Our Basement Floor

Last Friday we got our basement floor poured. We got a chance that Sunday to stop by and take a look and it was pretty neat. Walking around in what will be our basement was just another great opportunity to get a new perspective on the house. It was especially exciting walking into the area under our front porch as it's the only room that actually has all four of it's walls in place now. It looks bigger than I expected. We met my dad out there so he could take a look at our progress and had Zeda with us as well. It was fun watching the two of them play around and pretty funny listening her tell her Papa about her new house. Unfortunately, the framer our builder uses was working on another house in our neighborhood last week so nothing real noticeable happened this last week. Instead they worked on utility hookups which, while important, isn't very exciting. The plan is to start framing Wednesday. Everybody tells me that framing is the most exciting part of the whole process. We're certainly looking forward to it.

A Little Shopping

Last Friday on the way out for our anniversary trip to Eureka Springs (you can read about that here) we met up with our builder, Jason, to do a little shopping.  We spent the next few hours going around to different spots in Springfield so he could show us places he recommends for getting ideas for our home.  The first stop  was Acme Brick to take a look at our multitude of brick options.  I actually think between the stop at Acme and then some sightseeing we did through some area neighborhoods throughout the weekend we've actually settled on Old Towne for our color.  There's one decision out of the way.

From there we moved on to Mussino Tile to look at some tile options and Herrman Lumber to look at doors, windows, and siding.  Jason reassured us that none of these choices had to be made right now but he wanted to show us some of the options we had for looking once we got some free time.

After a quick stop back by our "temporary housing" (we managed to forget Ezra's pacifier in our rush out the door which is not a good thing when you're heading out of town for the weekend) we swung by Ozark Marble for counter top and bathroom options and then on to Creative Associates.  Creative is a place that I've heard a lot about from people who have been doing remodeling.  It's kind of a catch all warehouse with everything from flooring to fixtures at really good prices.  They even have slot machines.  If it's as good as everyone says it is I'm sure I'll be writing about it more.

All in all it was a very good and very informative trip.  Plus we got to spend a bunch of time with Jason talking over a lot of different things.  It's really exciting and more than a little overwhelming getting to see all the decisions we have to make over the next five months.  Hopefully we can get the majority made way ahead of time and not elevate the anxiety level any more than necessary.

A Firm Foundation

A couple of days after breaking ground we got footings poured.  Those got to sit over the weekend and shortly afterwards the foundation was poured as well.  I'd say that this is the first point where the transition from "this seems really small" to "this seems way too big" occurred.  Unfortunately the foundation ended up needing to be higher on the back side of the house than we expected so even from the back the foundation wall seems tall.  We're still trying to figure out the best option for handling the basement backdoor, but the good thing is we do have options.  Since the foundation there have been a lot of less noticeable things including waterproofing, brick ledge, and fill.  Lots and lots of fill.  The same thing that makes our lot perfect for a walkout basement also means we have needed a lot of fill.  Fortunately our builder, Jason, has been able to get a hold of the fill basically for free.  Every little bit helps when you're on a budget.

The Difference a Week Makes

It has been a busy last couple of weeks.  About three weeks ago, on June 26, we finally broke ground on the house.  It was a very exciting day and that alone would have been big enough news.  However, that evening we had someone stop by to take a second look at our house and by the time the showing was over we had an offer for a lease to own with the cash down payment already in our hands.  Add onto all this excitement is the fact that the couple buying the house wanted in ASAP and it left us with about a week and a half to move completely out of our house and into Becca's sister's basement.  Needless to say it's been a whirlwind.  In fact, tonight, nearly three weeks later is the first night I've been able to get the computer hooked up to the internet so I could sit down and write this entry.  A lot more has happened to the house since then including footings, foundation, and fill but I hope to come back this week and write a few more entries on each of those phases.  In the mean time, here are some pictures of the footings that were poured after the ground breaking.  I'm very happy to say that the house looks completely different than this today so stay tuned for more.