Bony

This past week has been a very long one for us. There has been lots of scrambling to get things done and craziness and stress all around (how was I supposed to know that my family's visit was going to end up coinciding with the beginning of building proper???). Suffice it to say, my honey and I are a bit worn thin at this point. Just to add a little interest to our lives, all three of the boys are going through what can only be described as difficult phases. Which is no doubt a reaction to our own stress levels rising....so things are a little, shall we say, intense.

Thursday we broke ground.... and hit....rock. Remember how I mentioned us having a lot of rock?? Decidedly not kidding...

Bend with the knees Steve! With the knees!

seriously.

not.

kidding.

The word for the weekend was bony. As in "this here is some bony land..."

The "earth movin' guy" (phrase coined and copywrited by B the Builder) said he'd never worked a site with so much stone. He told Steve that if he had known it was going to be that bad, he would have brought the big excavator....

Uhm, the big one?!?

Friday was more excavation work. They dumped all of the extra dirt into a little gully beside the house. Once it was all smoothed out, we ended up with a little side yard, in what was before an unusable area, which was pleasant and unexpected. I have plans to plant clover there. Once we clear out all of the rocks anyway...

Saturday brought the cement truck. The cement had to be hauled back to the piers via wheel-barrow. Steve and B the Builder got quite the workout.

::Before::

::After the trees had been cleared (note that we are adding on to the one side of the building that we actually managed to finish siding! *sigh*)::

::After excavation::

After the truck left we sent Steve to get some food while B the Builder and I set the anchors and smoothed the cement.

Sunday was spend digging all around the Sono Tubes by hand. As it turns out they had been back filled too high and it would be impossible to get to once building begins, so out came the shovels. And of course there were plenty more rocks to move.

In the afternoon the building inspector stopped by. All is well as far as he's concerned. He told us that we have a really nice spot here, "but boy do you ever have some bony land!" ahem.

Monday was lots of phone calls and a design meeting with B the Builder.

Today we received a delivery of lumber. Steve found us a couple of great windows at our salvage center and if all goes as planned, building will begin in earnest tomorrow morning!