Brush-burning, plumbing, and lots of dirt!

A couple of weeks ago, while Matt was chopping wood, our neighbor Scott stopped by with his son and asked if he could burn the brush in our back yard.  Matt was thrilled, and Scott did a fabulous job.  No more brush piles (at least until we do more work down by the river)!

View from the backyard, facing east toward the river:

Earlier this week, plumbing was installed, and Matt captured some photos of that as well:

Next they brought in some dirt and some sand:

View from the south side of the house, facing north (our north neighbors have a beautiful, tree-filled front yard that we will be able to see from our kitchen window over the sink):

Every time we go out to visit the site, we are amazed at how high up the house is going to sit.  We already knew we had a beautiful view of the river, but now we're seeing that our ranch-style house with a walk-out basement will be level with (or slightly higher) than the street with a gorgeous view of the trees, river, and the east bank.  And our neighbor to the west  has a huge back yard directly across from our house with a pretty windmill.  The only house directly in our line of site is to the south.

They are getting ready to pour the basement floor this week:

We went to the Wichita Area Builders Association Home Show at Century II on Saturday and attempted to educate ourselves on the cost, durability, and maintenance for counter tops, flooring, and cabinets.  Matt snapped a few photos ...

One granite counter installer said his installations of granite start at $29 a square foot (pretty inexpensive ... to good to be true?).  

Consumer Reports likes quartz (thanks, Dad!), but we're also curious about Corian, which is less expensive and still looks pretty.  Even the granite and quartz guys don't recommend setting hot pots directly on the counters.  We know how to use trivets, so Corian could be the way to go if we find the look we want.

Here are some tiles we liked for the walk-in shower, maybe ...

This color seems like a cool kitchen backsplash color ... we're digging the subway tile look but with a hint of color.

And here are videos of one bozo who's super excited about the new house:

Thanks for reading!  Until next time ... 

Pouring the Foundation!

Late this past week, Matt visited the site and took video of the builders pouring the walls.  Here's the video (look how cute he is!):

And here are some fun photos from today, Jan. 30:

Pouring the footing!!

During the last week of January, our builder poured the footing, and Matt took lots of photos.  Here is a sampling:

Digging the basement

Well, things have been rolling right along in 2016!  This past week, the builder began digging the basement:

And Matt continued chopping wood from the Silver Maple:

Silver Maple Tree Removal

Wichita Tree Service came out on Dec. 30-31 to remove the large Silver Maple in the middle of the lot.  We had hoped to keep the tree, but it's location and age made it a likely culprit for damaging our new home at some point in the near future.

Here's a video Wichita Tree Services posted on its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/495164193887633/videos/959022474168467/

And here are some photos we took:

This is Matt and Robert watching the video of the tree falling at the site after we arrived:

House Demolition!

The excavator arrived on Dec. 16, and Matt was there to capture it on video.  That is one big honkin' machine.  Here's the video:

Next we have some photos from Matt's sister Linda:

Finally, Matt captured what the property looked like after the demo on video later that day when he got off work:

And here's a video of Matt's preparation to take down a tree out back:  

He didn't have time to create a video of the results of his tree trimming, so we don't have documentation of that.  Bummer.

Today, a company will take down a large Silver Maple in the middle of the property.  And we hope to break ground on the new house soon ...