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.

Arrival and Setting...

We've seen a few of these lately:


On Wednesday they brought the two halves of the house. They wanted them here a day before setting so they would be ready first thing. Here are the halves on the flatbed trailers





Then bright and early on Thursday morning, they started getting it ready to set. I didn't see the beginning of that. I woke up at 8 and they were already hard at work. I went out with 2 of the kids and we watched them getting it ready for a good hour before one of them got bored and went inside. Jake stayed with me though. Around 9 am the crane arrived and by 9:30 or so, they were getting it started. The weather couldn't be more perfect. Here's video of the setting. The first one is 8 minutes and the second is about 10. It might be boring. The voice is my son's-I didn't talk because I have a cold and if I talk, I cough.


click here to watch at youtube (better quality)


click here to watch at youtube

After all that, here's how it looked-in the first two pictures you can see the crane they used right next to it. It was huge and they had to pull out the legs to stabilize it and had to put counterweights on it. It was quite an ordeal.







Here's the opposite end:


then they had to finish the roof



Now there is a lot of finish work to do. They don't seem to work on it every day so it'll take a few weeks.

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.