The New House: Phase 3 Continued...

The concrete is now poured and set. The boards are laying near the street ready for the workers to attach them to the foundation next week. We are getting so excited to see the house starting to form. We can see the shape of the house (though at times it looks super small) and are imagining where everything is going to go. Chris is planning out the backyard and the sprinkler system, where his putting green is going to go and what trees we are going to plant. I can't wait to meet with the builder and make the final decisions on flooring colors, cabinets, counter tops, though all that is still quite a ways off still.

Center post in garage where the 2 garage doors meet.

Standing in the laundry room looking into the family room/kitchen/master bed/bathroom. Looks small huh?

Front porch area looking at the 2 extra bedrooms.

Living room and kitchen area.

The first boards are there waiting to be put up.

The night that the foundation was poured Chris went over and carved in to the center beam concrete and the conrete just below the front door "1 Cor. 3:11-15" which reads:

"For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's work will become clear, for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."

We pray that when "the Day" comes for our work to be judged that we will endure the fire. We pray for God's blessings over our new house and our life that we will build on His foundation, Jesus Christ. That we will be used for His purpose and will.

Colors of Fall

Fall is definitely here with all the trees changing colors and the temps dropping. It has been getting pretty cold here but we are still able to wear short sleeves on the majority of the days. Most evenings we are lighting fires in our wood stove to keep warm, but the daytime we can do without. We borrowed a wood splitter from Chris' brother Alan (thanks Alan!!!) and have begun splitting all the rounds that we cut. Wood splitters make life so much easier.

Heading into town from the peninsula.

The meadow on the way out of town heading towards the peninsula.

I love this picture. The orange and yellow with the smokey color of the fir tree.

This is a house on the street that I live on right now.

The New House: Phase 3

These pictures were taken yesterday. The forms for the foundation are up and ready for the concrete to be poured probably on monday. The workers out there said that they should have the boards to start framing the house attached to the concrete foundation this week as well. You can see the house to the left of ours is also ready for their concrete to be poured.

The forms are ready but empty.....

Looking from the street into the garage

Repeating ourselves....

Woodcutting continues....we found another tree that someone else had cut and it fell into another tree and just left it. There were rounds already cut and laying next to it. We cut that one up and then decided we had room for another tree. Chris helped me start the tree and I finished cutting it and pushing it over.

It was fun and we are going to get more tomorrow morning then off to a movie in Susanville (closest movie theater is 45 min. away) with Chris' parents.

The New House: Phase 2

Construction has begun on the property. They are building up the dirt for the foundation and have marked off the house location with string and spray paint on the ground. These are actually a little old now, since we drove past this afternoon and they are now digging into the packed dirt to pour the concrete footings for the house. We also noticed that they are working on the lot just to the left of ours and also 2 lots to the right of us. Guess we'll have neighbors after all.

The raised packed dirt for the house

Chris walking the property line

The spray paint markings and string out line of house

More photos to come as the framing will hopefully begin this next week. Things are on schedule right now for what the builder has told us....it would be amazing if it remains that way throughout the building process.

Time for wood cutting!!

Well after signing the house contract, we decided it was a good time to look for fire wood. As we were driving down the dirt roads we came across a tree that someone had tried to fall but it ended up landing in the tree across the road. Guess they thought it would be to hard to cut up so they left it. It worked out perfectly for Chris and I to cut it, plus we needed to clear the road to get the truck through. By the time that we were done, only the very top of the tree was still left hanging from the trees across the road. Couldn't believe someone left a perfectly good Lodge Pole laying there!!! That kind of wood is like gold around here.

Ooops!! Guess they missed their target..... a bit.

Chris cutting up the tree

No more tree across the road!!

My strong husband!!

Today was a great start to our 3 day weekend. Only a few more trips for wood and we will be nice and warm all winter long (which isn't too far off, it was 39 degrees out when I left for bible study this morning at 9:30 am).

God has truly blessed us today with the signing of the house contract and then the Lodge Pole that was just sitting there ready for us to take it. It took us less than an hour to get a truck load of wood. That is very fast!! We have seen so many blessings in our lives.

The New House: Phase 1

We are now officially in the process of building our new house!!! We are told that our move in date will be May 1, 2009. It is a 3 bedroom 2 bath house on 1/3 of an acre, within walking distance from the lake. We will not have any neighbors behind us and the ones to either side have yet to be built. It is a very new development on the out skirts of town called "Vision Lake" homes. Here are the pictures of where our new home will be built. The builder will have people out there digging the footings for the foundation this next week.

Here is from across the street facing our lot

This is the front right property marker and Chris is almost at the very back property marker

From the back left side of the property looking out to street.

We don't have very many neighbors yet.

The neighbors that are down the street to the left if walking out the front door (when it is built)

To get to the Lake Almanor we just have to walk out the front door and turn to the right.

Across the street is a little walking path to the edge of the lake!!

More pictures to come next week when the construction gets underway.

Welcome to our new blog

Welcome to Chris and Stephanie's blog. We are starting this blog to use as a journal of events and to help family and friends that live far away feel more in touch with what is going on in our everyday lives. Recently we have been house hunting and have come across the possibility of having a house built up here in northern California. Once things are more official, we will get some pictures of the neighborhood and the progress of the building. We are in negotiations and will keep you all updated.

We hope you all enjoy our new blog!!