Moving in, and moving on.

So i'm a bit behind with these posts. It's been a very busy month,

Home.  We are home.

The first week of Dec, the contractor got an occupancy permit that allowed us to move in before the house was  completely finished. We didn't actually move anything into the house. We just bought mattresses to sleep on and only spent the nights in the house. During the day we stayed in the camper until the construction crew was done working, usually around 6 pm.  We spent about a week living like this back and forth between the house and camper. It was a bit of a difficult transition, as it rained the entire week and the yard was a complete mud pit. It was always dark when the construction crew left and we had to try and remember to gather up school clothes, food and everything we needed so we didn't have to go back and forth in the dark.  We didn't have furniture or blinds on any of the windows, so we all hung out in the back bedroom. So for that first week we had kind of been living in our new home.

It's a strange feeling being here. Ever since the fire, my only goal has just been to get back home. Moving into the RV on our property helped a ton. Especially during the summer when i could be outside all day.  Once the cold weather hit, and i found myself stuck inside all the time, i began to feel lost again. The space was too small to pull out the crafts that typically keep me sane during the winter months. i was watching the house being built, literally right outside the door and i was ready to come home.  i didn't really know what that meant, i just knew the feeling.

So here we are, in this new house. It is becoming more familiar, but is still very new and very empty. At times it feels like we are back in the rental house, because of the room sizes and all the drywall. It's a strange deja vu feeling.  We only moved across the yard, but emotionally it still takes a huge amount of adjustment. That camper has been our home for the last 6-7 months.  But here we are, again trying to find home.  Our old house had very little drywall, it was almost entirely wood.  i wanted the wood paneling in the front room for this reason. It is the only wall in the house that isn't drywall, but it brings a little familiarity of my old house to this strange place.

This weekend, Kenan and his shopmate moved all the furniture and boxes from the glass shop. Right now we have a mismatch of furniture that was given to us, and boxes and boxes of clothing that were donated those first days and put into storage. It will be a long process of going through them all and sorting them out. i did this those first days after the fire, pulling out only what was immediately needed and putting the rest back into boxes, and sent back to Kenan's shop.  i am not looking forward to doing it again, almost one year later.  The kids have grown so much that most clothing items can just be donated back to the goodwill.

The kids are happy to be here. They are very much enjoying their new rooms and creating their space. This is the first time Sage has had her very own room.  She still sneaks into our bed each morning. :) 

i'm adding the little details that help make this place feel like home to me.  We started by decorating the windows with rainbow stars and snowflakes. We made lots of snowflakes, and hung them in the windows and from the wood trim across the kitchen ceiling. i brought in baskets of pine cones, and the stain glass dragonfly and butterfly (that were in the camper) to hang in my kitchen window.  

We are still moving things over, and slowly unpacking. Creating our spaces, and creating new memories.  We are getting there, each day a little closer. A little closer to home...closer to that feeling of home. 

                                    

When you finally go back to your old home, you find it wasn't the old home you missed but your childhood. 

Sam Ewing

Almost There.

 We are getting very close to being able to move into the new house. When we started the project the contractor said he could have us in by Thanksgiving. The house units actually arrived ahead of schedule, and had us optimistic that we might be in even sooner than that.

The camper has been working fine for us, up until the temps dropped below freezing. We've had an crazy cold Nov. with temps dropping down into the teens at night.  The camper is heated with a propane furnace, and we have an electric space heater. We do not run the propane furnace at night, but have plenty of blankets to keep us warm.  However, any time the temperature dips below freezing, our water pipes freeze, then burst. So that's been a challenge. Without water the camper toilet doesn't function, and well...yeah.

So as you can imagine, we are getting increasingly eager to move into the house. The exterior of the house is finished, but the inside still has a lot of work that needs to be finished.  Thanksgiving is coming up quick, and we were told last week that there is no way we'll be in by Thanksgiving.  So we are trying to prepare for another 2-3 weeks in the camper. The weather is supposed to be cold, and it's going to get crappy this week. i admit my patience is beginning to run thin.  Everything about this year has been challenging, and although we have gotten through and we make it work that doesn't mean it's easy. The colder it gets outside, the more brittle i feel inside. It's as if i am very close to cracking.

It's a strange feeling to see this house sitting where our old house was. It looks too big, too nice, too new and out of place. It is beautiful- that's what everyone keeps telling me. At yet, it seems so...plain, so square, so ordinary.  i've even had folks tell me how lucky i am to get to build such a beautiful house. When i think of all that i lost in order to get this beautiful house, i fail to see luck playing any part in it. Whether well meaning, or said with a hint of envy i'm not sure, but i do know that those comments sting a little. 

Our old house, was like a patchwork of pieces all put together. It had started as an old hunting cabin, and then rooms had been added on over and over until it was a mess of opposing roof lines, and a complete lack of symmetry. It had character, and carried with it hints about the folks who had lived here before us.  The living room wall was still sided in the wood siding from the original hunting cabin. The loft had rough handmade steps that didn't follow any of the safety codes required today. The kitchen had a decorative wooden post with the face of an old man carved in it, and thick grape vines wrapped around it from the floor to the ceiling. There was also a weathered barn wood beam across the ceiling where i would hang herbs to dry.  We had a wooden frame where we wrote the date and height of the kids through the years. The new house is new and shiny...and empty.  

It's getting close though. A few more weeks and we should be able to move in. Even though it is just across the yard, the thought of moving again terrifies me.  The camper has been our home for 6 months.  We've been in 4 'temporary' homes since the house fire. Each time we left one we were overwhelmed by a mixture of emotion. Excitement, sadness, uncertainty and a sense of loss.  Although we were excited to move back to our property, saying goodbye to the rental house and our kind neighbors there was still very hard.  Transitioning from the camper to the new house will bring similar feelings. More change, more adjusting and even a bit of sadness. For 6 months this camper has been our home, so walking away from it isn't going to be easy...no matter how 'beautiful' the new house may be. 

We've been hoping to be in the new house by Thanksgiving, but there is no way that we will. There were no workers here on Thursday or Friday, and next week i believe they have off for the holiday.  So we are in the camper a few more weeks at least.  Our thanksgiving meal will be simple, but we will be here all together. a constant reminder of how lucky we truly are. 

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.  ~Anatole France

House Construction- week ?

i've lost track of what week we are on with the construction. The crew has been here but working on the inside, so there has been very little to document with photos. They've been getting the electrical and plumbing set up, and building the floor to the loft upstairs.

Two weeks ago, the stone mason arrived and began putting the stone on the chimney.  The reason they began at the top, instead of at the bottom is because they didn't have enough of the stone. i'm not sure why, but they've had to order more.  They knew the roofers were coming this last week to work on the roof and the stonework needed to be on the chimney, before they could do the roofing. 

 So the mason got about half of the stonework done, and are waiting for more stone. Looks pretty good so far, although the stone doesn't have as much color variation as we were expecting. i'm kind of hoping it's all just really dusty and after a good rain, we'll see just a little more color.

Before the construction could begin the roofing, they had to extend the roof over the front door area.  We'll have a deck that begins here, and wraps around to the back.  It will only be covered on the front.

Then this past week, they came and began the roofing. We have the same green metal roof that we had on our old house. The window frames are the same green metal. i wanted a green front door as well, but it was a bit too pricing. i'll probably end up painting it green, or replacing it sometime down the road. 

i thought i had a picture of the roof complete, but noticed in this one that the dormer is not done. They did get it almost complete at the end of last week. It still has to have the gutters, trim and snow guards put on.  The snow guards will help prevent a dangerous avalanche of snow sliding of the roof in the winter time. :) 

So we are getting closer,but there is still a lot that needs to be done. It's been raining this week, preventing the crew from finishing the stonework and roof. i believe next week they'll start the deck and siding.  The inside of the house is still unfinished.  The flooring all still needs to be installed and they are working on building the bathroom upstairs. So yeah, we are getting there.

Living in the RV has been an interesting and fun experience. i really don't mind it much at all. i really thought i'd be blogging more about our small space living, but there just doesn't seem to be too much to say about it. You deal with it, you adjust, and it becomes home.

House Construction- Week 4-5

A few updates on our construction.  i've been feeling especially scatterbrained these days, and i am not sure sure what week we are actually on. Fourth, fifth...maybe 6th?

Anyhow, since getting the main structure set up the construction crew has been here on and off the last couple weeks to finish up and work on different this.   The estimated move in time is still early November.

The first week after setting it up, they finished the dormer. It originally just had plastic over the top, so they built the roof on it and did other roof work.  The basement was partially filled in and they worked on building the floor for the loft area upstairs which came completely unfinished.

The driveway was graded down so that we'll be able to drive right up to the basement.  We will probably have to put a retaining wall on the bank to the right. 

The concrete company came back and they poured the floor for the basement. We have talked about copper staining the concrete, like we had in our old house, but i am not sure if we will again.  It looked neat,but it was really a lot of work. We'd like to finish the basement, so it will probably end up with carpet in at least part of it. 

This week the guys are here working on building the chimney.  i'm not sure what comes next, but i believe they will be working on the siding, roof and deck before they finish the inside. It has been really neat to be here to watch the progress, although it is also very distracting. i kind of feel like my life is on hold until we are in the house. The temperature has really begun to cool off, so my urge to hibernate is strong these days. 

House Construction- Sept 10

BIG things happening here!  The House modules were supposed to arrive at 10 am  yesterday morning.

The construction crew was out early, getting it all set up. Then the waiting began.

The crane arrived around 9am.  Then lots of other trucks and machinery began to arrive. We pulled the kids out of school so they could watch.  10 am came and went, contractor was on the phone, but still no house.  Apparently, there was a mix up with scheduling at the Nationwide office, and the house was not scheduled to be delivered until next week. Ack! Eventually they got things straightened out and found a driver and the new delivery time was moved to 4-5pm. So the kids went back to school. and the entire construction crew sat around and waited, and waited, and waited.

Kids returned home from school, and not long after we heard the crane start up. So we looked outside and saw a huge truck in the road that was carrying half of our house! 

They hooked it to the crane and lifted it way up in the air over the electric lines.  It was so crazy!

 Then lined it up with the foundation and set it down. What a crazy thing to see.

Kenan even took time off of work to watch. 

Once the first half was in place, another big truck arrived with the second half.

They lined them up.  See those triangles hanging down on the walls? They are sections of the roof. They are hinged to the main structure and literally fold up. i had no idea. 

Once the main sections were lined up and set, they began unfolding the roof. The entire thing was sitting on top of the modules. It is all hinged and just unfolds. It was so neat to watch.

There are ropes attached to these pieces and they just pull them up and then nail them into place. 

Then they brought in the window sections.

Once the window sections were secured in the both ends of the house, they pulled up the rest of the roof

The front view. i didn't take a lot of pictures of the front, because i was standing on the other end with the kids. There were a bunch of people and bunch of equipment in the yard, so we were staying far out of the way.  There will be a wrap around deck that will be built around the house.

Unfolding the rest of the roof! 

This as far as they got yesterday. The entire process, once the house actually arrived took around 3 hours!  Incredible!   Before they left they put plastic over the window and dormer holes.

There is a still a lot that has to be done before we move in. It will still be many weeks before it's completed, but watching this come together so quickly was just amazing.  

As we watch the rebuilding process we can not help but become filled again with intense gratitude to all those that have helped us along the way, and helped us to get to this point. Friends, family, neighbors, customers and even many folks we have never even met. The amount of love and support we have felt through out this has been so overwhelming and life changing. i love being able to share this rebuilding (and healing) process with all of you. Thank you again for your continued support.  

New House Construction- Week Two

Week Two of construction and we have a basement! 

The construction crew was back this week, and they really worked quickly to get things done!  They spent the first part of the week setting up the wall forms.

There were 3-4 guys working and it took them several days to get it all sent up.

Once they got the wall forms secured, they added vertical and horizontal re-bar to reinforce the back fill.  Then they placed support beams to hold the forms in place. 

On thursday they brought in the cement trucks, and began pouring! It took a lot longer than i expected, and they brought in many trucks to get it all done.

Once the concrete had been poured the crew began smoothing it and adding anchors.

On Friday the crew came back and began removing the forms.  It took them several hours to get it all removed and cleaned up.  It was pretty neat to see a basement now standing where a last week there was only a hole.  There are 2 windows, a large french door and main entrance doors that have been framed in.  We were unable to see them until the forms came down.

A square hole was cut in the front wall  where the downstairs chimney thimble will be placed.  They will be leveling off the driveway so that we will have a walk in basement.   The basement is very similar to what we had before, but it will be a full basement rather than a half basement.  We will have a space for cellar type/cold storage,  a family room, a utility room and enough space for Kenan to move his glass shop back home. 

The french doors will walk out towards the woods, and as you come out the doors our chicken coop is to the right. Above this will be the wrap around deck, providing a nice shady hang out with a view of the woods and chicken yard.  i think it going to be a really nice space. It is very much what we had envisioned for our old house.

The concrete needs to cure for a week or two, and the house is scheduled to be delivered on Sept. 10th. Once the house is set on the basement there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before we can move in. We were originally told we would be in by Thanksgiving, but the house was constructed earlier than originally anticipated, so i'm not sure what that means for our estimated move in date. This entire year has been such a whirlwind of crazy. It's hard to even comprehend the amount of change we have experienced this year, and i honestly do not know how we are still sane.

We are really looking forward for all of this to be over, so we can just go back to normal life again. 

New House Construction- Week One

Construction for the new house has begun. This past week the construction crew has been out preparing the spot and getting it all set up for the basement.  Our new house will have a full poured concrete basement.  We are not finishing it right away, but once it is finished it will be home to Kenan's glass shop. He is planning to move from the space he is renting and set up shop back at home again. It will be really nice to have him home. 

The basement will also have a cold storage/cellar type area for storing food and a family room/ rec room space. There will be french doors that walk out to the yard, very similar to our old house.

The pictures below show the progress from the last week.

Digging the basement.

Making sure it is all level.

Putting in the forms for the footers.

Pouring the concrete.

Concrete footers in place.

On Friday they added the gravel and leveled it out again. 

 Today they are back setting up the forms for the walls. The basement should be poured and curing later this week.

It has been fun watching it come together so quickly.  i will be sure to update again soon, and share the entire house building process with you. We decided to go with a modular home, because it was more affordable and will go up very quickly. They are predicting that we will be in the house by Thanksgiving, if not sooner.  Although i have always dreamed of building an alternative house, a geodome, cobb house or earthenship. However when it really came down to it, i just wanted my house back and this is the closest, most affordable and quick way to replace it. Our insuance company had us on a very tight timeline, and we had to make our decisions quickly or they would not contribute to the cost of the house.  Many folks are under the impression that if you are insured, the insurance company will basically replace your house for free. Not really true. The insurance decides what the house was worth, and then decides what it would cost to replace it. We have to submit our house plans to them, and they review how similar the new house plans are to the old. Based on that, they decided house much they are willing to contribute.

The house plan we chose has large windows that are south facing and should provide some passive solar heat. It will also have a wood burning furnace in the basement and a place for a wood cookstove upstairs which will be supplemental and mostly decorative. We are also putting in a large cistern, that will replace our old rain barrels to collect rainwater from the roof to use as garden irrigation. We are also hoping to set up a whole house generator. The interior of the house will have a lot of natural materials, hardwood, granite and slate etc. It will have a loft similar to our old house, but will also have a craft room/space for me, which will be nice.

So yeah, everything is moving right along. i look forward to sharing more of our progress in the coming weeks.

And so it Begins.

Yesterday we took the kids to Lake Ridge Resort to enjoy the last day of summer vacation.  We returned home to find that the construction has started!  It's a week ahead of schedule, quite a surprise! Exciting but a little bittersweet as well.