Taking on the project of a custom build is a feat in and of itself, but when you’re also acting as your own general contractor, well, let’s just say we’re learning what a job that is!
We’ve had countless days already of having to drop everything to go take care of something that had to be done immediately. A couple days ago, I was at Walmart and Austin called me needing links to the exact bathtub, shower base and faucets I had picked out for the master because the plumber was at the site and needed to know right then. I had a cartful of stuff and babies. Austin called me back two minutes later to tell me the plumber said my faucet would not work. So I had to research bathtub faucets right there in the car and make a decision asap. Talk about having to be decisive!
Here’s our land prior to starting construction!
Week One of construction was getting dirt work done.
We thought we were so lucky that our land is so stinking flat. “Dirt work will be so easy and cheap,” we said. Turns out there is such a thing as TOO flat! It makes total sense, but we honestly didn’t even think about it. We had to bring in 6 truck loads of dirt to raise the house for drainage purposes.
Week Two was footings!
I’ve never seen this part of the process in person so this was super interesting to me. The footings are poured all around the perimeter of the house – where the exterior walls are. They’re poured several feet down and they tie them into the slab for support and strength. It was really weird to see a giant hole all around the perimeter of our house! It’s also super deceiving because it looked like our house was TINY. Like as in, we had a heart attack when we saw it. But looks can be deceptive – we measured and everything was right on!
Once the footings were poured we had the plumber come out to stub up for the drains. This is where I found out my dream bathtub faucet was not going to happen in this house. You can read more about why here.
Now we’re on Week Three – just waiting for slab to be scheduled!
