They are digging it the old-fashioned way!

Wow! We were surprised to see that the crew digging the footers is digging by hand. We really expected some kind of small excavator with the heavy, hard packed clay soil we have around here. I cannot imagine what hard work it is, especially as hot as it is now. Ugh. There were several empty gallon water bottles lying around the site, so they must drink lots and lots of water. Bob (the owner of Sound Foundations) told us that Arturo (the crew leader) said that they will probably work tomorrow. They don't celebrate the 4th of July since the crew doing the digging are all Hispanic. They said they will be ready for the building inspector to check their work by Wednesday - then the pest control people will come in with termite prevention treatment, then they'll pour the footers. I like progress. :-)

Dad - Walton says for you to come on down and pick up some firewood. We have it all stacked and ready to go:

no basement walls yet

The foundation guys have not started working yet. The crew leader's wife had a new baby this week, so he has been on "maternity leave". He will be back to work Monday (despite the holiday Tuesday) and they told us they will start work then. Walton was able to meet with the owner of the foundation company on Thursday and they worked out exactly how the house will sit. So, I guess that will save some time when they are ready to start work.

I was happy to get sketches of our kitchen cabinet layout in the mail from the kitchen planner today. The layout looks great on paper - I can't wait to see the real thing. Here is the style of cabinet door we chose:


A side note - Walton has been gone all day helping some friends tile their kitchen. While he was gone, the boys and I tiled our little tiny bathroom here at the rental house with some of those sticky tiles. (you can laugh now.) Woo-hoo! It was a once in a lifetime adventure! The tiles are supposed look like slate - a big huge improvement over the yucky linoleum that was in there - especially considering that it only cost about $30. Kyle was awesome with helping my non-mathematical mind figure out how to trim the tile to fit around the toilet. I can't wait for Walton to see it. Now, if I could just figure out how to camouflage the lovely baby blue tub.....