The New House!

Well, it's about time I blogged about our new home since we are just about to enter the framing process!!! This has been a project in the works since 2012 and partially explaining my two year hiatus from this blog!! I had my third child and we started this process and I simply ran out of time! But 2015 is going to bring so many new changes and a re-commitment to myself and my writing!

The new land! Summer, 2014

So to recap, we bought our dream piece of land in 2012 when Miss R was only 6 months' old. We just sort of sat on it and didn't do much as we were not yet ready to embark on a big project. All we knew was that this was where we wanted to live and we wanted to build our own family home to raise our children in. Last year, when we had our third child, we soon realized what it meant to outgrow a home.



The current home we were living in seemed to shrink in around us! With no finished basement, no driveway and a very small yard, my 4 year old moved into the guest room that we actually use for guests very regularly and the kids were taking over so much of our main floor.  When my Dad visited from overseas in the (bitterly cold) winter of 2013-14, we truly felt the squeeze!

Our current home also has no food pantry! So with three young children who seem to eat everything (and nothing), I have been playing tetris with my available kitchen storage, cramming boxes in here and tins in there.  I have been forced to grocery shop three times a week because my small 30" fridge holds a bare minimum and certainly not the 2 gallons of milk we go through in a week!

It took us a little over a year (Sep 2013-Oct 2014) from the beginning on the design process to obtaining permit plans but we got there finally, after several engineering hiccups and other delays! Thankfully, the weather here has been mild so far so we were able to demolish the old house in October 2014 when the weather was still in the 50sF.   I remember calling my project manager on a Monday to find out when the old house was being torn down and he said, "about 2-3pm". I asked, "today????" "yes today!" So I rushed and pulled out Mini-V from preschool early and we rushed over to the site just as the excavator arrived! The best part was my 4 year-old got to do the first demolition! She sat in the excavator and was not scared. She giggled with excitement as she slammed that claw into the dilapidated roof! I was equipped with my camera and recorded it, priceless!

My 4 year with the contractor in the excavator!

My turn!

We watched for about 30 minutes and then we headed home to relieve the nanny and grab the two little ones who were waking from their naps.  The four of us enjoyed "the show" and even I got to do some demo work!  It was a little nerve racking when the excavator shook with each demo impact!

It wasn't long before JNP arrived and had a blast going for the old garage, reducing it to a pile of bricks and metal.  I am sure we hindered the scrap sorting process but boy were we lucky to have made some memories that day!

JNP climbs in the excavator for his turn...

Since then, it has been fun watching the hole made for the new house, footings erected and concrete poured.  We've encountered some further unanticipated complications along the way (bad soil, working with the water table etc) but I am certain it won't be the last.... isn't that what we should expect with any large project?

The weather is now getting cold and the next steps will be framing and getting walls up.  I have signed off on the window selection and roof so it won't be long before it starts to look like a house!

We are so excited to start this project! Stay tuned for more updates!