Foundation Follies

So, in the previous post, I told you all about the footings being dug. Of course, on Wednesday, when the inspector came, he made them dig them deeper. Then, after they dug and poured the footings, they realized that the architect actually didn't draw the house square! The right side is drawn 4 inches deeper than the left! Are you kidding me??? Anyway, the "footing guys" and our contractor were able to fix it without any major upheaval! Whew!!

Then we had rain, rain, and more rain. Finally on Friday it was dry enough for the masons to start laying block. Between Friday and yesterday, they got most of the foundation laid. The back of the house is a little higher off the ground than I had wanted; apparently, we have more of a grade than we realized. Unfortunately, we have to work with what we have. If we were to bring in a bunch of dirt to try to level it up, not only would it be super expensive, but it could damage the roots of our beautiful trees that we are working to hard to preserve. So - our back porch may not be ground level, but it will be wonderful anyway.

Last weekend was the shower for our daughter's baby, Girl Tad. J had to be out of town, so I drove to Durham and took my girl for pedicures before the shower. They got a ton of great stuff - blankets, outfits, swing, ExerSaucer, toys! It was a lot of fun!

Here are pictures of the foundation in progress:

Footings and Footies

We have footings! At least, they were dug today. Hopefully, tomorrow's inspection will go well and we will get them poured. Rain off and on the past week or so caused a bit of delay, but it's all good. J & I were both excited to be able to visualize the layout of the first floor after the digging was finished today. If the weather cooperates, things should start to move along now.

It's interesting how time passes during construction. There is the exciting, "can't wait" part when you first get a plan, a contractor, a loan, etc. Then there is sometimes a little lull before you actually see something happening. The foundation tends to go pretty quickly, as does the framing, then things feel like they really slow down. At least, that's been our experience in the past. Things seem to happen in spurts. And this is one MAJOR IMPORTANT spurt! I mean, the foundation is what holds the whole thing up! One of the guys today said that they usually dig and pour footings the same day, but that the digging was just so tough today because of all the rain we've had that they were happy to just get them dug. I'm good with that! As much as I'd like to say, "Hurry, hurry," I am really happy to see people taking their time and doing things right the first time.

So -footings are dug and hopefully poured tomorrow. Next step - laying block. We've also already met with the cabinet maker. He's also going to have a major role since the house has so many built-ins and the kitchen is so important to us. Can't wait to see what he comes up with! He already gave us some great ideas just in our first meeting.

And then there are the footies! Babies are growing, mommies and daddies are doing great, and Nana and Papa J are soooooo very happy! Girl Tad's shower is this weekend (no, she still doesn't have a name, but when she gets one I'm sure it will be perfect, so just be patient!!!). We also saw our son and DIL this weekend when they were in the Triangle for his class reunion. It was great to see both of them; I hate that they're so far away. It's gonna be even worse when Sneetch gets here, but we'll just have to deal. Thank goodness for Skype!