Metamorphosis

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Everything feels a little like this right now: something wonderful emerging out of the cocoon of multiple layers of fill.

Everything also feels like pure exhaustion, and something like terror. Between yesterday and today, our crew accomplished so much more than we ever thought possible that we're way ahead of where we expected to be right now.

Which means, of course, more and greater financial outlays much earlier than expected.

This was the beginning of our day:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Two guys from the plumbing crew back to lay the conduit for the fiber-optic cable. We got it installed, after a two-year+ delay, a week or two ago, when we had no idea whether we'd be able to get the house under way by this point. [For the record, the delay has always been about finding labor. The European billionaire hedge-fund manager who bought up the Ski Valley (and lots of other choice land around here) has sucked up every decent contractor and laborer onto his projects, and he's spreading money all over the county. (The media-labeled "billionaire environmentalist" is also blasting the peaks, but that's another story.) It's been impossible to find anyone willing to take on what they refer to as our "little project." Until now, with the sudden availability of one of Wings's oldest friends, with incredible skills and an energy flow that works well with ours.]

At any rate, while these two guys pick-and-shoveled the line and installed the conduit, our builder and his helpers got to work on the pad. He had also arranged to rent a roller (and driver!) for two hours for one very modest lump sum, and here he and the roller operator are busy with the base course:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

If you've never seen, up close, what those rollers can do, trust me: They're amazing. That pad is smooth and solid. 

Meanwhile, one his other guys was at work with the lumber, cutting batter boards. Yes, it's a whole new language. Wings has the hang of it much better than I:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Batter boards, neatly cut, stacked, and ready to go.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

[For those who don't know, these are used to ensure that the measurements are accurate and the site is level.]

In the meantime, the guy from the gravel company bumped us up ahead of some others to deliver [I hope] the last load of base course:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

In the middle of all of this controlled chaos, our electrician showed up to check in with the builder on a couple of details:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Then the guys got to work on finishing the pad and the laborious work of measuring:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

String theory:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Their angles are solid. This was what it looked like at four o'clock this afternoon:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

And now, we have three days in which to juggle expenses and get the next round of materials ordered. Our builder has to get his hay in, so he's taking tomorrow along with Saturday and Sunday, and we are not only cool with that — we want him to do it. Because people have lives, and families, and obligations, and stuff that has to get done, and we get it. We are not the center of his or any other universe. We want this to be profitable for him and the other workers, and not an undue source of stress for any of us.

But we have a packed week ahead. On Monday, we're supposed to put $2K down on the plumbing materials for the house itself, and probably another $2K on foundation materials and adobes. Monday they hope to spend on the footing; Tuesday on the rebar; and they're talking about having the pallets of adobe brick here potentially as early as Wednesday. We'll need to come up with another $6K to get the plumbing roughed in, and that will need to happen pretty soon, too. 

Rather than extend the life of this particular stage of the YouCaring fundraiser, we're going to try our best to close it out in the days to come. Once that happens, we'll calculate what's needed for the next stages, including the plumbing (very expensive, even before we get to the septic system that has to be completely replaced and relocated). The good thing is that we have confidence in every single person on the job, and it's all being done right.

So here's where I ask everybody to share the link to our YouCaring page again. Tomorrow I'm going to try and see if it'll let me put up a new photo, one that shows what it looks like now. But for now, this is the widget we've got, and I hope everyone will use the page widgets when sharing.

We need another $6K to close this one out, and then we'll see where we are in terms of needs for the next round of materials and labor.

Thank you to everyone for your help thus far, from both of us. I'll likely have more updates tomorrow.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.