WHAT’S NEW?

Mud is what’s new.  We had some rain on Sunday afternoon, but then it poured buckets on Monday afternoon.  After it stopped raining, I didn’t have a chance to go out and look at the site, but John told me that we essentially had a pool, as opposed to a basement.  The ground actually started to dry up yesterday and I was really excited about the fact that we were going to start on the footers today, however we’ve had rain on and off since last  night, starting at about 4:00 pm.  So we’re back to square one.  We’re making mud pies, as opposed to a house today. 

ARE YOU FRUSTRATED, OR HAVE YOU RESIGNED YOURSELF TO GO WITH THE FLOW?  (No pun intended.)

We knew this was going to happen at some point.  We knew that we would have these “stop and go” situations, where we wouldn’t be able to go anywhere, just because of “whatever” - whether it was an issue with the weather or with a vendor getting something to us in a timely fashion.  But this is our first major setback.  You dig, and you dig, and you dig, and you finally have everything level, and you’re ready to go, and it all turns into mud.  After the last big rain, John took the Bobcat and scooped the water out as much as he could, to help it dry up.  So, I’m assuming that’s what he’ll do this time too.   

It’s frustrating, but at the same time, it could have been far worse than this.  We could have lost the sides of the hole.  All of it could have just washed down, and it didn’t.  So, that’s my silver lining in this cloud - it’s not as bad as it could be.   Still, it’s obviously not what we wanted.

SO, YOU’RE WAITING FOR THINGS TO DRY OUT AND THE NEXT THING WILL BE POURING THE FOOTERS?

Yes, we were supposed to pour concrete this coming Friday, but that’s not going to happen.  Actually, some of it was going to be poured tomorrow and the rest on Friday.   John is working on the footers today, but I don’t know how far along he’s gotten.  I know the rebar was supposed to be delivered today.  I won’t know if that actually happened until I get out to the sight later today. 

HOW ARE YOU COMING ON THE QUOTES?

The quotes are going well.  We finally picked our kitchen cabinets and we’re putting a deposit on those.  We’re going with a local designer here that makes custom cabinets.  Because of the business I’m in, (working for a window manufacturer) we’re putting glass in the cabinets.  I like the way that it looks.  One thing I just found out is, once we have the measurements for the kitchen cabinets, they can actually take up to five weeks to come in.  I’m OK with that, but I was surprised that it takes that long.  But then again, it’s something I’ve never done before, so it still all new to me. 

I’m trying desperately to finish up on selecting the doors, but I’m getting stuck.  I know that we’re doing 36″ doors - and I know this sounds silly - but I never realize that there are so many styles of doors to choose from.  I called the supplier and said I needed to get three 36″ steel entry doors, and they were like, ‘Well, what do you want?  Do know the brand name and the model numbers?’  (laughing)   And I said,  ‘I just want a door.’   I didn’t think about the fact that you can get doors with glass.  You can get designs in the glass.  You can get them with, or without sidelights.  Raised panels or flat panels.  Blah, blah, blah.  How much time do people have on their hands to design those types of things?  (laughing)   So I’m looking at doors now.  I’ve got a huge catalog.  We’ve got the garage door narrowed down to two garage doors, but we’re still working on those entry doors.  I’m hoping to have that done by this weekend.  I don’t want to be too incredibly picky, but then again, it’s our forever house, so we’ll have to live with what we pick.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER QUOTES THAT ARE OUT?

We’ve pretty much decided what we’re doing as far as windows go.  We’re down to two quotes.  There are two large windows on the front of the home, on either side of the front door.  The plan calls for crank-out windows on the sides of those large windows, but I’ve never cared for crank-outs.  We’ve decided to make the windows a little bit smaller and add awning windows underneath, for ventilation. 

The other thing I found out that was interesting - the larger windows at the front of the home, that are like trapezoid windows - we can’t order those until after we are framed up, because they have to have the exact dimensions.   Those windows will take about three weeks to make.  Since we changed the windows on the plan - I don’t know if people think about this - it changed the weight on the load bearing framing.  I didn’t think about that, and my dad said to me ‘If you’re going to change them, you need to make sure you have enough support underneath them, so they’re not going to bow.’

It’s nice to know people in the business who can give you little hints, when you’re building by yourself, as opposed to using a contractor.  Otherwise, you trust the contractor to pick up on all those little things for you.  I’m hoping I have enough friends and family members who go ‘Oh, did you think about…’  So, we’ve been asking lots of people for opinions and it’s actually been very helpful.   I hope we’re not annoying our friends and our family members, because we’re constantly saying ‘Well, what do you think if we do this, or what do you think if we do that.’   We really do value their opinions a lot, because everybody has a different concept.  It’s always nice to hear different ideas and options people think about.  

Another example, I was talking to my friend Jen today and she said, ‘Did you ever think about putting a Lazy Susan in the cabinet above the stove?  Because, if it’s going to be a corner cabinet, you’re not going to be able to reach the back of it.  I’m not terribly short, but I’m also not terribly tall.   And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh Jen, that’s such a brilliant idea.  I could just spin the stuff around and I could reach it.  Otherwise, I’d have to get a six-foot step ladder to be able to reach.’   It’s the little things like that, that you don’t think about.

WHAT ABOUT ELECTRICITY?

That is still on schedule, as far as I know.  They won’t come out and give us the final stamp to run the lines until we have the foundation in.  As soon as soon as the basement walls are up, they will come out and put in a temporary box that will be on the outside of the house.  That will allow us to have electricity at the construction site.  The electrician will then move it inside for us at the proper time.  The foundation was supposed to have happened by now, but we’re just in a holding pattern until everything dries out.

WHEN DO YOU PROJECT THE HOUSE BEING FINISHED?

We wanted to be in by Christmas.  The Christmas present was to be the new house, so we’re still hoping for that, but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.  It might or might not happen, but we’d still like to keep Christmas as the date.  I’m just thinking about how long everything will take.  It’s going to be really close to Christmas.   We thought we’d be done with the rain and wouldn’t have this problem, but it’s not happening.