Two steps forward, one step back

The first floor decking is done. There are 4 walls amd you can see where the windows and doors will be. It is beginning to look like a house. We have a few good things like the walls are up and they look good. We will not be having a masonary chimney. Not enough footer for it. We have about 10 inches and needed at least 12. So, back to the original plan. The basment plumbing is done and inspected. Now the basement floor can be poured. This is to be completed today, I understand. The last of the supplies are being delivered tomorrow morning. Between 7 and 11 AM. It is my day off and the old guy is working. Guess who gets to be there... Yup, me. I will be fine. More time to knit or stitch or read. Down side, no bathroom. Then there were a couple of oopsies. The plumber got stuck in the septic system. He was looking in the wrong rear view mirror? and talking on his phone and backed right in. Ooopsie. At least we know that AAA can get up the hill. Then there was the person in the construction crew that backed the big piece of equipment into the garage wall. Poundage wins. The wall came down. Again, oopsie. AAA was not able to help here. The blocklayers will be coming back a little sooner than originally planned. Things are moving along pretty quickly. Much faster than I anticipated. I am beginning to wonder if Christmas in the new house might, maybe, be possible. We will see, now, won't we?

Finally, really this time.

It has been awhile. It seemed that all I was doing was whining. I will try to stop that. We have, really, finally begun. We have a hole, filled with block and waiting on the plumbing to be done wo the floors can be poured. We have a small pond, soon to be twice as big, as it is really pretty small. The old guy was talking about a dock. The boy laughed out loud. He intimated that a dock of any respectable size would span the pond. Most people agree, as do I. Apparently public opinion wins. It will be bigger. Then he can consider a dock. He really wants a dock. I, on the other hand, want a zip line, fish and wood duck nesting posts. We will see. We have lumber and logs. Yes, they came. On a big ole truck, up the still nasty but much better driveway. Dave, the builder, is busily setting the deck and microlam and waiting on further info regarding the chimney. The mason has indicated he can build and face a masonary chimney for about what we have budgeted for a nonmasonary one. Ths pleases all the men as it seems it is far superior when it comes to functionality and saftey. This change will require another approval from the county building commission royalty. We will need to get a drawing and then have an opportunity to hold court with them for possible approval. If not given, we are back to the original drawings and the nonmasonary chimney. Again, time will tell here. We went and looked at bricks and stone for the chimney. Apparently, I have expensive taste. I like the hand made bricks versus the machine made ones and managed to pick out one of the most expensive of the lovely stones they have on site. There was also a charming brick firepit type structure outside the building. Very nice. The old guy wants one. I think it would look fine outide the walkout lower level. Or by the pond. With a bench or two. Next to the dock. According to my niece, Julie, many more exciting shopping forays are in my future. She and my sister-in-law, Debbie, can hardly wait. Lighting, bathroom stuff, flooring, wall covering, carpeting, countertops, to say nothing about bath linens, leather furniture and heaven knows what else. The list seemss endless. They are incredibly excited about this. I wish they lived closer. In the meantime, if it gets to where nothing more can be done until approval is received, Dave will begin working on the garage. This is a stick built ediface and has no chimney. If it takes too long, the garage may be complete. Which might require a garage warming party, or something like that. It will probably involve the barrel of Jack Daniels that Paula is considering purchasing at Sam's Club. It is apprently a steal at a mere $8,000. I hope it is enough to get through the weekend.