•  2003-11-22 - They've been quite busy this week!  The masons finished up their work, leaving us about 210 extra bricks.  The driveway was laid, and the siding was begun.  The well has been drilled (the truck was still there).  I walked through the house and took pictures in most of the rooms.  The septic field was filled in and the backyard was graded.

•  2003-11-17 - We were a bit frustrated at having to wait for bricks, so I went over to the house to look around.  They had just dropped off a pallet with a couple of cubes of bricks--more than sufficient to finish off the house.  Now, we just have to figure out how to make sure we don't get charged more than we should.  Just for insurance, I took pictures of the piles of broken bricks on the ground.  It was unfortunate, but we also had some extremely high winds (over 70 mph), and some of our roof shingles tore off.  I got pictures of the damage.   If they'd laid the shingles a few weeks earlier when it was 90 degrees out ever day, we would have been in much better shape.  The garage doors were up.  I tested them, and they work like a dream.  They're heavy-duty wood insulated doors.

•  2003-11-10 - What a surprise today!  Five masons and one laborer out.  It's about 38 degrees outside, so it's a bit chilly.  Should hit the mid-40s by the afternoon.  However, the foreman said that he thinks we're going to run out of bricks and will need to order more.  I was thinking to myself, "Each brick is $.50 and there are about 200 laying on the ground in pieces.  Maybe if someone wasn't so clumsy with them..." We're praying that they'll find a way to stretch the bricks and that there will be enough.  Having to order more will come out of our pockets and will set us back 1-2 weeks on the exterior.  I went inside the house and saw my two drywallers walking around on stilts doing the finish work on the joints and screw holes.  I told them it was looking great.  Outside, I was surprised to see garage doors being measured and hung today.  It's coming!  It's coming!

•  2003-11-09 - The masons were here today and finished bricking the garage and the dining room (directly behind the cement mixer).  It's looking good.  The drywallers should be back tomorrow for the finish mud.

•  2003-11-06 - After trying to make it to the house last night, we finally showed up today, and what great things we saw!  Garage mostly bricked, and then 20-30 more courses of brick up the house.  Inside, we met the drywallers, who were taping and mudding the joints.  You have to see the stilts one of them wears--he even goes up and down stairs with them on!  The first coat of mud was all up, and they were going to be back in the morning to start the next layer.  Also, the septic system was installed and awaiting inspection.  I promised them donuts and orange juice tomorrow morning, so I'll get to see the masons at work, too.

•  2003-11-04 - When we got there tonight, it was pretty dark, but we could still see evidence of work.  The masons had run about four courses of bricks (courses, 5b are rows to the layperson).  The crew had installed drywall in the garage on both the firewall and ceiling.  Scraps abounded in the garage, which led me to believe that there was a lot more drywall done inside the house.  We couldn't see anything (and neither of us had the foresight to bring flashlights), so we'll have to wait yet ANOTHER day.  Or, I'll just go over in the morning and get some good pictures.

•  2003-10-28 - Today I went to look around.  There are 14 cubes of bricks still sitting on the ground (a little over 7300 bricks), and none of the drywall has been touched.  It's been pretty wet outside for masons; hopefully they'll be able to get started soon.  I went downstairs and noticed that the furnace is in, ductwork has been run in the basement, and there is a single pull-cord light installed.  We have electrical service.  Yeah!

•  2003-10-24 - We showed up to the site today and looked around.  In the house, the contractors had delivered the drywall sheets, neatly counted out and stacked in each room, drywall mud and supplies.  Outside, the contractors had dropped off about 14 of cubes of bricks, the sand and mortar supplies. 

•  2003-10-08 - The newest pictures, show what the roofers have done (laid the shingles for the whole house and the roof vents) and also show the handiwork of Steve and Vic, the plumbers.  The electricians were out to lunch when I stopped by to take the pictures on 10/8, but I was able to see a great amount of progress all over the house.  The estimated date of completion was moved from 3/15/04 to 1/20/04.  Yeah!

•  2003-10-05 - Most of the roofing is done.

•  2003-09-26 - The builders framed the entire second floor, laid the roof sheathing, and installed all of the windows (except the main entryway window) by the time we got these pictures taken on September 26th, 2003.

•  2003-09-20 - Framers finished the first floor and the garage, and put the floor for the second floor in.

•  2003-09-18 - This morning when I showed up, I was amazed to see people actually working on our house.  I dropped off donuts and orange juice, though the framers were thinking more along the lines of Michelob light.

•  2003-09-13 - The floor is in!  The joists were all lowered into place and the framers put in the first floor and cut a hole to the basement.

•  2003-09-09 - The contractors backfilled everything and graded our future yard.  They also dropped off the first batch of construction materials.

•  2003-09-07 - We showed up today and the walls were all poured.  It's finally getting somewhere.

•  2003-08-22 - They poured the forms for our basement walls and garage.

•  2003-08-19 - A hole!  A hole!  We own a gaping hole in the ground!

•  2003-08-10 - Still slow going.  They put stakes in the ground, outlining where they're going to dig.

•  2003-08-02 - This is the first set of pictures we took of our new land.  We closed on the mortgage on June 10, 2003.