It's Been A While.......

Sorry folks to be such a slacker on keeping our blog updated! Obviously, a lot has happened since we posted last. The house is up and Shawn is working furiously. In mid-July, I fell and broke a few of my metatarsals so I have been grounded and virtually useless in helping with the house. My dad has stepped up to become Shawn's faithful helper; we would not have made as much progress without the help of our friends families, that's for sure! Ella is very much enjoying all of the "bammering" that she gets to do alongside her dad and Grandpa Novak.

Our roofers will be coming in the morning (September 28th) to begin their work and we will be having our well drilled the following week, with the septic system and HVAC to come the week after that. We have all of our windows in and cedar trim around the windows. Shawn and Dad are working on framing the rooms on the 2nd floor and our friend, Ben, will be putting our stairs up this weekend!

Ground Breaking

Today was the day! The bulldozer was delivered early Thursday morning and Randy got right to work scraping the topsoil off of the 2-track turned driveway. He was pumped to play with the big toys!!! He has done a super job on getting the driveway ready for our stone delivery on Friday morning.

The kids loved playing on the mountains of topsoil. I think living in the country is going to cut our toy budget - all you need is a little dirt to keep the kids occupied for hours on end!!

And then there were 4!

Some more big news - we recently found out that we are expecting our second child in November! Woohoo!!!!!

This will be great motivation to make certain that the house is finished on time so our newest addition can be born there and not in the Novak's RV!

We are planning another homebirth to be attended by Kathi Mulder, CPM and Julie Harris, one of Kathi's apprentices and a good friend of Amanda's. Kathi is the same midwife that caught Ella at our home in Lake Ann.

Yay! Everyone will be kept updated with pictures on the blog from our construction project.

: )

We've Got Mail!

We officially have an address now (but still no actual mailbox!):

22190 Faylor Rd.

Copemish, MI 49625

We received our address in the mail today and have recently received our approved permits for land use, and septic/well. We are waiting to finalize our plans now, then we will send in our building, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing permit applications. Almost there!

The snow is melting fast and furious from all of our "warm" weather recently and we're hoping to get rid of the rest of the snow this coming week. We'll be moving a Smith Bros. trailer onsite soon to move our furniture and boxes into and sometime in April we'll park the Novak's RV onsite to stay in until we've received occupancy in the house.

We anticipate fixing the driveway and doing our site excavation as soon as the frost laws fall off - hopefully in early April. Then May will bring the real ground-breaking work when we expect to start work on our footings.

Here's some more pictures of the site a few weeks ago when we were setting the stakes for our permits to be reviewed.

Our driveway looking from Faylor Road (and Shawn's behind in the lower lefthand corner!)

Looking down to the site from a small ridge to the South.

Looking to the west from the hill to the East.

In the beginning.....

We've got a blog!!!

We're currently living in a rental house in Kingsley because our home in Lake Ann sold 2 weeks after we listed it! We are almost finished transferring the land Shawn's parents have given us (5.96 acres!) into our names and are working fast and furious on permit applications, finalizing our plans, and scheduling construction. We're hoping to break ground sometime in late April and perhaps get our occupancy permit sometime in the fall (late September-Octoberish).

As of right now (unless we change our minds at the absolute last minute!), this picture is our inspiration for the cabin that we plan on building. It enchanted us both from the beginning and we are looking forward to watch our own dream home evolve.

Stay tuned for more updates and pictures in the near future!

This picture looks up around where our driveway will meet the house.

This is looking on where the front of the house will be (opposite of the direction where the previous picture was taken).

Hope this finds everyone well!

Blessings to all - Amanda