Getting settled...

So the day of the Big Move has come and gone.... and we're working to get things unpacked and put away into their new places every day.

Sunday afternoon several friends came by to help us with the move.

Thanks for all your help Jamie, Aaron, Matt, Dean, Chad, and Robin's parents! We were pulling into the driveway of our new home at 5:10pm with the first load of stuff, just as the builder was finishing up taking his Parade displays down. We still have the house plans and the construction schedule hanging on the wall in the garage. We'll probably leave it up there for a little while yet anyway.

Robin's parents and Dean stayed until after 10pm Sunday night. Robin's dad had brought his trailer, and between the trailer and the uhaul truck we loaded three loads into each and dumped it all (mostly. Some thing got taken down to the basement right away) in the garage of the new house.

There was about a half of a uhaul load of boxes and some furniture in the storage unit we'd rented. I moved those over on Monday.

Every day since then has been Robin working inside the house getting things organized and put away, and me working in the garage carrying boxes, furniture, and other items into the appropriate rooms of the house and/or the basement.

(the entire garage was mostly full when everything was finally moved to the new house from the old one and the storage unit!)

Finally last night (Wednesday night) I was able to have enough in the garage cleaned out that Robin could park her car in there. Tonight I was able to get it so that we could park both cars and my motorcycle in there too!

Most things that don't belong there have been removed from the garage now, with the exception of a few larger pieces of furniture that Robin will need to help me move to the basement.

Inside the house, Robin has a ton of the kitchen cabinets filled with items. She's also spent alot of time putting things away in the laundry room, the living room, and our master bedroom.

Yesterday the girls' new beds and dresser (for Rachel) were delivered from WG&R. Today their new mattresses arrived. So tonight they get to sleep in their new beds for the first time. Lyndsey doesn't have a dresser in her room yet. She and Robin are going to refinish one of the older ones (we have 4 that are currently unused! lol) and that will be Lyndsey's dresser to use.

Robin and I spent Sunday and Monday nights sleeping on the couch as our bedroom was too cluttered to be able to put our bed together.

The girls have been working in their rooms to get items and clothing sorted and put away. They're not home this weekend, then next week is the final week before school starts up.

Due to our moving, Lyndsey will be attending Hortonville Middle school this year instead of Greenville Middle school, while Rachel will still be in Greenville Elementary school.

This morning had us watching a family of wild turkeys walking around our house;  this morning they were first spotting in the ditch out front, and then later this morning they were closer to the front of our house. 2 older ones and 3 younger ones.

Yesterday I had a visit from a hummingbird in the garage when he flew in to briefly check out what all the commotion was about.

We still have alot of boxes to unpack, and tomorrow Robin and the girls have to go back-to-school clothes shopping.

Also, there's a ton of furniture and boxes in the basement, some of which is destined for a garage sale either this fall or next spring when our Town holds its annual town-wide garage sales.

We're hoping to have most, if not all, of our unpacking done by the end of this weekend. Both of us have to go back to work next week.

Tuesday was also the date of closing on the sale of our previous home. Tuesday afternoon at 2pm that house became the property of someone else, and they appear to have begun to move in today.

Paul

Two days?

Yup, only two days have passed and alot has happened!

Monday saw the excavator come out and backfill around the foundation walls. Alot of the massive piles of dirt are now gone...

Once the dirt piles in front of the house were mostly gone they were able to extend the gravel driveway up to the front of what will eventually be the garage.

You're now able to walk around the entire perimeter of the concrete foundation without the 10 foot deep trenches everywhere. In this photo you can see how the inside of the garage walls have also been filled with dirt. Eventually the garage slab will be poured over it after they add a layer of gravel first.

Once Monday was over, Tuesday brought on the beginnings of some new developments;  the framing.

The first thing they need to do is fasten a toe board to the top of the foundation walls. They'll fasten the subfloor structure (floor joints, plywood subfloor, prelaminated beams, etc) to these toe boards.

As the materials for the framing begin to appear on-site, our house will eventually begin to take on a more recognizable shape.

The framers have set up shop in the garage area... here they'll cut any pieces they need to do the actual framing and any other work that can be done above grade.

The first appearance by a subcontractor who does something other than moving dirt or building walls is the electrical sub. He's installed the beginnings of what will be the electrical service meter on the outside wall and the breaker panel down in the basement.

I believe the long yellow piece of wood in the next photo is one of the prelam beams that'll hold up the first floor of our house. The few darker long pieces of wood I'm not as sure about. I think they must be beams of some sort as well, but I'm not exactly certain where they go. It'll be interesting to watch it all come together.

Meanwhile... in the "back 40"....  ;)

The above is the fire circle of what we've come to call the "girls' play area". It's a clearing in the woods that they've adopted as their own area.

Well, today while rummaging around in the tall grassy area behind their play area the girls scared up some of these:

We think they're cranes, but we're not exactly sure. One thing IS for certain tho;  they get really ticked when you stumble upon their nest with babies in it! (and very loud too, as the girls quickly found out!)

Weather permitting things will begin changing appearance very quickly as the floor framing goes on and the walls begin to be framed up. I figure I'll be able to post updates here every other day typically, unless something happens on-site that I want to post the day-of, so keep on tuning into this same bat-channel at this same bat-time! :)

Paul