Nearly a year ago I ended my last post on the topic of Building the ADU with “The next step: pouring the foundation.” And then, throughout the rest of 2024 and into 2025 – silence here, although I did keep a daily stream of building updates with photos on Facebook . The problem there, now, is that to find the beginning or follow the sequence of what happened requires scrolling down through dozens of posts. I want to have some kind of easily obtainable record for our family to look at – or that others who are interested in the building process can check out. So: back to this blog.
I should have known I couldn’t post here as well as Facebook while also working on scripts with zooms and deadlines (see my Writing page) and manuevering through all the daily decisions, with Buzz, on getting our new house built, including picking out kitchen and bathroom cabinets, showers and sinks and hardware, a stove and refrigerator, dishwasher and washer/dryer, and all the other items that must be decided on and purchased.
And then there was the ordering of whatever supplies our builders needed, be it windows and doors or lumber and nails. When I think of it all now, I don’t know how we did it. Just day by day lists of items that had to be dealt with and then checked off one by one. But we got through it all and now are reaping the reward: the joys of living here.
The phase we’re in now is landscaping. Last summer Hamilton Excavators dug the foundation and put in our septic, and this summer returned to move boulders, bring in topsoil and crushed rock, and seed the new lawn we’re now trying to keep watered . We bought several dwarf blue junipers and a few new perennials and are planting those in front of the porch. We’ve got a long way to go to finish (actually landscaping is never really finished), but sitting on the porch at the end of the day with a glass of wine definitely helps.
Next time: laying the foundation, putting up the frame, and whatever else I can get to…