We Have Blocks!

Under a beautiful blue sky in 60-degree weather, the masons came today to start laying block. Paul Love (dark blue t-shirt and brown hat) and his crew are making steady progress and should be there another 2 days or so. We hear the framing crew is on standby and ready to start as soon as the blocks are finished!

What a Difference a Week Makes!

Greg and I took his mother to the lot on Wednesday to see the poured footings. Where it was 12-25 degrees last Friday, it was now 72 degrees!!! Winter in Arkansas is always interesting! We hope to start the blocks any day... Willie says the mason does block work in warm weather, and we're having a run of that for another week or so. Wednesday was a gorgeous day, as you can see from these photos.

We're On Our Way to a New House!

Here we go... we are underway ... the house is started! Willie called us Valentine's Day to tell us that the corners were set, and footings would be dug the next morning at 9 a.m.! And they were dug yesterday, just as scheduled. Concrete was to be poured in the footings today at noon. A "pumper truck" was ordered from Little Rock to expedite getting the concrete to the footings and across the lot. We think the truck driver said the pumper weighed 60,000 lbs.!

The driver/operator maneuvered the gigantic armature via a wireless remote control panel, so that he was standing on-site. Casey Stone maneuvered the actual hose, so that the concrete was directed down the center of the footings. Willie and Hurshel spread the concrete, following behind Casey. It was really interesting.

It was a very cold day...25 degrees shortly before noon, and windy. Everyone was dressed warmly, and Hurshel built a fire out of scrap timber and logs. Most of the day it was sunny and beautiful; however, late afternoon brought clouds and more wind, and it got pretty chilly!

Getting the pumper truck back out of the lot was quite an adventure. I'll let the pictures tell the whole story. FYI... click on any photo to enlarge it for viewing and reading the caption!

Blocks come next... stay tuned!!!

Still No House!

Still no house! Mother Nature has decided to play with us on this one, and we have had a "10-year flood," which deposited about 6 inches of rain in a weekend and caused us to rethink our design a bit, followed by a "wintry mix" and very cold temps last week. We hope to break ground this week, but already another "wintry mix" is in the forecast! It's a good thing we aren't in a hurry on this one!!!

There will be more pictures when there is something new to photograph!