Finally! (I feel like we say ‘finally’ a lot.) That was the first word on our little wedding announcement/invitation and I’m using it again to describe this house building adventure. We have officially, finally, broken ground on our house!

This morning we dropped Little Bit off at summer camp and made it to the land as they were measuring and marking the footprint of the house where the stem walls would be placed.

The outline of the house, measured and spray painted on the shale pad.

There was a lot of talk about having me ‘eyeball’ things to see if I thought they marked the house so it will sit squarely on the land. Now here’s the thing…I have a really good eye for hanging pictures straight and where they should be and I can tell you almost exactly where to hang a picture so it’s centered in a space without measuring, and I can tell you if a couch will fit where you want it without measuring. Generally my “spacial” view of things is spot-on…but for some reason, every time a line is marked on our land, it looks crooked to me! I suspect that one of the fences isn’t square, or the trees in the background mess with your perspective…but regardless, I don’t think I want any part of deciding if things are square. What if they moved something two feet (because I told them to) and it turned out that my eyes happened to be off??? If I have to blame someone for the house sitting crooked for the next 15 years, I would much rather blame the construction crew than myself! 😉 But I’m sure it’s all good. I mean, they are the professionals, right?

Standing in front of where the house will be–as excited as we were to see people working on the land!
Back corner of the barn. I have no idea what she’s laughing about, but she is happy!
Looking from the back of the barn, towards the street (left).
Looking at the front of the barn, towards the pond (right).

After a while we headed home, but turned around and went back to the land so we could meet a friend who was dropping something off for us and I’m so glad we did. We happened to be there when the excavator made the first scoop of dirt, to break ground for the new house!

Excavating along the orange lines for the stem walls.
Excavating for the stem walls. Little Bit is at summer camp, thus not in the picture.

I took the photos below looking north, towards the barn and pond. The ceiling trusses will get hoisted to the top of the barn walls tomorrow.

The girls, standing where our front entrance will be (left).
The girls standing at the inside edge of the garage (right).

The entire house outline has been excavated four feet deep and filled with cement. I remember with our other house that at this point all of the rooms look so very tiny. In the picture below, the square that’s closest to the front of the picture is the office and it doesn’t even look like there’s enough room for a desk. At this point last time I was sure we needed to add more square footage–Shane is thrilled I know this time around that it isn’t needed. It will grow to normal size when the house is framed.

The stem walls have been poured.
Concrete was still a bit wet, and a wee bit too wide for the girls to be sure they could make it across with a jump!

Ainsley ended her day dismayed. Yesterday she discovered that one of the puddles left in a tire rut in the driveway, had become home to a large group of tiny little tadpoles. She loved observing them and this morning she asked if we could come back later with a cup so she could relocate them to the pond (so very sweet of her!).

However, by the time we made it back, the tiny little tadpole pond had been smashed into oblivion by all the construction vehicles. No more tadpoles. Oops.

Puddle full of tadpoles this morning, smashed to oblivion by this evening.

OF COURSE she noticed that the tadpoles were gone but, as soon as she realized what had happened, her quick thinking parents might have told her they were safely in the pond. That when her daddy met with the electrician earlier, he relocated the tadpoles to the pond for her. She was happy with that answer and even told him, “Good job,” for his actions. My version of, “Your dog has moved to a farm with lots of squirrels to chase and he’s so happy now!”

That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.