So much rock that even trying to jack-hammer it out for the basement, was NOT an option.
We had picked a solid rock ledge to build the house on!!
But with the talented help of a local heavy equipment contractor we moved thousands of tons of dirt
from the hill East of our building site, and transported it around the newly dug basement.
Now our house was going to be on a hill instead of on the flat land of the farm.
We filled in over 5 foot depth to bring the yard up to the top of the
basement walls.
Now the level of the yard was nearly has high as the hill we built
the barn on.
What we thought was a disaster turned out to be an advantage, as the
view from the house was greatly improved!
Soon the building was in full swing. We never dreamed there were
so many decisions to be made, shopping trips for materials, things to over
see and the start of the packing process. We had renovated our present
home 9 years ago and thought that was a lot of work, but it didn't prepare
us for the countless hours spent building a new home. Every minute
of our day seems to revolve around this house! Of course there was
more to build that just a house, we had to have a barn for all our critters,
new electrical and water service had to be put in place, and of course
phone lines. Miles of livestock fencing had to be planned, and much
of it is still yet to be built.
With a promised posession date, to the purchaser of our present farm,
of Oct. 1st, we really had our work cut out for us!
Our first builder just didn't work out, so we found a second one.
After a very rainy May, and many delays work proceeded quickly after
the change in builders.
The East wall of the dining room going up.
The West end of the house.
The West wall of the Living Room on it's way up.
The view from our driveway. Taken about June 1st 1999.
I spent weeks planning the floor plan with a computer software program.
There were so many little details we wanted included in our new home, at
times I was so frustrated I didn't know if it was worth all the hours.
