One week in!

This is what I call progress! After months of meetings, approvals and permits, we've come leaps and bounds in only a week! This is a picture my brother in law took about an hour ago of the cement truck pumping the concrete to pour our foundation. One short week ago they were just breaking ground. Less than a week ago we were getting footings poured. Then it was a bit of a waiting game to get the foundation forms put up. Apparently the crew that was scheduled to install the forms got busted drinking on another job and got fired. A bit of a set back, yes, but thank goodness they got caught before they came to the old Tabbal house!

It's so exciting to see our home being built bit by bit! I've always known that one day I would build a house in Herriman on the family ground, but to actually see it happening and to have such a wonderful husband by my side makes it so much different. And I haven't missed the symbolism of Travis and I watching our home being built as we continue to build our lives together. Such a lovely metaphor. I just hope that in the end, both the house and our lives are everything we've hoped they would be. So far so good, though, right?

On a more wistful note, Travis and I drove by our old house in Salt Lake Saturday night. It was dark and somewhat hard to see, but all in all everything looked pretty much the same. The Albanians seem to be keeping up on the yard and taking really good care of our first home. It did make me somewhat sad, I'll admit, but seeing the potted plants that Mrs. Albanian put on the front porch and the care being given to the old place made me feel so happy that our house was being loved as much as we loved it. Now I can breathe easier as we watch our new home come to life.

A "hole" lotta shakin' goin' on!

On the way home from work on Friday I drove past the house (well, big empty field, really, but you get the picture) to find a backhoe parked, bucket poised, ready to dig the first scoop and begin our home. Yeah, I'm not going to lie, I took pictures. After 4 gruelling months, seeing ANY progress was exciting. Monday morning, though, the backhoe broke down before the first bucketful, but, luckily (for them), they got another one in and dug our pretty little hole. Tuesday the footings went in and it's only a matter of time before the foundation is poured.


So on Monday, August 7th the construction on our home officially began! We now own a big gaping hole in a field! I never thought I'd ever be so excited about something like that, but there you have it. I've taken anyone willing to be dragged over there and exclaimed proudly "yep...that's my hole!" Sounds dirty, I know, but I promise it's not. Well, there is a lot of dirt but...

Now we're looking (VERY optimistically) at moving into our new home around Christmas time. On one hand I think that having our new house be a Christmas present to us would be AWESOME, but then again, moving at during all the hussle and the bussle of Christmas can't be very fun. Of course, when is moving EVER fun, right? That's provided nothing at all goes wrong, which would suck. But even if it does, it's going wrong while we can SEE something happening. That I can live with.

Four Months And Nary a Hole Was Dug

Well, we're getting ready to enter month four of the Great Building Project and I am still the proud owner of an empty field. No hole in the ground. No foundation poured. No busy sound of saws sawing and hammers hammering. What we DO have is a whole lot of run around from the city. I think that between my builder (who is a lovely man, but definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed) and the city engineer (who seems to be a lazy forgetful moron), we're barely getting to the phase of the project where we're having final meetings and picking up building permits. The big plan is to dig on Monday, but we'll see. They did, however, go out and stake off where on the lot the digging guys need to dig, so we were happy to see SOMETHING being done.

On a happier note, Travis got a new job! WOO HOO!!! He's doing more software development, but it's totally different from Dentrix, so he's excited to be challenged again. He's working as a contractor and we're hoping that the company will do well, become a full fledged company with benefits and everything and he can become a real employee. But until then, we'll just sock away the extra money and keep our eyes out for other jobs, just in case.

And they're off!!!!

After months, nay even years (okay, just the two), of looking, hoping, postponing and planning, Travis and I are FINALLY starting to build our house!! Last night we signed the paperwork with our builder that allows him to begin the 6 month (at least we hope) process of building our first and last home together!! Here is the house we have settled on:

http://www.hearthstonedesign.net/details.php?id=301

If you click on "view additional photos" button, you will see an actual house that was built from these plans.

I must say, however, I am going to be greatly saddened to leave our current home behind. When I first met Trav, the house was SUCH the bachelor pad. Only a few meager pieces of real furniture were in there: the kitchen set, the recliner, the bed, and the pool table. While it still has a long way to go, our little house has now become a home, fully landscaped and everything. It was hard to get Trav to budge on changing things, but once I had him convinced, we worked very hard to get it in the shape it's in (though I never did get so far as to talk him into the red pool room and the art work never was decided upon). While it is a starter home and I know it's ready for another burgeoning family to take it the next leg of the journey, it's become very dear to my heart. So much so that when our builder suggested that the new owners could tear out the sod, my flower bed and yes, friends, even dear Harry, our little Globe Willow and put in a big ugly RV pad, I about swallowed my tongue. I may have to consider bringing he and the other trees along to our new house. The man's lucky he didn't imply that the new guy should tear out my rose bushes, or it would have come to blows.

None the less, I am VERY excited to start our new house. We've really fallen in love with the floorplan and have spent several weekends wandering around a house being built that's the same as ours will be, minus the huge bathroom we're adding to the master suite. Though I still reserve the right to drive past our little house, see my trees and bushes growing up big and tall, and shed a tear.