by Alison Moore Smith | Dec 4, 2009 | Design Your Own House, for Home
Today we saw the first real sign of construction. Sure, we'd had some excavation. But that's digging down. This was the first, serious, tangible sign of building up. Seeing the forms in place and prepped and the cement poured in was a wonder to behold! Construction!...
by Alison Moore Smith | Dec 2, 2009 | Design Your Own House, for Home
City building inspector came out. Bad news. Preliminary information wrong. Too much clay in soil. Must dig trenches all around foundation. Must bring out gravel sprayer truck. Must fill trenches with immense amounts of gravel before pouring footings. Ugh. That will...
by Alison Moore Smith | Dec 1, 2009 | Design Your Own House, for Home
In 1991, six years after we married, Sam finished his PhD in electrical engineering. By that time we had two children. Read that: poor. Also read that: apartment dwellers. By the time we were done, I vowed never again to have bare, white walls in any home. 18 years...
by Alison Moore Smith | Nov 30, 2009 | Design Your Own House, for Home
After all the years of waiting and planning, digging the hole was almost anticlimactic. In our last home, the hole was a cavernous expanse. In this home…well…it wasn't. Because of the depth of the sewer line running down our street, the basement can't be very deep. If...
by Alison Moore Smith | Nov 25, 2009 | Design Your Own House, for Home
No hole yet. But there is a large, very orange piece of construction machinery sitting squarely on my lot. I grabbed my daughter, Belinda, and my camera, ran over, did the happy dance, and took some pictures. The neighbors are worried.
by Alison Moore Smith | Nov 23, 2009 | Design Your Own House, for Home
Last May—after some deliberation about being owner-builders—we decided to hire a construction supervisor or a general contractor, to manage the bulk of the build. We received a great response and, understandably, have since been asked repeatedly about the outcome....
