Starting the form removal - Day 32

Our kids woke up to a crew starting to take the basement forms off of the walls and they were so happy to be able to watch some of the action!

Everything looked pretty good. It is starting to look more like a house! 

This is the start of our walkout. 

We really like the brick forms! 

Concrete is here! Day 31

They are pouring the basement walls today and the weather is perfect!

Our neighbors are awesome and took a few pics while I was at work. It is kind of torturous to know such fun things are going on at home while you are away! 

I wish our boys were home to see this! We are glad they stuck to their word as well. If we had to watch our basement dirt hole keep filling up with water, we were not going to be happy campers. Here comes the fun.... 

Finished basement wall forms - Day 30

Our basement wall forms are set. The walkout (in the bottom left picture) is finished, and we are ready for concrete. Our boys have enjoyed seeing all of the big trucks in our yard this week!

Basement walls - Day 29

They are moving fast with the basement forms today!! 

Surprise! I got home today and found out my DH upgraded to 9 ft walls in the basement. This was good for two reasons: one, we wanted this originally but cut it out to save money and two, we needed more fall to our existing septic system. Having more fall means there is less of a chance for us to need a separate septic tank for solids (yuck) or a pump. I am happy for the headroom, too. We are an extremely tall family...not! 

They had some problems with our walkout area, so they had to bring a backhoe in to dig it out even further. This is the only side that needs work, so as of today they will do that tomorrow and pour the walls Friday. They will leave the forms on all weekend, remove them Monday, and then backfill next week. We are looking forward to getting the house framed and getting the roof on before it gets too cold so the shingles seal. M's parents also built a Wayne Home and had some issues with that, so we want to watch that closely. It was a long time ago   And building practices / materials have changed since then. Hopefully this won't be a problem.

Basement forms - Day 28

We are so happy the crews dropped off the forms earlier than what we thought... Two days early to be exact! The pictures aren't the greatest, but it was early evening.

Another break - Day 22

We got a phone call from our project manager today. Looks like they won't be back to set the forms until next Thursday, 10/10. Their plan is to set the forms next week, pour the concrete walls, and remove the forms the following Monday. That means we will have spent over a month getting ready for framing. We are thinking there is no way we will be in by Christmas.... That was never promised, but was suggested by several WH employees when we got our dig date. Oh well.

Stone - Day 21

They stoned our basement today! Every day, we cannot wait to get home to see what progress has been made. I am sure it will only get worse as the house starts looking more and more real. We are pretty jealous of our AWESOME neighbors that get to watch the progress while we are at work. :) We promised a "block party" of sorts when all is said and done. We love in the country and have new neighbors that just built around the corner too, So we have good reasons to get together! Besides the fact we have lived on our property for four years and are just learning  the names of people on our road.....

There are footer drains on both sides of the house.

Our first sump is located in the front left corner of the picture below. We need to make sure that our second sump is in the right place. It will be located by our walkout basement (which is in the picture above).