For a three hour tour, a three hour tour

We are having a bit of a weather delay over this way, but thank you Mother Nature for bringing the rain!! We could do without the tornadoes but we very much appreciate the precip. The dust is now mud -- lots of mud. Prior to the weather, though, we were progressing quite nicely. Even Saturday was a working day for the land peppers...I mean preppers. Two wood chippers where brought up to the house sight, and seven guys fed those chippers until those chippers could eat no more. And the result...mulch and lots of it. Now my pitch to you: free untreated, completely natural mulch for the taking (located at the foot of our hill). We opted to have it dumped there so we could take care of it rather than have the chipper dudes haul it away for us; we're not paying for that!


Since we are having an indefinite rain delay, here is a drier, much more dusty photo tour from the middle of our driveway, up the hill, around the housesite, and back down to the bottom of the hill.

Middle of the driveway. Notice how the Civic made it halfway up. She's not yet brave enough to attempt the second half.

Noel trekking it up the driveway. At the top is the house site. We're pretty sure we're going to have buns of steel before this house is finished.

View of the house site from the top of our driveway. (To orient you, the front yard is to the left and the driveway is directly behind the pic.)

Our front yard. Dear bulldozer dude, I really appreciate you sparing our lovely dogwood trees. Much love, The Whites.

Silly backhoe dude, you should never leave your toys just lying around!

In a few months, the house will sit on the bald spot. Noel at this point would probably be standing in the screened-in porch.

Traveling back down the driveway from the house site.

The view from the middle of our driveway (at the edge of the woods).

Sure beats street lights and subdivisions!

A moment of silence for the trees that once towered over our house site. 

On another note, we are in the process of getting bids from three different geothermal companies, who use three different system brands, in three different towns. We are taking a very active role in this home building process. We get bids. We compare. This whole house thing consumes us right now. On our days off, we are at the site. Noel and I are definitely A-type personalities (myself much more than Noel...at this point my mom is vehemently agreeing with that statement), so we want to make sure we are getting the best product for the best price. Granted, there are plenty of people who pay a contractor to build their house and don't give it a second thought until the keys are handed to them. Not us, though. This is our forever home, and we are picky!