"To Everything, Turn, Turn, Turn..."

The time between this

and this

was almost exactly one year. ONE YEAR of seemingly no progress building our house. The first pic is of Little G on April 29, 2006 inspecting the log peeling process. The second pic is Slightly Bigger G overseeing the end of the lot clearing and the beginning of the foundation dig on May 5, 2007. And, for a woman who was so Eh about building a house to begin with, I quickly became an impatient armchair housebuilder. The logs have to WHAT? Season? Just slap 'em up and call it a day.

Anne's housebuilding lesson #1: If you ain't sweatin', you keep the trap shut.

Apparently, a new log will warp and twist and such as it dries. Which you want to happen in a lovely little stack on the ground and not fastened together as a house... unless you want your windows to pop out in the middle of the night letting in all the red squirrels to jump on your bed. But I digress.... So, the Husband stacked up all the bald logs in two piles and built little temporary roofs over them and let them sit. For a year. Although, technically, most of them seasoned for almost two years before they got to leave their little stacks and become our house. And, since we had nothing to do for a year, we decided to have another baby. Because, every family living in a small two-bedroom apartment should have a second child, right? Especially when they won't be able to move into the home they're building for several years.

Anne's housebuilding lesson #2: Like a frustrating ride on a city bus, building a house is full of starts and stops.

Because, although we only progressed from quietly slumbering stacks of logs to a cleared lot in one year, we jumped from milestone to milestone that summer and it felt like we were really cookin'.

5-22-07 digging foundation .............

6-29-07 Bob smoothing concrete footers ....

8-1-07 Concrete forms (basement walls) .....

8-19-07 Radiant floor heat tubing ....

9-14-07 sill logs being placed .........

10-25-07 little, stubby, glorious walls!

And then, WINTER. (can't you just hear the cartoon SCREEEECH of brakes?)

11-19-07

Winter in the North Country has a way of putting the ol' kyebosh on outdoor projects. So, the bus stopped again and we all got off this time. And put on wool socks and sweaters.

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Tune in next time when the Husband elucidates on the process and I take a nap.