The hugh crane got here 7am and against Dougs, advice drove to the front of the lot and buried the front wheels. Luckily Larry left the keys in the dozer and there was someone on site who knew how to drive it and pulled the crane out.
There was one hugh trailer used just to transport the counter weights for the crane. that alone took an hour to transfer. (I have a pic but this blog stuff stinks and I'm tired of trying to load them.)

Here they're swinging the 2nd half of the house onto the foundation, all 16'x 60' of house! The crane operator said one half weighed 25,000 lbs!

We couldn't believe how they manipulate the boxes onto the foundation, just push it right in place, well maybe not that simple but it was slick!

Here's the cross section of the kitchen. Isn't it beautiful?! Our daughter Karen designed the house and we couldn't be more happy. The morning sun will stream in through the french doors. That is a hugh island in the center sized just for me. (the posts in the center will be removed)

After 10 long hours of work - between the crane operator, trailer drivers, escorts, contractors, QC guys, marketing guy taking a video and a host of others who stopped by, we had a yard full. They had a hard working crew there, never even took a lunch break. So end of the first day it was all assembled and then covered with tarps. (how lucky we were to have beautiful weather after the past 6 weeks of rain!)

I just couldn't believe we finally will have a home that I can move around in without bumping into everything.

Here we are the end of day 2. What a difference!! The roof is almost complete. I still haven't been inside though. Although they can build a ramp, there are all kinds of materials on the floor inside. Tomorrow for sure! This is the backside, I have to say, this is my first time viewing the back, I didn't know Doug had taken this picture. It's beautiful and brought a tear to my eye.

12 It's finally here!

There were, I think, 7 roof sections. You can see 3 of them here. They said it took 9 trailers to move the house onto the lot here. We tied up traffic pretty good this morning, right during rush hour. Well as much as we have rush hour in Claremont!

Here is the bedroom swinging over the house to be set in the back left corner. It's amazing how the crane operator can navigate that to the inch - all by computer.

Cellar Foundation

Ok, I fianally remembered to take a picture but I can't get it all in the pic. there is more on the right and an ell off the front left. The hole on the right is for the elevator. Enough of that, now I got the real thing next!

10. Tree trimming

You, know the cellar hole is finally complete and again I can't find a picture of it so I'll have to back track into the cellar stuff. In the mean time, on Tues we went to Boston for a Dr's appt. so Larry said he'd cut the big pine next to the house while we were gone. I did not want to be there when he did it, although in hindsight since there were no problems, I wish I had seen it go down. This was one huge pine and it was only feet away from the house. The branches formed an umbrella all the way over the deck and ramp protecting us from rain and snow. Of course it did drop a ton of pine needles too. I just hope the birds find a new place to lite. The 2 trees to the left of it went down too as well as some dead birches behind.

Good news, he didn't even have to flatten the transplanted blueberry bushes. Doug picked some berries this weekend and I made the best muffins I've ever had. The secret ingredient is sour cream. Ask me for the recipe.

Weds it poured most of the day. Spent more time pumping out the cellar hole and trying to keep dry then anything else.

Thursday we were gone again and Larry started

digging out the massive stump. He really knows how to run that excavator!!

You can see how he teased the roots away from the cable with our electric lines. That's my herb garden to the left that is still intact too.

9. July 31

July 28 - they got the forms up for the front entry and porch. The part in front is the entry and the half in behind will be a covered porch

July 31, here we are with the walls all done and about 7 loads of fill brought in yesterday to backfill. Notice the grade of the fill to the front of the porch area. We will have a walkway from the driveway that will go to the front level of the porch - no need for a ramp this way.

Can you barely see the "puddle" in the cellar hole? That is the spot where the elevator will go. It still needs to be squared off.

We should be getting the house in a couple weeks! "I can't wait!" has become my mantra because I've said it so many times.

8.

Concrete was poured today, I couldn't believe how quickly it all happened, they were done before I even was out of bed! (I think it was July 10 or thereabouts - I lost a batch of pics from then so don't remember the exact dates) Two days later the forms were off and here's our foundation. The portion in the foreground was actually done at a later date. That will be just a crawl space, not full basement. This 12' x 24' section is part of our 16'x 16' bedroom.

After it's done, they spray something like tar on the cement to waterproof the walls. You can see the guy in his overalls and mask spraying in the next pic.

Larry started to backfill but first he put in a new water line to the well. When the new house is here, the water will be disconnected from this house and connected to the new one.

So that's about all that's happened in the past 3 weeks. Of course the most exciting part was finalizing our plans and actually ordering the house. We are still in line to receive it in August, of course that could be 5 more weeks too! Hope not. In the meantime I'm enjoying gardening in the window boxes on my ramp. Theres another box you can't see full of salad fixin's that I can pick right from my chair.

7. Fourth of July - Before & After

Where May was sunny and we were needing rain, June is cloudy and stormy every day. Definitely slowing things up a little. The outside walls were mostly installed today - Thursday. Tomorrow is the 4th so no work on Friday. It's a long way around this foundation.

Monday bright and early Hastings Concrete were here 6:30am to finish the job. With the heat coming on they wanted to get done as early as possible. Doug took this picture from the excavator so he could get it all from above. (shhhh, don't tell Larry) Tuesday they will pour the walls. Wouldn't you know it's going to be HOT! I'm so glad I don't have to do it, but glad that someone is willing to.

We took off on Sunday for our first trip to the beach since our 2007 anniversary in January. Weather was much better this day. It was about 82 and breezy - perfect beach weather and I forgot to wear a bathing suit! It was really foggy on shore but we didn't care, the better to smell the salt air. We had our favorite Pier Fries with vinegar and catsup, fried clams and later had a lob-sta roll on the way home. We went to the Portland pier to get fresh haddock, Oh best of all, Doug took me to the Christmas Tree Shop!! All in all a really wonderful day. This was also our longest drive so far - 3 hours. Soon we'll be traveling further and further.

6. Progress

Friday June 20

The plan was to get the footings built today and poured tomorrow. Naturally it had to rain on our parade so they couldn't finish. Monday, time for the big pour and pour it did. So once again we had to cancel the work.

Finally on Tuesday, we were able to get the cement truck here. After all that rain, it did get stuck once but Larry was right there with his excavator to pull it right out.
It felt like we were really making progress. We were gone for the day to visit Janet and friends at her campground so missed all the action but when we got home we saw our footings complete. . . .





well except for one small section where they ran out of cement. Yes I know this is a huge house. . .




Weds, June 25
So the next step, for anyone else like me who has never built a house, is to fill in around the footings with small stone or sand. We're using stone. First he laid down a drain that will soak up all the excess water now and in the future (see it in the top right of pic) and the stone is poured on top.

OK , we know it's big when we have a hugh dump truck in our cellar hole. It takes a LOT of rock to fill this floor.

Luckily for us our feline building inspector approves of all the work that's been done.

This is actually a "before" picture. When we dug up all my perennials we had no where to put them so Doug rototilled the side lawn and made a beautiful garden that I enjoy every day. Figured you'd like to see something besides construction stuff.

5. June 11

Tuesday June 17, 2008


Well I know I'm way behind so will try to catch up. I can't believe how busy we are every day trying to get everything in our lives organized. The cellar hole is complete but I deleted those pics from my camera, figures. However this is the day before taken from my hall window. Everyone asks if we are building a swimming pool It may look like it's only a couple feet deep but see the spade in the back of the hole, (looks like a stick) that is 5'. (June 11th)







Here's another view the ramp in the center is for the excavator to get in there. Figure that hole is as wide as our current house is long. See the addition way in back covered in blue tarp. (June 12th)





This has nothing to do with the new home but thought you might like to share my new independence. Today I made my first solo run. I just went to the library so it was a quick trip - didn't want to make Doug stress over me being gone too long. No problems and if felt GREAT! (Sat, June 14)





Today the wood shed was torn down. You can see where it was by the stone path. We're going to save all the stones, spent many years collecting them, and hopefully can use them in the landscaping later on. (Sat. June 14)



So that brings you up to date. Now we are waiting for the building permit and the plans to be finalized. Still working with the kitchen gal for a final redraw. It's really getting close now and I'm getting very anxious for a new home.

4. June 9

Monday, June 9. the cellar hole is almost finished. I wish I knew how many dump truck loads of dirt have been removed and dumped in the back yard. It has been leveled to probably 5' over where the blueberrys were. "Were" because Larry dug them up and moved them.

Tues June 10

It was really hot yesterday & today - up to 100!! - So Larry got an early start and woke us up about 6:30 am this morning.

This shows how level it is, you can kind of see how deep it is against the tree line. You can see where the blueberries are transplanted. They need serious pruning. Speaking of pruning, notice my forsythia is gone? we moved it to the back 40. Here you can see the back of the trailer leveled out, where the addition came off and a little bit of the cellar hole. think the forsythia needs a little pruning?? That's it in the bucket of the excavator

1. - The Beginning

May 11, 2008

Construction begins tomorrow. I'm waving goodbye to my yard. Everything you see will soon be gone.

The 3 big trees were the first to come down. Pay attention to the lilac bush next to the wishing well for perspective. Remember the camper was parked right behind there. (For now it is up in the middle of the trail.)

Tues, May 13, 2008 Here's the view after cutting the trees. Can you see the lilac? Can you see how far behind that we cleared just today? Larry has removed probably 10 dump truck loads of stumps out of this area.

Here's another view with the lilac in the middle and the tree stumps off to the right. Behind the lilac - way back - is a hugh brush pile. I was really worried about them burning it because it was so hugh. Luckily there was a light rain when they started which made me feel a little better.

This was the view from my craft room. Pretty cool, huh? It literally looked like an inferno outside the window.

Friday May 16, 2008

Larry dug up all the rest of my perennials - lilys & iris' - with the excavator and put them by the well.. We made many people happy sharing them and the rest Doug planted along the side of the driveway - the only place we figure won't be disrupted this summer - I hope! It's so light now with all the trees cut.

Monday, May 19 2008

more clearing and leveling. We're up to 25 loads of fill to level the site. It got a little soft at one point and Larry got stuck- luckily he knows how to get himself out of a predicament.
See how far away from the house he has cleared?

Friday, He moved the Shed and the swing. The shed went to the back woods that had been cleared and the swing is in the front yard. We can't seem to give it away so Larry eats his lunch on it each day. He cleverly put 2 boards under the shed in a V shape and hooked a chain to the V point. Worked slick.





This is the remains of my perennial garden, not much left anymore.

While all this is going on I've been trying to empty everything from my craft room. Who knew how much I had accumulated there. WOW. Doug kept saying I'm going to kill him with all the boxes I kept packing. It took 3 of us an entire week to empty it. Now everything is in the garage.

Monday May 26, 2008

Memorial Day, Larry showed up in the afternoon itching to work so he and Doug first picked up the deck and moved it in it's entirety to the back by the shed.

Next came the oil tank that was under the deck. They were able to empty it into the tank Doug uses for the garage. Larry took the tank. Can you see the shed and the deck steps to the left of it way back there?

Sunday June 1, 2008

We finally got the craft room empty about 3pm. Don't think we could have done it without help. (I'm not sharing those pictures!) Mom moved a ton of stuff with her wagon, my friend Kathy helped pack my scrapping stuff one day, and Deb & Larry helped to move my computer to the bedroom temporarily.

Doug then started dismantling all the cupboards I had in there . We'll save them for use in the new house.

Monday morning He was at it before I even got out of bed! First he had to cut the roof apart. When Larry built the addition, he left a space against the house. Turns out it was perfect for us now. Notice there is little damage to the house when it was pulled away. See Olive, she had to check out the addition one more time. She kept going in and out of both.

Notice the kneewalls (slats of wood) under the addition.

Now you see 'em

Now you don't. They had a little slip but by afternoon it was jacked back up and on it's way to the "back 40".

Ok, I guess that's it for now. To read in order next read "New Home Adventures" and the the one after that.

I'll try to keep up with it now.