Our basement has been dug!

WOOT WOOT!

The 1st pic is looking at it as if we were driving into the basement. The 2nd pic is the water now standing in it and the 3rd pic is looking down into the safe room on the side of where the garage will be. I'm so excited..I can now picture it..I can see it now.

Progress as of Sunday (7/23)






Progress of Today (7/25) after no work today..I'll explain that in just a minute.




Our excavtors quit this morning. They showed up, gathered their equipment and left without finishing the job. They said that the estimate they gave us at this point would only cover the fuel & hoses they've went through. Sigh. and so it begins. Now we have to find another person to come in and finish the job.

We're building our house...eventually. In January, we decided we were ready to start building. Here are the house plans we chose:






We decided to build next to my in-laws, picked our spot and started clearing. Here's the beginning pictures:
This is after we started clearing out:






This was the before pic of the driveway:

and after pictures:


The driveway pics were taken in March. Then we had to have the survey done. It took 3 weeks for the guy that was going to do the survey to come out and after he did, it took another 3 weeks to get the survey back. Then we had to take it to an attorney to get the deed written up. We then had to take it to our county courthouse to be recorded. It could've been an easy process except the legal description on the survey and the legal description on the deed were different. It was missing a number We then had to figure out which one was the correct one. The attorney said he went exactly by what the survey said. We then figured out the problem and the attorney redid the deed. It then had to go to the county to be recorded. Then an inspector had to come out..waited on him for another few days. Then if you acreage is over a certain amount the enviromental people have to have a say in the building process. We then had to line the downward side of our property with bales of hay to catch any drainage while building. MAN, what a pain this part has been.

We've decided to be our own contractors. We found a lender that will give us a construction loan under those circumstances (most will only lend to you if you have a licensed contractor). We signed for the loan almost 3 weeks ago. After we signed the docs, we went back to the county to then get a building permit as you can't build until you have that permit in hand. We FINALLY after jumping through hoops got the permit. WOO HOO.

Now..onto digging the basement. We hired these guys that gave us a low estimate in digging the basement who said they could have it dug in a matter of a few days. Well...we're now going on a week. They promised to show up at 6:00 to start digging and they got there at 10:00. One day they didn't get there until after 2:00. Friday the wife escorted her hubby to the digging of our basement and tells Billy that this is the 1st basement they've ever dug. Our fault..that should've totally been a question we asked in the getting the estimate process. Mark that one as a lesson learned. So they're there right now, on a Sunday, digging. I kinda feel sorry for them as I don't think they intended the job to be this difficult.

Then there's the rain that's been hindering their process. There has been a drought here and we were starting to go under water restrictions. We break ground on Tuesday (7/18) and guess what? Thunderstorm blows through and has rained almost everyday and poured yesterday.

Here are the pics I took on Wednesday (7/19).



I will be heading over there today at some point to see the progress that has been made. I'm off now to do more research.