I gotta soul that I won’t sell…

Posted On July 1, 2015

Jeff has been up early to work on the house the past few days, often for 12+ hours, and so we’ve been finding little ways to connect and stay grounded. It’s nice that the sun rises so early these days. We’ve started a new ritual of a morning coffee on the front porch. It’s cool and sunny and quiet, and we talk about the plan for the day. Even 15 minutes together makes a difference.

Since the last update they finished all that slab prep and it passed inspection that day. The next morning the slab was poured at 7am. It was a perfect day for it, neatly sandwiched between drizzly less-than-ideal days. We are so grateful for these little rays of love from the universe. The concrete guys likely wouldn’t have poured if it was on another day last week. I don’t care if it’s just good luck, really. I feel better just deciding to receive everything small and fortunate as a gift.

Our friend Patrick came in from Austin to help us (I mentioned him last time), and he’s been out there with Jeff every morning at 7am. Jeff is so grateful for his help and enthusiasm and good company, and it sounds like they work really well together. Pat even finished up the slab prep independently while Jeff finished up his last day of work before his “time off” (in quotes because working 12 hr days to build a house is hardly “off”, but he’s not in the office…). We are saving lots of money by being willing to do a lot of this kind of thing- prepping what we can and hiring out only what we can’t do ourselves or can’t do in a timely enough manner.

Jeff was out there sending me pictures as the whole thing was happening. My one big request was that we all put our hand prints in the wet concrete. I have fond memories of my grandparent’s house on my mom’s side (which I will talk more about at some point- a house my grandpa built with his own hands) and they did something similar. Just the idea that this isn’t some generic house meant to pass along anytime soon. This is *our* house. Forever, we hope. To share widely, of course, but it’s for us to really send our roots deep into this place.

 

It was a day that I’d arranged for childcare and was getting some work done out at the farm, but we ended up having to pick them up early and shuttle them out to the house site because the concrete was curing so fast. We made it, though! Beautiful hand prints, for us to enjoy for years to come.

 

That was Friday. On Saturday it was raining and Jeff went out to clear brush and do some more prep work. Sunday, Jeff fell sick with a stomach bug! He was laid up the whole day, which was particularly disappointing since we had a whole fun day planned out before the framing happened. He was a good sport though and recovered really quickly, insisting on going out to work at 7am on Monday. He must’ve been sincere, because this is what happened on day #1 of framing:

 

 

They also finished the other big beam (several hundred pounds), and framed out an interior wall.

 

 

 

Day #2: Floor joists! They worked hard all day leveling and squaring and leveling and squaring and nailing and leveling and squaring and nailing and leveling and squaring and… you get the picture.

Now we are on day #3, but I’ve been unable to go out there! Jeff promises he’s taking pictures for me. I’ve had a lovely day with the kids (plus Pat’s sweet-as-pie 5 year old daughter, Lucia). We’ve been cooking and playing and walking around town (and blogging), so I really can’t complain! And, to finish, a picture of a butterfly in a mint patch out at the farm.

I’m going to be updating every couple of days so that we have a good record of this process. I can’t say how grateful I am for this blog during the big transitions in our life. I love going back and remembering these details. Also, here’s a song I’m liking lately, so simple and good: