Photos: Showing framing today ... including the garage.

Thursday: This week has gone well (so far) with the framing company. They are doing an excellent job ... and I'm sure to tell them whenever I catch the foreman on site. This evening I managed to "drag" Nathan and the dog Holly, both on tethers (big smile) up to the property. This alone is quite a fete as they both seem to want to go in different directions (at once)! As you can see from the photos, Nathan found his room and posed by his "window" opening. There was a small measurement problem ... probably a miscommunication with the draftsman. I told him my dining room needs to be 12'x12' (I'm thinking all along inside measurements) ... he made it that size from the outside measurements ... thus, giving me an 11'x 11-1/2' room; making the width a bit too tight with my buffet cabinet. My (wonderful) builder was able to fix the problem by making a slight adjustment to the pantry and adding a "bump-out along affected wall. I'd much rather have the bigger dining room and lose a foot of pantry space!
Photos: Framing progress this week, Nathan standing in his new room, nightfall tonight barely showing main floor and basement walls.

End of Week Three: We have water, septic tank connection, and basement plumbing stubbed. Monday, weather permitting, we should have the garage and basement floors poured. Things are moving right along. This week I've been a "mad woman" trying to put together the appointments for the masterbath. It should be a combination craftsman and a country look. Clawfoot tub, craftsman vanity and mirror. It pays to do a little comparison shopping. The siding quote this week came in two to three thousand $'s less than the first quote we got ... for the same brand and color, plus I've had two friends use this particular company and were very happy with them. They install roofs too ... so we may be using them ... and they have a partial roll of the coppertone metal roof for the "eyebrow" roofline along the front portion of the home. Said I could get a good deal on it since it's leftover from another job. We found similar savings in windows by shopping!

Photos 9/15/06: Basement plumbing stubbed out, and a little wooded knoll we had graded for a picnic table and lodgepole lawn swing. From this vantage point there's a filtered lakeview.

Just happenstance ... but we now have a circle drive! When the earth dozer first arrived at our property a few weeks ago to do its thing, in order to get to the lot, the driver chose the lowest spot from the shared easement driveway (shared with two other homes) to enter property. By doing so, he opened up a perfect path for our intended driveway to circle on around, making it a circle drive. When DH asked the builder about keeping it, our builder wasn't sure because it wasn't in the plans approved by the county ... but today, he informed us that the county said we could incorporate it into the plans. DH was smiling ear to ear over that little prize!

Top photo: Basement walls

Middle photo: Driveway leading to garage ... and curving around to circle

Bottom photo: Curved driveway from different approach.

We have crawlspace and basement walls. Things are progressing quickly now.

Photos: DH checking out his new turf, Forms supporting concrete walls

Building progress ... Week One: We have the foundation footings up. A light scattered shower passed through on Wednesday ... just enough moisture to lessen the dust. By friday the foundation footings had been framed and poured with cement. The kids, dog, and I had an al fresco lunch in newly established backyard area.

Artistic sketch of our home (colorized sketch by Mrs. Mac) 9/3/06