Squared


On the afternoon that Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow and predicted an early spring, in about four inches of snow, John, Sarah, and I marched out into the field to mark out the spot where our house will be.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures, but there really isn’t much to see.  It’s just a big, imaginary square, marked on the corners by some old pieces of rebar, but it’s become all that much more real.  I can stand in that square now and say, “Here I am in the kitchen.  Here I am in the living room.  Here I am in our bedroom.”  Someday that imaginary square will be a foundation, and then a frame, and walls, and a roof.  And our kitchen.  Our living room.  Our bedroom.  It’s hard to believe that we will be able to live in that box.  It really does look much smaller when you see it there on the ground, but I know it’s just as it should be.

After Sarah helped us mark the four corners, measure the grade of the site, and check to be sure we were well enough away from the property lines, we worked through some more planning.  Window sizes and locations, framing details, roofing, plumbing, electrical . . . all of those things you need to think about before you even stick a shovel in the ground.  It’s so much to think about and it’s hard for me to wrap my head around what needs to be done.  I have lists upon lists, but it will be much easier when tasks can be broken down into weeks, days, hours.  Right now the to-do list is almost unfathomable because we have no idea when we can start.  We have goals and target dates, but are they realistic, not knowing when our foundation will be installed?  There’s no real way of knowing.  But once we can actually break everything down into more concrete dates—micromanage, in the best sense of the word—I will feel much more at ease.  And even though those dates will inevitably shift, the ballpark timeline will be more realistic.

So for now, we’ll focus on what’s crucial.  The rest will fall into place once we get in the ground and have a permit.  Spring is fast-approaching, after all.  Punxsutawney said so.



p.s. I’ve fixed the comments here so anyone can comment.  Feel free to leave your thoughts!  I’d love to hear from you all.

Comments

  1. Let me know when you get the floor plans, I would love to get an idea on the electrical work. We're excited for more posts!

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