A new beginning: Our Newest Addition

John and I have been dreaming about building our own home for so long.. and it has never been possible which is fine. It wasn't meant to be and we were ok with it. But that didn't mean that that dream would never come true.. Because it now has. We are building an "addition" behind our house, that will later become the main house. We will then knock down the existing house and build a garage in it's place. Here are some pictures of the slow, but steady, progress.

It started with having to move sheds. We were able to just pull this one into position. But the other shed had to get pulled and twisted and then pushed into place. Lots of fun!!

a 'before' picture

We've been wanting the rip out this hedge for awhile, and although the neighbor wasn't too happy, we did, and are happy! It's lightened up the front entrance and widened the driveway.

Then we leveled the driveway and took out a load of mud. Every winter the driveway becomes a mud mess and we use pallets to walk. Not anymore :)

We also had to rip out a tree, which I have no pics of since I had to help pull it down. So we burnt it in a big bonfire which lasted one night and all into the next day.

Then we added shale to the driveway..

Taking off a layer of topsoil.. to be used later to level out some of the yard.

It snowed...

starting the footings.

and then it rained.. what a mess. John used buckets and a water pump to try get most of it out. But it took more than a week to dry out. Found out later that both of our neighbors roofs were draining into the hole also.

The result of walking through that mud hole!

Didnt get any pics of pouring the footings either because I was either out running errands for john, or helping pour.

Because of all the rain, this corner kept caving in. it was so frustrating. Especailly when it started caving in under the supports for the deck. John had a solution tho