Phase 1- Site & Foundation beginings

So we signed our closing documents last Friday with First Colebrook Bank.  First thing Saturday morning we began :) 

Site work: Oct. 30. 2010

Around 8:30 am sat morning.....topsoil being pushed off the top into stockpiles

Jared in the excavator stockpiling topsoil from site.

more topsoil.....

and more......

C had to be tied up.....he was running in front of the dozer :)

AND MORE!  turns out we had roughly 12-15 inches of topsoil!  Must have been good farming land~

Breaking Ground!!  That is the start of a cellar hole :)

J coming to check out the cellar hole....

more cellar hole digging!

J's grandfather (also known as Papa) supervising :)

Its getting there!

We had many helping hands, we are so grateful for all of the family & friends who are helping!

J checking grade!

so the left side of the foundation will be a walk-out.....that's why they are only leaving 3 sides up!

A LOT accomplished in just the first day!!!!!

Almost Home :)

Site work & Forming up the Foundation Footings: Oct. 31 2010

Today's wonderful help included; Jared, J, Pixie (J's dad), Papa, Uncle David (conc. guru), Curtis (J's younger brother & me!

J's dad getting ready to set up the concrete footing forms. (the footings are the very bottom of the foundation.  Our foundation walls will sit centered on the footing, and the slab will rest up against the wall and the top of the footing).

C and I :)

Ok-  so in order to have a walkout, the concrete on that side of the house has to be below frost line.  So where the forms drop down into the hole is called the frost wall.  If you think about it, your concrete wall is below frost line on the other three sides, so we have to make sure that the concrete on the walk out is below frost line as well.....

Beautiful day!

Hard at work!

roughing in the septic system!

End of day two: complete forms all set and ready for concrete on day three!  Great start!



Untouched Land

I'm going to take a stab at this blogging thing......although i would rather write in a journal, it seems convenient and easier in these crazy times to just sit down and type.  So please be patient with me as i try to document our home being built!  I have felt like so many exciting and wonderful things are happening and that i needed to start writing them down....so here goes nothing! 

While writing this blog i will be referring to myself as B and Jason as J.  We can't forget about Charlie, he will be C :) 

A little background on the land :)  J's grandfather gave us last winter a 3.5 acre piece of Land.  It is set in a beautiful spot.  About 1.5 acres was a field that we suppose was using for agriculture and farming.  The remainder of it is forest.  We can only see one house from our land, so although we are minutes away from store and businesses, we still feel like we are in the country.  We have a gorgeous field that is our view across the road, which we have seen wildlife, such as deer and turkey thus far!  I'm sure we will see much more when we live there!  We plan will be building our home on the highest point of the field.  We have a stone wall that separates our land from the abutter. which is lined with maple trees.  We plan to do a split-rail fence along the front of the land in the future.  We also have a picture perfect stream that separates the field from the woods.  I'm sure it won't be so picture perfect once we have a constantly wet dog :)  but that's OK! 

So anyways, i am rambling on here......we were given the land last December.  J put the original site plan in my Christmas card, and i opened it on Christmas day...totally overwhelmed and shocked!!!!  I couldn't believe it, we were actually going to be able to build our house!!!  For those who don't know me, i have loved designing houses since i was about 9.  No Joke.  I have always dreamt of designing and building my home someday, and i can't believe that all of my dreams are coming true.  I am truly blessed. 

All last winter we went through the sub-division process, which took quite some time.  We also spent many cold winter days cutting brush and lugging trees.  We had designed a beautiful Georgian dream home last winter, it had everything we wanted, but we soon realized that it would be too big and too costly for our future.  We wanted something simple and homey (if that's a word).  We also realized that we didn't want to spend all of our money on a monthly mortgage payment, and have no money left over to do other things.  So we redesigned a new home, more of a ranch style, that would be cost efficient and cozy.  We were not in love with our new design, but we knew we had to go smaller.  One night i was browsing the Internet and came upon some log home plans.  I have always loved log homes, but never thought they would be cost effective.  Well, turns out they are!!!! 

J and I found Coventry Log Homes up in Woodsville, NH (highly recommended :)).  We went up with J's dad and step mom one Saturday, took a tour of the model we liked, and new right then and there that it was what we wanted and would be perfect for us.  After working with First Colebrook Bank (awesome by the way!) we signed our closing documents on 10-29-2010!!!!! 

http://www.coventryloghomes.com/

Our log home is Coventry's "clearwater" model.  It is a cape with a farmers porch on the front.  It is absolutely perfect and we are so lucky to be able to build this beautiful home. 



This is the clearwater model :)

After signing our closing documents on Friday, J and his best bud, Jared began digging on 10/30/2010. 

So after all of my rambling on, here are some pictures of our land prior to construction!!!!

Charlie exploring...... beautiful winter day :)

This will be our view out of our living room window!

Snow-covered wall, brush & maple trees

J clearing the land

B clearing the land last winter!

Love this man

C and J scoping out what needs to be done!

 Charlie is standing right where J proposed to me last May :)

J mowing our "front lawn" :)

Our beautiful stone wall is hidden on the right, but you can see the field across the road!

The start of our driveway a few weeks ago!

Well hopefully I'll get time tomorrow to begin adding our construction pictures!  Stay tuned to watch our home being built from ground up :)