Dave 
The first load of gravel went down in the crawl space before the rains came today. Another truck will have to come in to cover the crawl space deep enough. The gravel goes in for drainage under the home. We have water in the soil under all of our homes in Tennessee, it only becomes … Read more
The house construction has been slow the last couple weeks. The soil treatment was done which is the step where they treat the foundation for termites and wood boring insects. Next week several areas of the foundation with be core filled with concrete. That will effectively join them together with the rebar into one cohesive … Read more
One of the most beautiful fall color shrubs is the Oak Leaf Hydrangea. Oak leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) is a native plant to Tennessee and surrounding states and can do quite well in semi shady to part sun conditions. This hydrangea is easily identified by the oak shaped leaves which are a dark green throughout … Read more
One of the most beautiful trees on the property is this giant sycamore tree (Platanus occidentalis). The giant green leaves of summer eventually turn yellow and brown revealing this gorgeous fall tree. In the winter the leaves drop revealing the amazing white mottled bark. It truly is an amazing tree and well worth planting in … Read more
And we’re going up! Blocks started getting set today. The crawl space will be much higher on one side of the house than the other. We didn’t realize it would be this high. It turned out this way because of the slope of the land and so that the garage to house entry will only … Read more
House building drama of the week. Sam got braces yesterday and afterward we road down to see if the foundation block had arrived. It was in the process of being unloaded when we got there and we noticed the waterline frost free spigot was gone and everything was wet. Our builder was already in the … Read more
Went to check the house progress! Footers are poured and the water line is run up to the house and to the frost free faucet. The faucet will be used for construction water since the water meter is a good 1100 ft down the hill. When construction is done I can use it for the … Read more
Progress! The trenches for the footers have been dug. The footers were lined with rebar to help support the foundation. Next concrete will get poured in the trenches to form the base of our new house.
The gravel drive was brought to the top of the hill near the build site. The ground was scraped around the house location and the foundation was marked for digging. It may be a couple weeks before the foundation can be dug due to scheduling and weather issues. This time of year is normally rather … Read more