Our moat is gone . . .

With the rain we had, the area next to the basement walls had become a "moat" of sorts.  But as of today, the moat is no more!  As predicted, by the time the kids and I arrived this morning, half the backfilling had already taken place.  The guy was leaving for a dentist appointment, but he came back this afternoon to finish it up.  As Jason said this evening, it's nice to be able to walk right up to the basement instead of needing a ladder to span the distance! :)

If you notice in the bottom photo, all the dirt that was piled high behind the basement is no longer there.  In fact, Jas might have to truck some dirt in to finish landscaping the front yard and re-grading it.  Even though there was a TON of dirt piled around the basement, most of it was used to backfill the hole. 

Next on the agenda is getting the well and septic system installed.  More on that in the next two weeks!

Weekend Update (Thanksgiving)

We spent most of Saturday measuring the basement for correct jack post height (because Lowe's special orders them and you can't return them!) and then we installed the new culvert where the driveway will start.  Connor got to drive the tractor after we finished. . .

Today (Sunday) we headed back down right before supper to add some gravel to the sides of the culvert to keep the dirt from washing out.  Lo and behold, a bulldozer was sitting at the site, having been delivered this afternoon.  Apparently they plan to backfill tomorrow.  Yay!!  I promise to post photos of that in the morning, provided they don't finish it before we get down there. :)

Weekly Update - Nov. 25

Well, we have good news.  The house is "in production", which means the construction process has started.  YAY!!!!!!  We should have a definite delivery date in a week or two, but right now we're looking at the middle of December.  The house is scheduled to be finished by Dec. 12, and then it takes a day to wrap it and get it ready to "head out on the highway".  A day later it should arrive in Festus at Wilson Homes, and then Patrick will get his crew and a crane and bring it down to us.  For all of you who've been asking exactly what date it will be delivered, we're still not 100% sure.  But we should know about a week and a half before it gets here.  We'll let everyone know just as soon as we know. 

The backfill is supposed to be done Friday or the beginning of next week.  Well and septic should be done within the next two weeks.  We're shooting for everything on our end to be completed by Dec. 12.  After that, all we have left is the setting of the house, attaching it to the basement, hooking up the electric, framing and wrapping the ends of the house, finishing the shingles, drywalling the seam in the kitchen/living room, hanging the doors, cleaning the house, and painting.  Oh, and installing the basement stairs, hooking up the plumbing and LP, and moving in.  Easy peasy! :)  We know that's a lot of work to be done in a relatively short amount of time, but we know how badly we want to be in the house as quickly as possible so we're willing to work long and hard to get 'er done.  Besides, we've got lots of help!  If you're good at any of the above projects, or you'd just like to come and pitch in where you can, we'd be glad to have you.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Weekly Update

After the excitement of last week's excavation and basement-building, this week is kind of boring! :)  It's been raining, which has resulted in calls to her contractor with concerns about our basement becoming a swimming pool.  He said that Jas can add a sump pump so we don't end up with standing water under the floor.  Other than that, we're just waiting on the house to arrive.  That's still probably a month away, so we're playing the waiting game . . .

Basement Building - Day Four (Floor)

At around 8:30 this morning, the concrete trucks were on their way to our house site to pour the floor.  We were on our way to Cape to run errands, so we missed out on the action.  But when we arrived this afternoon, the guys had finished loading the forms back on the trailer, and they were sealing the walls.  (Anna said it looked like they were covering them with mud!) :)  After everything has set, all that's left is the backfill. 

Looks beautiful, doesn't it? :)  If you are in the market for an excellent contractor that works hard and fast, doesn't charge you an arm and a leg, and does excellent work, then you should hire Jeff Jarrell of Jarrell Construction in Bloomfield.  Jason and I highly recommend him!  

Basement Building - Day Three (Walls)

When the kids and I arrived at the site this morning, we found that one wall was already up.  Well, the forms for it anyway . . .

And the skid steer was delivering more off a semi trailer parked to the side.

Around 2, the concrete trucks showed up.

At first there were just two trucks (same as yesterday).  But then two more rolled in, and the kids were SO excited! :)  Very busy construction site today!

They were done pouring by about 3:30, and then the site got quiet.  They will be back tomorrow to pour the floor, and then we'll be ready for a house.  Unfortunately, that's still a month away!  And trust me, this will seem like a very long month, even with Thanksgiving and Christmas thrown in there! :)  But we plan to be in by the first of the year, so it's really not that far off.

Basement Building - Day Two (Take Three)

From the north side, looking down into the hole.

This second shot is a view from the southern side.  In case you're wondering, the concrete circles in the middle are to support the jack posts that will support the house.  There are eight in a line down the middle, with two additional ones at the basement opening.

Tomorrow we should see walls!

Basement Building - Day One (Take Two)

Well, I promised concrete photos, and here they are.  The kids were eating lunch when we saw the first concrete truck go by.  He stopped at the end of our road, and I could tell he wasn't sure which way to go.  So I ran out to him and gave directions.  Then we followed him after the kids finished eating.  By the time we got there, he had just gotten into place.

And let the pouring commence!

But just then the day got even better.  ANOTHER concrete truck showed up.  Connor was literally jumping up and down and clapping his hands with excitement!

 

We watched them finish pouring and then we headed home for awhile.  But we'll be back down later to watch the rest!

Basement Building - Day Two (Take One)

When we got to the job site around 9:30 this morning, the guys were already hard at work.  The skid steer was being used to deliver the gravel, after the dump truck dropped it off.

Connor (of course) wanted to be right up there, but we kept our distance.  Rule number one on a construction site:  "Always be aware of your surroundings."  Connor has difficulty with that, so we stayed back!

Both kids loved watching the skid steer scoop up a load of gravel and then drive down into the hole.  It went really fast, too!

3 dump trucks arrived with gravel this morning, and before too much longer they will be pouring concrete.  I'll be back with photos of that this afternoon!

Houston, we have a hole in the ground.

That's right, folks.  As of 2:30 this afternoon, this is what our building site looked like . . .

The excavator had packed up and left, and the kids were super excited to climb on all the piles of dirt.  And trust me, we have a lot of dirt.  But given how much we're going to use to backfill and re-slope the yard, it's probably not enough. :)

Never in my life have I been so excited about a big hole in the ground.  And the kids have had a blast today, being able to watch the excavator do its thing.  Susie said they were out there at 6:30 this morning, so that explains why when we arrived at 8 they already had so much done.  Great work, guys!  You are super fast!

We've got a hole . . .

in the ground where our basement's gonna go! :)  The excavator was delivered last night, and bright and early this morning they started digging.  The kids and I headed down a little after eight and this is what we saw . . .

The excavator was already hard at work, and we were accumulating big piles of dirt.  Connor has never been more excited! :)

We watched for an hour or so, and it didn't take long for the basement to take shape.  By about 9:30, our contractor showed up and we gave him the final plans for where the septic, well, etc. will go.  They plan to pour the footers this afternoon, and by tomorrow will have walls going up.  Is that awesome or what?

This afternoon I'll post more photos, but I wanted to post these this morning.  This is such an awesome day, because it's finally real.  Our contractor totally understood my excitement this morning, because, as he said, something's actually going on out here now.  The months of paperwork, decision-making, phone calls, and waiting are finally over.  And that is unbelievably cool.

More Awesome News!

Jason's mom called us early this morning (well, it may have been a quarter to seven, but for us that's early!) to let us know that Congress is extending the deadline for the first time homebuyer's tax credit.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you haven't heard us discussing this, we were very concerned about our house purchase not qualifying because the deadline was November 30.  As in, less than a month from now.  And although our house would be ordered and almost completed by then, it would not be finished for occupation.  So basically we were going to have to beg and plead with the IRS to take pity on us, since we tried to have our home done by Nov. 30, but it was going to miss it by a week or two.

But now all that doesn't matter, because the deadline has been extended for several more months.  So there is no longer a question as to whether we qualify.  And we have definite plans for that $8000, so we're glad to know it will be coming our way. :)

The First Time Homebuyer's Tax Credit info can be found here.  Basically, if you are purchasing your first home, you can get up to $8000 back in your tax refund.  (The actual amount you can receive is 10% of your home's purchase price, up to $80,000.  In other words, the most you can receive is $8000.)  And that's a good chunk of change! And unlike the credit from 2008, people like us purchasing in 2009 do not have to pay their's back. 

So we are over the moon with the news that the credit has been extended.  This, coupled with our awesome news yesterday, has definitely made us happy campers! 

Don't forget, excavation pics will start next week! :)

It's A Wonderful Day . . .

This is our building site.  Doesn't it look great?  I know, I know, I'm partial to it because it's mine. 

Today has been a wonderful day.  One of those days where everything just seems to come together, and you can breathe a huge sigh of relief. 

We met with our "basement guy" today, and he took a look at the site and told us two very great things.  One, if the weather holds he can probably start next week.  Two, he will have it done way before our house is scheduled for delivery.  Hallelujah on both counts!  This was awesome news, and exactly what we wanted to hear. 

Our house is scheduled to begin production the week after next.  All the materials have already been purchased and are waiting at the factory.  This means when they're ready to begin building, they don't have to wait on supplies.  Our house will take approximately three weeks to construct (yeah, I know, only three weeks!), so it will be ready for delivery a week or so into December.  Plenty of time for us to get things finished up before Christmas.  Yay!

Knowing that all this stuff is falling nicely into place makes you feel really good.  It's a relief to know that things are moving along at a good pace, and we have definite dates for stuff.  :)

That means more photos and regular posts are just around the corner.  Just as soon as they start excavation, I'll be posting pictures and updates.  So stay tuned . . .

Some fabulous news . . .

Ok, I know what you're thinking.  There have been no new posts to this blog in over a month.  What is going on?  Well, I'll let you in on a little secret.  There haven't been any new posts because there was nothing new to post.  How can that be, you ask?  Well, here's the deal . . .

For the last month, we have been submitting various forms and plans to the USDA Rural Development office in Charleston.  The lady we've been working with is very nice, and even though I'm sure she'd love to give us our money right away, the money is coming from the government so that involves a lot of forms and red-tape.  Undaunted, (well maybe a little daunted) we've been in constant contact with our basement guy, Wilson Homes, and Commodore Homes of Indiana getting signatures and paperwork filled out.  After getting everything completed and turned in, we found out a couple of weeks ago that it is still going to be another 6-8 weeks (at least) before our plans are approved and we can get our money.  This was disheartening, to say the least.  Okay, that's a major understatement.  Jason and I were totally bummed.  We could not believe this is taking so long, and so we weighed our options.  Ultimately, we decided to look elsewhere for our funding.  We just didn't want to wait until the middle of December to try to start building our house.  So what did we do?

We called one of our local banks, and in a couple days time we had a loan.  No kidding!  Just like that, our frowns were turned upside down.  :)  Why didn't we just do this from the beginning?  Well, to be fair we went with Rural Development because you didn't have to have a downpayment, and that was really important seeing as how we didn't have a downpayment.  But this bank is willing to work with us, and that is SO awesome! 

So after some frantic phone calls back and forth with our builder, our house is scheduled to go online as early as this coming week.  If they can't fit us into the schedule right now, we'll only have to wait another week or so before they can.  Is that amazing or what?  It takes about three weeks for our home to be built (cool, huh?) so we need our basement contractor to get going ASAP.  Hopefully he can, because it will take about that long for the basement to be constructed.  No rain in the upcoming forecast, either, so we are doing the happy dance! :)

Now that things seem to be moving forward (can I get a hallelujah?), I'll be posting lots more pics and info as the basement's constructed, the house is "set", and Jas does the finish work.  So stay tuned!