The forms are off!

The walls of the foundation look beautiful. We were happy to be able to visit with our oldest son, Blaine, his girlfriend, Kristin, and her mom, Toni, at the farm a couple of days after Christmas. It was beautiful and sunny (and muddy) - a perfect day for a tour.

Here's a people pic :-)

Our guests

I'll take you on the same path as before - clockwise from the parking area (which is the photo above) and ending again at the front door.

view of Southwest corner 

South side (cropped to show sunspace)

Southeast corner

view from East

view of Northeast corner

view from the North (the garage)

And the grand finale: the front door!

The front door from directly West

There may not be much to see in the next group of photos - but maybe. I think the tubing for the radiant heating in the lower level slab will need to go in before the flat work there. So that could be exciting ;-)

Now it has walls

I am doing a little catch up today. We have visited the farm twice since my last post - and celebrated Christmas with the boys and visited with family. I'm sharing photos from our first visit to the farm in this post. I think it was on Dec. 21.

Here we are. Brent is the master of timed self portraits :-)

Just to keep things consistent I have been starting the photos from near the spot where we envision a parking area for visitors. So here it is…

view from parking area

Close-up of entry area (and the view to the South from our kitchen-to-be) 

As before, I continue around our home-to-be in sort of a counter clock-wise direction. Hopefully we can all see how the thing takes shape as I photograph from approximately the same location each time.

view from Southwest corner

 Here's a close-up of the 2 story mass wall that still has forms because it needed a second pour.

Pretty tall :-) 

Continuing around…

Southeast corner

View from East

View of Northeast corner

North (basically, the garage door)

The view of the front door from directly West is pretty neat - even though it won't be the way the entrance will be approached when all is done. But it makes for a dramatic picture and this view should be a nice one for appreciating the progress.

View of front door from West (it's that inside corner)

The forms are in

Brent took a trip to the farm today. A winter storm came through with a lot less precipitation than forecast, so the foundation crew will pour tomorrow. The forms are in, though, and we wanted to make sure we had photos.

Here are just a few:

The front door (it will be in the corner)

View of the Southwest corner

View of the South side (Mass wall is in center)

View of the East side

I'm hoping next post will be the foundation without the forms. Something to note, though, is the Mass Wall. It will actually have another level that will be poured later. I'm thinking it will happen at the same time they pour the pillars under the garage slab and summer kitchen slab. Interestingly, the slabs are poured last.

I am thrilled that it is starting to look like something!

While we wait...

Trying to build the foundation of a home in this weather takes patience. Or perhaps, building a home is an exercise in patience regardless of the time of year. In either case, our challenge is to wait.

While we wait, we shop and try to envision without re-inventing or re-thinking. I have been pouring over Craig's List looking for building materials, lights, etc. And Brent, being the more productive (showing me up!), built this…

South view of model

Northwest corner of model

This is a 1:30 scale model of our new home. Yes, he is talented and can find ways to make things out of material bound for the landfill better than anybody I know. He scaled the plans and used a laser cutter over a weekend to build this. It is really fun to peek in the windows.

The large tan area on the north side of the model is the garage. He actually has walls and trusses for it, but hasn't had time to assemble those yet.

We love the look of the house. And it's been fun putting it near a window to see how far into the house rays of sun will shine. Those mass walls in the sunspace should be able to warm up most of the day and then slowly release that warmth for us all night.

The model has displaced my Christmas cactus in the center of our dining room table. It's a much better display and conversation starter.

More to come soon!

Footings were poured

Today - a very windy but warm November day in Kansas - Brent, Jeremy, and I decided to take advantage of the weather and see the progress on the house.

And we now have footings with lots of rebar.

Footings viewed from East near Summer Kitchen

Here's a link to more pictures from several angles: Footings

Excavation

Well, on October 9-ish, 2013, we finally began building our home (with the help of our builder, Rick Robson). We learned from a text that the excavation had happened.

So, of course, we had to drive out to the farm and take a look. Here's what we saw.

Brent standing at the corner where the garage will meet the house.

In case you'd like to see more photos and views of the excavation, here's a link to the Picasa Web Album: Initial Excavation photos

That weekend we left for a trip to south Missouri. When we returned, there were trenches dug for the footings:

This is the trench for the footing of the South wall of the house.
That is Jeremy, our youngest. He's really a lot taller than that. The trench is only 4' deep.

And last week, forms were built for the footings. After the trenches were dug our area received A LOT of rain and then more rain. But, eventually things dried out. On my birthday, we took the day off work to see how things were going and meet Steve Mann to get some idea about the garden space. Here's how the forms were shaping up.

Forms for footings - not finished.

Still not much to look at, but we're starting to get a good idea how big rooms will be downstairs and can image a little better how well we've captured the views. We are loving it!

Our little piece of heaven - in the beginning

In October 2011 Brent and I embarked on a journey that began with the spotting of a little "For Sale by Owner" sign on a hill. You couldn't see the property from the road - just the hill. But once you drive over the hill...well, that's when you see the possibility.

So here is a little tour of what we saw:

A little cinder block house

A beautiful view East, South, and West

A ton of grass (aka a pasture)

An old cinder block garage 

...And trash

There was a lot of trash (less now, but still a lot). And, yet, we thought, "You know, that could work!"

The hill slopes off to the South and East, perfect for the home we wanted to build. There is a small well. It's only a few miles from 3 towns, only 5 more miles from our work and the same commute time. Hmmm.

So Brent did some figuring and thinking and made a big decision. He chose to convert his cash into this solid as earth investment. And we gained a little piece of heaven to care for and love.

Then we really started to dream...and plan... :-)

A NEW LIFE

Well, my beautiful home in Missouri finally has someone to care for it again. The Fredricksons fell in love with my garden and the sweet koi in my pond (and I immediately fell in love with them). It is such a relief to know the place I loved so much will still be loved. Thank you Stella and Kurt.

Now my husband Brent and I can begin to focus more energy and time pursuing our dreams. This blog will help us chronicle the building of our energy efficient, passive solar home and the creation of our more sustainable life on 10 acres in Tonganoxie, Kansas. The current picture in the header was taken the day Brent bought our property about two years ago.

Although this blog space will consist of me jotting down thoughts weekly, Brent will chime in occasionally, too.

We've already made progress and have broken ground on the new home. So I have quite a bit of catching up to do to bring the story up to date. Be prepared for frequent entries for a while since there are a lot of photos to share :-)

Update on the Prairie Garden

At the end of June in 2010 I wrote about my pitiful planting of prairie flowers and grasses. So I wanted to show you how it turned out.

First, here's how the original planting in the hard-packed clay looked shortly after the sunroom was finished:

Not very pretty. Well, it's a little better now, 3+ years later. Here's a view from approximately the same angle:

That's a little better. And, by the way, I have to say that this is the first year that the Prairie Dock (large leaved plant in the foreground) has really looked beautiful.

But this view doesn't really do the planting justice. Here's a view from the front door:

And even better...here's another view from the street:

And finally, here's a view from my favorite place - the sunroom. (notice I finally broke down and got a few koi for my pond)

Yep! For me this is heaven. And it's right there out my window. The best part is that it only requires about one day a week of maintenance to look this pretty. The rest of the time it's just pretty. Of course, I can't look for very long without wanting to be out in it :-).

Happy planting!