Just look at this beautiful round number.

Thanks to so many friends, we hit our goal today for Stage II of our fundraising effort to build a home.

I still can't believe it.

Of course, Stage III is bearing down on us in a matter of hours, not days, but there'll be time tomorrow to put that together. No rest for the weary OR the wicked. But for now, I just want to look at this. I mostly can't see it, because my eyes are leaking.

But the crew made real progress today, so I want to post some photos, too. The cinder block is now all in, and they did an absolutely beautiful job.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

The foam has been cut, and it gets tarred in tomorrow morning:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

That actually occurs second; first of all, the plumbers are coming to do the earliest stages of the rough-in, digging the conduits for laying pipe. They'll be here at seven o'clock, which means I need to drag my ass out of bed at five.

Now, get a load of this foundation work:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Look at how straight that line is. It's all like that.

We've had a change of plans over the course of the day. The adobe pallets were going to be delivered tomorrow, but what with the plumbers coming and the need to get the rough-in and foam done and the slab poured, they're pushing it back to Monday, probably. Then the walls go up for real.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Here's what it looked like this afternoon, ahead of the storm that didn't come.

And here's what it looks like tonight, after they knocked off for the day:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Close-up above; distance below:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

And we would not be to this point without the help of every single person who has given us a hand since we started this process last fall. We can't thank you enough.

Of course, it all starts up again tomorrow. I'll be launching Stage III of our fundraiser, to help with this phase of the plumbing, wiring, walls, and windows.

Tomorrow, there'll be new photos and more progress to show. For tonight, we're both just profoundly grateful to be this far along. Wings can see the house in his mind's eye. I'm not entirely there yet, whether because I simply don't have the architectural mindset that will convert those spatial concepts to images, or because I still don't quite fully believe that it's happening. Mostly the latter, I suspect. But it is happening, and it's happening thanks to all of you.