dirt to concrete in 144 hours

This was a busy week at the new house. On Monday we had dirt and an old crumbling slab where the new addition would be. We decided to hire someone to dig the footings and pour and finish the slab since we didn't want to screw it up we hadn't ever done it before and Brandon doesn't have time to take off at work right now to learn how to do it. He is completely swamped at work right now because of mid year reviews and he is also being transitioned into a new position. This position will hopefully be a blessing, tho right now is just scary cause it's something new. Even tho he is working 10+ hours a week and has a two hour a day commute he still manages to go out to the house every evening for a while and do what he can. He's pretty much amazing.

I had no idea what a footer was before we started this project

The guy we hired to dig the footing and lay concrete is a local guy who actually lives within a mile of the new house. We felt very comfortable with him, he had a great price and we also like to hire local people. He came out Monday and Tuesday and removed the old slab and dug the footing. I'm glad it was him digging them and not me because the heat has been insane, the average temperature this week was a million degrees 104* and that was before the heat index.

The plumber starting while the footing guys finish up

On Tuesday we also had our plumber come out and start the plumbing. He, like our concrete guy, is from around here and I love him. He reminds me of a sweet grandpa and when he was working told me more than once "well this is above code but I'm doing this like I'd do it in my own house". Oh how I love good old country folks. We are still looking for a framer to build the framing for the addition so on Tuesday we were also getting bids from a few different construction companies. If I had had a hardhat I would have felt like a real contractor!

 

Can't you see it? The master suite and kitchen/dining room?

The plumber finished up on Thursday, on Friday we had the ground treated for termites (a must here in the south) and by Saturday afternoon we had a 840sq foot slab with plumbing in the exact same area that was just dirt 6 days before. Crazy. Having the concrete in place makes this dream of our addition a reality. We are officially one step closer to our dream house. 
Brandon learned how to texture dry wall this week and got most of existing house textured and David and Brandon replaced all the old windows with our new fancy windows. This week my job is to find paint for the house, even tho I'm pretty sure I know what I want already.