We got this drone for Christmas last year (meaning, 2020!), and failed to learn to use it. However, seeing our house going up means we want to see it from all angles, so we finally got it out of the box and up in the air. The best video I got was still very shaky so we’ll have to practice more before I upload anything. However, I did get a cool shot of the build site from the air!

Friday was cold, windy, and we woke to snow, but the builders still got right to work on the house on Brown Hill Road! From our trail cams, it looked like some vehicles either struggled with or didn’t want to risk the snow on the driveway, so a delivery guy made several trips up and down with a forklift! We now have deck posts and boards on site! They put in stairs to the basement, and several main level walls are standing. We didn’t spend much time out there because it was so cold and getting dark fast, so here are the few pictures I managed to take (captions added to show what walls are in what rooms):

Wednesday was too cold to work, but the crew was out there today. Floor boards between the basement and main level were installed, and boards laid out for some of the outer walls. All of the basement walls are installed too. It looks like they tried digging some of the holes for the deck posts, but apparently the ground is too frozen. Still, very cool to see more progress!

24 hours later, and already we can walk into rooms in our basement, and see how the stairs will enter/exit that level! Floor joists are installed as well — will we see main level walls going up by this evening? So exciting!!! This is what we have been waiting for: seeing our dreams turn into reality!!!

It has been weeks of inactivity on the property, but we expected that. Trusses weren’t going to arrive until mid-January, so there was no need to be out there. However, last week our electric panel was installed and then electric was turned on. Then, this week, a delivery of lumber arrived on the top of the hill, and the next day Darren drove out and found a stack of trusses left at the bottom! They even left a machine to haul them up the driveway. Hopefully we’ll see framers out there soon!

The builder was hard at work the past 10 days or so finishing all the steps needed to get the foundation inspected. First was filling the garage and porch with gravel and compacting that so it would be ready for cement:

Next, the plumbers arrived to put in drainage in the basement and garage:

Finally, the cement trucks made return trips up our driveway to pour the garage and basement floors! These need to cure for a bit of time so we’ll get a break for a bit. Trusses are due mid-January so we’ll likely see framers out there about then.

In the meantime, we do have some clean up needed from a recent storm. No tornadoes, but this walnut just couldn’t hold on to the cliff any longer and took out 4 other trees on its way down! The county road crew had cut a path for cars by the time we got there, but we cleared the rest of the road and will have to drag these logs and debris away — firewood!

2 1/2 months of back and forth, but we finally sat down with a title company to sign the construction loan paperwork for our house on Brown Hill Road. WOW! I thought mortgages had a lot of paperwork — construction loans have even more! But we are officially signed and stamped and MAC Construction gets their first draw! Hats off to MAC for all they have done prior to us getting to this point — speaks volumes to the type of people they are.

We celebrated a tiny bit on the house site, had to dribble some champagne in the dirt and toast to going so far in debt!!! The builder told us that work is continuing, as we discovered when we found a huge pile of gravel on site waiting to be used. Basement plumbing, drains and flooring will be next, as well as backfilling inside the garage and getting a floor in there. And then they will backfill around the house, bringing the dirt up to the walls to whatever will be our new grade. Getting the house site ready was exhausting, but so rewarding. But it’s even more fun to watch these walls literally rise out of the ground!

Oh, and as we walked around, we found this left by one of the cement wall crew — I’m taking it as a sign of good intentions and hopefully good luck!

It took about a week but the cement crew built forms and poured concrete to make the walls for the basement and garage! We counted 5 cement trucks that went up the driveway all in one day, and then after drying overnight, the crew was able to knock off the forms and haul them away. We finally can see the form our house will take!

What a week! The excavators were hard at it all week — the house is completely dug, they dug the footers, they put in forms for cement, and poured cement. Then came back after to do drainage and gravel. It seems like things are moving fast, but there’s a long way to go! Here’s some pictures from the few days we went out there. House fully dug; footers partially dug:

Cement going in (and look at the size of the trucks that are using our driveway!):

Footers done, gravel and drainage done: