Progress is good! When I went to the building site after dropping Sydney off at preschool (she didn't cry today!), there was not a lot done, but tonight is a different story! WOW! They will hopefully pour the cement at noon tomorrow. I am tired or else I would write more. We have a rummage sale, Sydney's birthday party, my parents are working at the Washington Craft Fair for me, and all of this other stuff going on. I am going to relieved when we make it through September. I remember a September about 4 years ago that I was relieved to get through too! Have a good week!

A couple of shots from this morning...

And now tonight and the great progress they have made...

Our front porch...someday soon!

An overview

Mark is standing in our garage.

Concrete footings are in...

Another productive day! YEAH! Webb Concrete set the molds for the footings this morning, they were inspected, and poured today. Again, I need to borrow some boys because these 2 chicks were NOT impressed!

We had a fun surprise this afternoon. Betty Hummel and her family stopped by. Betty was an Anton and was raised in the house that was on the farm. I believe the house was torn down in the '70s and the electrical posts were ripped out in the '80s. She was thrilled to pieces that we were building up there and told me some of the things she would do as a child. It was so neat to see her and to know the history. Her dad was Clyde...everyone still calls the land "Clyde's," so she was excited to know that. She has some pictures of the old home that we are excited to get our hands on. Her sister, Nona, is 90 years old and Betty was excited to go back and share pictures with her. Her nephew will be in town in a couple of weeks from California, so she was planning to bring him back to see our progress.

It is so interesting to me to know the history and to meet people who lived there. Very interesting day! Here are some more pictures of today's happenings.

Let the Digging Begin...

Now it is all becoming a reality! They skimmed off the black dirt on Monday to level things out, then the digging began yesterday afternoon. We wanted to run tile out of the front of the house to make sure things stay good and dry, but they ran into rock, so we went with Plan B. Plan B is just to do without and rely on a sump pump. Then after digging for a couple of hours, the guys pointed out that the dirt/clay/rock they were pulling back was VERY dry so we should not worry about water in the basement. Our worries were calmed then.

My dad I and watched them dig for about 3 hours! Dave and Theresa stuck around and the Anton cousins, Carson, Megan, and Ellie showed up with Lisa. Carson wants to be an excavator when he grows up...me too! Since there was incident with the rock in the tile line I was pretty nervous every time one of them would get out of their equipment. I think they got a little irritated with me asking if everything was okay. If they did hit rock, then it would just be an added expense. We are not ready for added expenses at this point...we still have a long way to go!

I got the keys to the rental. It is a little bigger than I remembered, but that is not saying much. We are taking clothes, toys, and beds. That is it! No frills for a few months. Maybe a small Christmas tree...for the girls. Sydney stayed with my parents in the motorhome the past 2 nights and Emily stayed there last night. It is grandparent overload for both of them since my parents are parked at Mark's parents' house. Here are some more digging pictures...

It is the first day of September! Sydney will be 4 before we know it! Last night we went out to meet Scott Webb, the concrete guy, so we could stake out the house. Another step closer! We are pretty happy with the placement. It makes a difference when all of the trees and weeds are torn out and you can really get a feel for the lay of the land.

Larry stopped by and told us that there used to be a road through what would be our front yard that was for stagecoaches. Very interesting!

We will have a good crowd to watch the digging...my parents, Mark's parents, and Carson, Megan, Ellie, and Lisa are going to stop by today. We are so excited to see it all come together. They will put the footings in tomorrow, then the concrete guy goes on vacation, so we will be back on Tuesday for the walls.

We get out 896 sq. ft. rental today! How fun is that going to be? We are storing our things at the farm and are so lucky that we do not have to worry about a storage shed that floods or draws vermin! I will post some more pictures today, hopefully, of their progress.