Framing and floor joists

They have finished framing the basement and laid the floor/ceiling today. It's a floor/ceiling because it's the ceiling of the basement but the floor of the main level. I have lots more pictures than this, but I can tell, from the lack of comments, that nobody finds this quite as interesting as I do. Not that it's a big deal if you comment. You can still come stay with us, even if you don't say a single word during the next three months. :)

Framing

They started framing the basement last week. They scored the floor and put in the outside wall frames. I'll get up there again this week to take pictures of the inside basement walls, which should be done tomorrow, since they'll be putting the floor joists in. Isn't this exciting!?

Floor

They poured the basement floor last Wednesday. A large area of it will be stained and left as "the" floor, while the bedrooms will be carpeted.

Stem Walls!

The crazy spring weather in Moab put production back a couple of days, but our builder's crew is working hard anyway. They poured the cement for the stem walls today. Of course I have pictures. Sorry if I'm the only one who thinks this is absolutely fascinating.

Footings

As promised, here are some pictures of the footings (and the crew getting ready to pour the stem walls). Also, to answer the question Meesa asked in the comments of the previous post, there aren't any other houses around because we are building in a new neighborhood. Our house is the first one. That also means that we are getting a great deal from our builder because he wants to use our home to attract homebuyers for future sales. Our property is only 1/3 of an acre, but it sure beats that little townhome in Fort Lauderdale, right?

The New House

It's been awhile, blog followers (you few, you proud, you undaunted by the sporadic and unfulfilling nature of this family blog)! But we have news of the best kind. We love Moab! We want to stay here a long time! So we are building a house!

Sorry about all the exclamation points. It's very exciting for us -- something we've always dreamed of doing. Shaunna's mission buddy, Eric Roberts, is an architect. He helped her draw up the plans. We signed the papers and broke ground a couple of weeks ago. We'll be posting pictures of the house's progress periodically, although we say it now and we'll keep on saying it: it won't look nearly as good on camera as it will in person, so start planning your Moab vacation now. We're going to have six bedrooms. Of course we'll have room for you. :)

So here are some photos of the excavation. They did the footings last week, and Shaunna will probably get up and and take some photos of those this afternoon to post soon. It might just look like a bunch of dirt, but -- hey, it is a bunch of dirt! But it will be a sweet house in just four months or so. Hard to believe, but very exciting. So here's the dirt.