Concrete!

We now have a lovely front porch. Yay!
All we need now is a set of good rocking chairs...
(and some chains so the bums don't seal them.)

Caution! Brave men at work!

One Nail at a Time...

Please forgive me for taking so long to post! I had iphoto problems and had to take my trusty OLD laptop to the Apple doctor! She is ok now and running brilliant.

After getting home from Israel we were shocked to see how much progress the guys had made! It was amazing. We climbed on top the 3rd floor beams and watched a beautiful sunset.


Did I mention these guys are great?
Because the are! There is no question about that!!!

Going UP???

When we got home we were in SHOCK at HOW BIG IT IS!!!
And still another floor to go! Victor and Will are simply amazing.
They are doing such a good job.
=0 whuhu!!!!
We went window shopping last Saturday when we got back. Real window shopping...not just peeking in store fronts!!! It was really fun. We had a debate over how big the bathroom windows should be...
modesty vs. natural light ... hummmm??????

The Bay thru our bay:
The beginnings of the second floor. You can see the bay bridge from our bay window in the family room. Quite fitting! Can't wait to watch that sunset!

These guys are really brave. Hard workers too!

And UP We GO!!!

It is really looking like a house now, and I must say I am THRILLED! We have started framing, the pluming is getting inspected today, and tomorrow we start the insulation! We are leaving for Israel on Friday for two weeks, so when we get back we will be able to see the whole outline/frame! I wish we were going to be here to watch but oh well!

Where are all the Franklin Express Men??? We could have used you!!!
We have had some huge trucks down our driveway bringing in supplies and hauling out trash. The above pic was taken out of our second story current bathroom. The blur at the bottom is the window ledge and the neighbor's house is about 3 inches away from the other side of the truck!

These guys know short cuts! Instead of manually lifting all the wood off the back of the truck, the driver floored it and the wood slid off a few feet, and then he floored it in reverse and slammed the breaks to tilt it the rest of the way off. It made quite a racket...at like 7am! No one slept in that morning!!!

Pouring the foundation...unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the concrete poured. We were in TN and also at Nathan's 10 year high school reunion. This is what it looked like when we left. When we got back we had a nice foundation and even a few lovely pictures etched in from some of the crazy locals.

Earthquake Saftey & A Solid Foundation

Oh yes, we got another REALLY BIG TOY to play with...a giant drill!
To make sure our house will stand strong we have to drill 33 18 in diameter piers, add rebarb, and pour in concrete to create supports. The drilled out hole were so big that someone could fall in and get stuck. They are 16 feet deep!

The guys have started laying the wood out to begin pouring the cement piers and foundation--all the good stuff to keep us standing if a major earthquake hits. We have been doing "foundation" prep for a while though. A few weeks ago we had our Small Group from Church come over for dinner and pray over the whole project, including the land, the foundation, the structure, the safety & lives of the workers, and most importantly: that God use this building in it entirety to bring glory and honor to His Name for His use and His Plan.

IT IS STARTING TO COME TO LIFE!!!
When I saw the footings and the actually framing of the drawings and plans we have been studying for so long, I was totally thrilled and a bit amazed. It is exciting and each day there is something fun and new!

Week 2: It really is Happening!

So, this is the picture where we first began the process of getting the building permit. Note the long hair--this was taken on the 1ST OF JUNE 2007!
Quite a while back...

Finally we got the PERMIT! There were two super sweet ladies (one of them is below) who really helped us out and took excellent care of Nathan in getting us scheduled for committee reviews and meetings. They were delightful. We took them a bag of peppermints and treats when we got the permit-which we felt like we had to snatch away from the City and RUN before they decided to make us do anymore changes or corrections!!!

After we signed the final documents for all the loans we celebrated with a super nice dinner in Mill Valley, a really cute town close to the coast. We only had appetizers to save some $$$ but it was just what we needed!

Back in the Dirt!
and loving it!

Did I mention that Clorox Bleach is my new favorite product???
Geeze, the two of us sure do know how to get dirty!!!


Over the weekend we cleared out the brush, weeds, and trees from our fence row. We had to hire a guy to come pick it up and haul it off. Its different here - we can't just build a bonfire and have all our friends over for a marshmellow roast.
(Which would have been way more fun and a whole lot cheaper!)

My antique roses are dying...anyone have any tips???

Oh yes...we have very large toys!

This morning we had two lovely deliveries to the house: a port-a-potty and this huge back hoe! We broke ground today, started digging out the land, and tore down a tree. Very very exciting.


Funny Reality Check: Remember We do live in Berkeley! After the port-a-potty was delivered, Nathan and I went for a 15 min run around the block. When we came back, two street bums had taken over our john! One was watching guard while the other did his business. They even had there stereo playing music in there grocery cart of goodies! Quite insane! We let them do there business and then moved it to the back of the house, out of sight from the street. Tomorrow Victor is bringing a large lock to keep the potty PRIVATE!