August Adventures

We moved Acey to our building site on Monday, July 31. It was a real time-saver for us to be parked at the site of our future home!

Eve’s birthday was August 1; we met for a family dinner in Springfield.

Block for the foundation had been laid in July, and Jim wanted to paint Drylock to waterproof the inside of the block while the “crawl space” was open and easy to work on. There had been a LOT of rain, so that made the job difficult — he had to wait for the water to dry up and then remove the mud on the footings.

On the 9^th, our church hosted a special concert by the Music City Brass Ensemble – they were scheduled to play last December, but an ice storm caused a cancellation. They played Christmas music in August! There does not seem to be a video of this concert, but here’s a link to the concert they performed in December 2021.

We bought a rain gage and it showed we received 2” of rain in a week

The puddle in our “front yard” we named Tadpole Lake – 100’s of tadpoles!!

On Saturday the 12th, we enjoyed a day at the lake with our Sunday School class! We had not been to Tim’s Ford Lake before, and it was a wonderful day to be with our friends and families! We went for a boat ride on the lake.

We saw the dam in the distance.

And we passed by Pennington Cave

The kids (of all ages!) enjoyed playing around the dock.

What a fun day it was – thanks Bill & Debbie! 🙂

Well after the rain finally stopped and the water had drained from the footings, Jim was able to work in the crawl space.

We got a picnic table that has come in handy as a shady spot and for an outdoor office/meeting place!

Groups of wild turkeys cross our property every day!

The first delivery of our lumber package came on Monday morning, August 21

Our framer came to look over the foundation. He pointed out that we were missing 3 rows of piers in the foundation! We had used the wrong drawing…This is the drawing from our architect/designer, which indicates “I-Joists  – size and spacing by others”

We have a bit of a learning curve being our own contractor – but, thankfully, our framer is very thorough! This is the engineered drawing “by others” that we should have used ☹

But praise God! We got a referral from the guy that did our footings, and on Tuesday, work was done to put in the missing pieces! They had to take out part of a wall and some of the existing footings to bring in the excavator, dug more footings, and filled them with concrete.

After lunch, they built the additional block piers. The new work is where the darker grey concrete is.

Thursday was another day with record heat, and lots of activity! More site work for the detached garage was done.

Meanwhile, framing began on the house! The piers support the laminated beams which support the floor joists.

Some drone shots of the building site

By noon on Saturday, the floor was complete, except for the area where the “zero entry shower” will go in the Master Bath.

Sunday, as usual, we went to Stephens Valley Church. Our Sunday School class finished the book of Isaiah, and Pastor Jim continued his series in Philippians. We had lunch afterwards with a big group of friends!

Monday the 28^th, the walls started to go up!

On Tuesday they started putting “siding” up.

By Thursday – after one week of framing, the house is really taking shape!

We have seen lots of progress in August; framing should be complete in a week or two. Stay tuned for another update for September!