Timelines and Temperatures

First of all, I am pleased to report that the 25,000 pound concrete truck did NOT sink and puncture the natural gas line buried about 2-3 feet under the ground at the front of our driveway. Tearing up a gas line would not be a way to endear ourselves to our neighbors or the authorities, so we all breathed a sigh of relief over that.
Of course, Danny spent most of the weekend trying to fix the ruts in our new fancy gravel road caused by the concrete truck.

And, since the concrete trucks were there, that can only mean one thing: progress. We now have footings...not like the big foot sighting kind, but footers that will form the base of our house. There is rebar sticking out everywhere...thank goodness Easter isn't this weekend or we would have had multiple trips to the urgent care center. You can walk the footings of the entire perimeter of our house. It is pretty cool although it looks small the way it is laid out now. Maybe the giant mounds of dirt everywhere are distorting our perception?

So, what is the next step? A stem wall around the perimeter. I have no idea what that means but I know when that is done, Danny and his friend (our plumbing angel) can start roughing in plumbing and the electrician can start doing his work.

Since our house is not roughed in yet, we are all becoming expert meteorologists..we watch the weather like hawks and hope for a dry spring. Don't know what to wear today because of the weather? Just call us...we can probably tell you the temp down to the hour.

We don't have a tight schedule..well I'm sure Danny has a complete spreadsheet somewhere that details down to our projected move-in date, but he doesn't want to show me because I am way too literal and will try to hold him to those dates not taking into account things like weather, scheduling and contractor moods.

So, the girls and I continue to blissfully believe this project will hum right along while remaining under budget (pool, anyone?) with no hitches, glitches or thunderstorms. We are allready talking about our New Years Eve party and planning on having Thanksgiving at Dolce Vita. Let's hope everyone else on this project knows our timeline and holds up their end of the bargain.

The Road to Nowhere...sort of

No, we aren't building the bridge to nowhere, but we are now the proud owners of a gravel road to nowhere. But it will only lead to nowhere for a while...eventually it will go to our garage and the fabulous house that will soon be there.

And, it is an almost completed road. They were able to get our water feature (aka mud hole) dried out enough today to get started on the road that will allow the big equipment to actually get back to our house and do some real work. This is very exciting and actually changes the look of the lot considerably.

Tomorrow they will start pouring footings which I think is the first step to get us to our foundation. I know just enough about this construction stuff to be dangerous. So, don't ask me too many questions because I get confused easily about this stuff. Danny is doing a really good job at masking his exasperation so far.

As the footings/foundation guys get to work, we are crossing our fingers for no rain (haha during spring in Oklahoma? Good luck) and turning our attention to windows, doors, plumbing fixtures and lighting. Who knew there was so much stuff to pick out and ponder?

Also, who knew that soaking tubs were so expensive? Yowza! I don't even take baths (I'm more excited about the fancy shower) and the tub we picked out for the master bathroom cost more than my first car. Back to the drawing board on that one....

Of course, here are more pics that show the first road into Dolce Vita...

Let the Partying Begin...sort of

Well, this was a big week. Work actually started on our lot this week. Not that "work" has not been going on for the past year and a half....by "work" I mean, we are hiring people to do work on our lot. Up until now, we have been able to pay our "laborers" (George, Danny, Andrew aka Doodle and Bobbie) in burgers, beer and soda. Now, these people want cash.

On Tuesday, the dirt work started. The most amazing feat of all of this is that the dirt work guy had to back his semi up the hill to get the bulldozer on our lot. He didn't want to drive on anyone's driveway (how thoughtful) and he didn't knock over the natural gas pipeline markers. Pretty impressive if you ask me, but I've been known to knock the side view mirror of my car into the garage while backing out, so going backwards is not my strong suit. Although, if you remember the hill in the snow picture, that is pretty tricky in a semi-trailer truck.

So, the building pad is in done. And we were all ready for the gravel/rock driveway to be put in so all these people we are paying can get their big equipment back to the house site without tearing up our yard. And, then came the rain. So, no driveway until Monday, but that is OK. We are making progress and it is exciting.

We even have electricity our there. It doesn't look very fancy, but it works for things like the pump to drain the water out of our "water feature" (translation: mud puddle)right in the front of our soon-to-be driveway.

We also got our kitchen design back on Friday and it is fabulous. The work flow and triangle all comes together nicely except I thought we were going to get kicked out when the designer got all excited about the pull-out shelf for the KitchenAid mixer and Danny and I just looked at him blankly. I said, "We don't have a KitchenAid mixer." He said we could put our food processer there. Again, another blank stare and we shook our heads. We might as well have told him we planned to make meth in our kitchen. He truly thought we were crazy because we are cheap and haven't bought a KitchenAid mixer or food processer. Oh, well, It will work for our blender. Or maybe our toaster. Anywho, the whole design was fabulous. And, I can't wait to see it for real. Although, Danny did nix the pop-up TV idea. He mumbled something about kids and orange juice and spills and running down inside of the pop-up compartment and we both shuddered. Bad idea. So, the TV will hang above the see thru fireplace. Still very cool.

And, today was a big day. We hosted our first true event at Dolce Vita. We hosted an Easter Egg Hunt. What better place to hunt eggs than a huge open lot and muddy building pad? The kids were thrilled with the idea and had a blast. Thanks to everyone who came out. It might have to become a tradition...at least next year we will have a toilet and running water. Note to self: Call Creek County Rural Water District to get water turned on.

Everything went smashingly...kids were having fun. Beautiful weather. Only a few sugar induced meltdowns. Lots of eggs. Lots of laughs. And, then Sloane and two of her friends headed down to the "resting place" which is a cool rock formation that is kind of like seats and the kids like to hang out down there. Well, there are some vines that grow from the trees and the kids like to swing on them and they usually hold them pretty well.

Can you see where this is going? Yes, I was walking back that way just in time to see Sloane's friend fall and hit her head on a rock.

Let me just say I was willing to bet that Danny would be the first one on the lot who needed a trip to the urgent care center. Well, good thing I didn't make that bet, cuz I was way wrong. Long story short and three hours later, Sloane's friend left the Warren Clinic Urgent Care (thanks to Papa Joe -- gotta love it when Papa pulls strings to get you in quicker) with 7 stitches in the back of her head. She was super tough and even said she'd come back to our lot. She was a trooper...maybe it was the ice cream I promised her?

Needless to say...we have a new rule at Dolce Vita: No swinging from the vines. I'm sure that rule will serve us well for a long time.