? I love that. Why? because our current basement, which is 9' deep (maybe more) has no sump pit. In addition, our house was built on one of the lowest spots on our property. PLUS there is a creek just across the field. All this means that if we get a lot of rain, the creek backs up, floods the field, and it backs up into the drain in our basement. And when that happens, since we have no sump pit, my husband has to pump it out manually. He uses an electric pump but it's not automatic at all. So if it's a pretty big rain, he has to pump it every few hours around the clock-including overnight. He doesn't even bother to sleep in bed during those times. Even when there isn't a ton of rain, he has to pump it out two or three times a day. Still a pain. And all this also means our basement is pretty much useless for anything. So yeah, that sump pit is a wonderful sight to me (and to him). And this is also the reason the new house looks like it's sitting way up high. It's because it is-the basement will only reach about 5' into the ground and the house will sit well above the ground.



We also visited the house today. There isn't much to show-the inside was all plastic covered floors and drywall. We go again on Saturday and hopefully there will be innards to show. In the meantime, the back of it (with and without kids). The spots are from the flash hitting the dust that was flying all over the factory.

There are two entry doors on the back-one goes directly into the mudroom and one goes into the dining room. That small window will be above my sink. I haven't lived in a house with a window above the sink in about twenty years. I can't wait.



See that double window? That room is going to be my new craft/sewing room. Lots of light-I love that.

Days 3, 4 and 5 - the basement and foundation walls

Last Thursday the forms for the walls were set up. Friday they poured the walls and on Monday they removed the forms and dug out around the whole thing for the drain. Here are some of the pictures. I didn't take any on Friday since it looked exactly the same on that day as it did on Thursday (only with cement in the forms, which you can't see anyway, other than on the very top).













After the forms were removed:







I'm not positive but I think tomorrow (which is Tuesday in my world-I'm posting this well after midnight) they will finish up the drains, put the outside waterproofing on the basement/foundation walls, and maybe pour the basement and garage floors. Or at least get everything ready to pour the floors.

I never realized the underneath part of the house took so long to make.

Day two

Today they dug and poured the footers. I think I have figured out that those are the outer edges of the foundation or basement, where the exterior walls will sit. Here are some pictures:

Digging them out-you can see the little trench dug out all around the edges


Digging out where the stairs leading to the basement will be


Concrete going in (or is it cement? I'm never sure)


View from the west side. You can see the stair area in the foreground, the basement in the middle, and in the back, the crawlspace. There will only be a partial basement but still plenty big for lots of storage, the wii and kids' tv, my treadmill and maybe a pool table.If you look waaaaay in the background, you can see my turquoise blue chicken coop.


Better view of the stair area


And these last two are the ones I took after the end of the workday from the same spots as before




Tomorrow I think they are going to set the forms for the basement walls and foundation and pour them. There's a heat advisory for tomorrow so I hope the guys stay hydrated. I have the ice bucket all filled up and ready.