The Ground is Broken

... Such a strange way to describe digging in the dirt. "Broke ground". It really just sounds like a problem. If anything the ground is getting "fixed" to support our home. English is stupid.

First things first - Our contract is finally signed. We took up the task of writing the contract ourselves with a little help from the Google god. It was a laborious task because there were certain clauses that our builder couldn't agree on, and visa-versa but ultimately we came to a consensus and feel comfortable that we have some protection and contingencies if something should go awry...knock on wood. We agreed on the wording last week and got it signed yesterday with our builder. Really should have finalized and agreed on the contract before starting the work, but hey... timing doesn't always work out perfectly and it ultimately had no affect on the build timeline.

We also have been tasking ourselves with finding the right front door, exterior doors and windows for our home. These are details that the builder will need to build in the walls with the right rough opening sizes. We think we landed on a great deal for the front door. More to come on that later.

On to the progress! Mike came to the property over lunch because our builder told us he'd be digging the footers today. No progress over lunch--Texted him a couple hours later and he said it's done. Man, these guys don't mess around. We stopped over to take a look at things starting to look real official. The task was accomplished with a mini excavator and a small bobcat front loader. The bucket on the excavator is about 2 feet wide, so they dig the footers that wide and about 1 foot deep. They've placed the rebar stakes in the center of the footer trench and will be laying rebar throughout the lengths and corners and pouring concrete this Friday. The plan is to lay the foundation block on Monday. It sounds like we might even start seeing  some "stick" walls here in the next couple weeks or so.

Anyway, the footer is not much to see in person, but it did help give us a better perspective on the size of the home. Sorry the photos aren't very good. Would really like some imagery from a drone but can't see shelling out hundreds of dollars for a toy that i'll take a few pictures with, then likely crash into a fiery ball of death.

There are several of these large holes inside the perimeter of the footer trench. I think these are for concrete pillars to support the internal structure of the house. That's my guess anyway.

That's it for now. Will have more photos of the footers and foundation here shortly.

Toodles!

Mike & Liz

The Land

So let's show you the land and views that we fell in love with.

Here you can see the break in the trees where the driveway will come in from the road. We are pretty far back into the property here, but still not as far back as where the home will sit. You are looking roughly North West here.

And this is the view to the west. This direction is where most of the windows on the first floor will face.

See that small tree to the very left of the photo? The house will be on the left of that tree. 

Here is that same tree, now more on the right of the photo. Our home will be in the middle here.

And this will be the view from our deck. Just kidding!!! This is in Great Smoky National Park and from a visit we did to Gatlinburg just a few weeks ago when the leaves were at peak color.

This is pretty close to where we estimated the house would sit, looking straight towards the road.

And for those super interested in the details, here is the parcel map. #3, the 16.499 acres, will be ours! 

And a Google Earth view for you. You can see where the pond is here and reference that from the parcel drawing above. While we have lots of cleared area, there is still a lot of wooded area that will be ours.

And here is a 360° video of the property from close to where the house will sit.

We still have many more inside updates to share with you including our floor plan, flooring selections, and an initial consultation for our kitchen cabinets and granite. And that is just what we have done so far. Many more decisions to come.

We've also been given the promising news that our builder is eager to move forward and had begun work on the property already, just 2 days after signing for the loan! So another update is coming your way for that.

Toodles!
Liz and Mike