House Seeds! Here!

So, two days later than we expected and with a little excitement even today, the house seeds are here.  They were to call before noon today, and they did...to say that the truck was broken down about 2/3 of the way here, but they were committed to getting the load here today!  Yippee...
They fixed the truck and called when they got to Kingwood.  Don zoomed out to meet the truck at the property.  Stevie and I left the school (yes, still packing...mostly her room) and zoomed because I wanted to get a picture of the truck on the road.  Didn't find it on the first pass because he took a wrong turn.  We parked and waited for him on the little road that our neighborhood road turns off of....
Here he comes....I can hear him....

There he goes....

...down the road...

...onto Glory Dr...see my little husband waiting for him?....

...and down the driveway.

Our truck full of house seeds.

While the little husband and Dave (driver) were discussing things,

I was taking interesting pictures...

Then the unloading began.  First we had to unload the cement board one piece at a time...

Stevie and I traded off...no rest for the boys.

Then he says he can just slide the rest off by raising the bed of the truck...

Really?  You think that is a good idea?

Stand back!

Did you notice the green pile?  Everything else went swimmingly...landed on the pallets and everything.
But the green pile...well, let the brainstorming begin.  Poor David didn't realize he was dealing with 3 retired teachers whose job it was to fix what ever crisis popped up...let's see...

...poooooshhhhhhh!   Ok.  Plan B.

Pull. 

See what good all those college educations were?

Now, to try that sliding thing again....easy, easy, oooh, down a bit, easy,

ever so slowly....

...and off!

Empty truck on his way home.

Happy homebuilders sitting on their home to be.

Oh, and I found a couple of friends watching in the wood.

See their little eyes watching?

And then we went away...another smaller load is coming tomorrow and building begins on Friday!  Hold that thought!

A happy day.

Aaarrrgghh.

So, I didn't tell you earlier because I wanted to surprise you today with photos of all of our homebuilding supplies all piled up next to the slab....house seeds, as my little husband calls them.
But, it seems the surprise is on me...no delivery today. 
I am so not good with this sort of thing.  I get my mind all ready for what is going to happen at a certain time and then when it doesn't....aarrrgghhh.
I'm thinking this homebuilding is going to teach me patience and flexibility and appreciation for small successes.  Hmmmm.  Sort of like teaching kindergarten!
Tomorrow!  Photos of house seeds!  And much appreciation....
:-)

Grown Up House

Confession time:  I am 55 years old and I have never lived in a "grown up" house. 
I have never bought living room or bedroom or dining room furniture.  Oh sure, I have bought furniture from time to time, (usually used) but I have never bought a bedroom set or living room set...heck, I've never even had a dining room and won't really in the new house.
I have a few pieces of furniture that I love for sentimental or asthetic reasons, but most of it is just functional.
I get all excited when I go into a furniture store and see those room displays.  I mean I could wander around in IKEA for hours.  I love the way the furniture and accessories all go together so stunningly.

But I am very afraid that I may have multiple decorating personalities. 

I love the simple straight lovely functionality of Shaker furniture AND the soft cozy comfiness of overstuffed chairs in cabbage rose prints.  I love retro 50s stuff all shiny and plastic AND American Craftsman style.  I love black and white AND bright secondary colors.    I like beadboard AND corrugated tin on the walls.
I love all of these things and if that isn't bad enough, then I want to hang cute handmade things from the ceiling or in swags across the bookcases or door ways.  I want to have a pink Petunia where you might least expect her and a hand made bowl with dots swinging from the sides full of something surprising.

What am I to do so that I have a "grown up" house when we are done?
Luckily I have a little time to dream this out....

The Beginnings

Homebuilding was never a dream of mine, but it has long been a dream of my husband's and when I got him I got his dreams, too.  And I bought in.  If you could see the stacks of idea magazines and books that have accumulated!  Luckily, he just wants to be the builder...I get to be the decorator - and apprentice builder.  After much patience, planning and praying it began.

Three years ago we bought our piece of Almost Heaven WV!  It is exactly big enough.  We bought this piece because it has big rocks in the woods that I can sit on (eventually) to watch the sunsets.  Just buying the property, which is named, and forever after shall be called, Shangri La Ti Da, was an adventure.  I finally tracked the seller down on his tractor, mowing the fields in the neighborhood that is now mine.  There were no homes there yet....now there are 8 and we will make 9 with perhaps 2 more to come.  Shortly there after we tracked him down again and signed some important papers.

For two years we paid for Shangri La Ti Da and then last year we broke ground...I didn't want to break it until it was paid for! 

A good friend and architect took our dreams and put them into blueprints.  Starts to feel really real after that.
We got the footers in and the slab poured.  Do you know how heavy cinder blocks are?  And how hard they are on gloves??

They got moved more than once in and out of those footers...or rather, these footers...

Big truck...BIG TRUCK,

which was the reason we had to build a really nice road down to our homebuilding site.

Let the pouring begin!  And they only collapsed one small section of the wall.

When we poured the slab we had to put these metal grids in for ... oh, stability or something.  (I hope you aren't expecting to get "How To" lessons from this journey.)  Anyway, there they were and there the flower was and aren't they lovely?

Here's the slab...

... waiting for floors and walls and dreams and songs and crafting and love

and the making of a Home...a Home where the heart is.

I am counting on still having time to create, as that is my longtime dream.  The new home will have a craft studio - something I never thought to dream of, even when I was sitting on the floor sewing on the sewing machine and using my knee to press the go pedal or sleeping on only half of the bed because the rest was covered with the latest project of eating standing up instead of cleaning the craftiness off the table.

Here are a couple of recent creations.   I made a necklace to go with my "graduation" dress.

I made a felt replica of the logo for our local river restoration organization.  It will be a gift for someone who is retiring.  It was a commission...gotta love those now that I am retired!

Original...

...and replica.

So, friends, I hope you will join me on this newest adventure and chime in often.  OK?

We have ordered boards and such to begin...delivery projected for tomorrow or Monday....