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Sunday March 14, 2004

After many, many months of excessive patience, Sarah and I are excited to announce that the construction of our new townhouse is finally underway! Regardless of how much progress is made on the house, however, I am afraid we will forever refer to it as "our pile of dirt" simply because it is this stage that has became tattoed on our memories.

Level Dirt

Level dirt at least showed some signs of life.

The very first sign of life in the construction process came when "our pile of dirt" was first leveled. While certainly not a notable step, it woke up the critters in the soil and signified that the building process was on its way! In fact, after "our pile of dirt" was leveled, we had our preconstruction meeting with Korin, the sales associate and Kenny, the project manager.

After hearing from Sarah that the footers where in on Wednesday, I was very excited to head on over to the homesite to sneak in a few pictures. Much to my suprise, I was looking down a row of foundations over top of "our pile of dirt."

Foundation

While it is a far cry from Postcard Row, having a foundation show up was a big step.

In fact, the really ironic part is that the salespeople had advised us not to rely on any mail arriving for a few weeks after moving in because the post office is typically slow installing the actual mailbox and therefore cannot deliver mail until that step is completed. Well, I guess the builders should give the sales representatives a heads up, because even the postal service is more on the ball than the builders.

Mailboxes

Perhaps the real problem is that we are missing our house!

One aspect of the lot that we learned about during this trip was the size of our backyard. With no foundation in place, it was a little hard to determine how much of the space was going to be taken up by the house, since simply looking at "our pile of dirt" couldn't really tell us much. Well, now we know, and the good news is that it is going to be decent size. The picture shows that our lot is actually quite a bit longer than the adjacent row of townhouses, which was a welcomed relief since I figured the extra 4-foot extension was going to practically put us in the woods!

Dirt Backyard

Sarah looking around for a rake to get a "feel" for the yard...she agrees, there is much work to be done.

Only because I know you are on the edge of your seats and you just cannot take the anticipation any longer, it is time to reveal the finished product. "What?!" you say. No, I didn't just fast forward time and send you into July, this next picture shows one of the units in a completed set that has the same elevation as our townhouse. It shows approximately what our townhouse will look like when it is finished. If you would rather wait, then stop reading this chapter in the life of "our pile of dirt" and I promise not to show it again until it really is the end.

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Final Product

The difference will be in the details.

That concludes Phase 1, so be sure to tune in next time when "our pile of dirt" meets its new friends, wood framing and scaffolding.

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