Slow momentum defreeze

We arrived back on the building site almost a week ago. We found the building site considerably changed, which is quite thrilling!! It starts to look like a real building site now :)!! 
The momentum is slowly coming back, or is it faster then I think? I probably still have to get used to what it means to build a house and the time it takes :).
The wholes in the ground for the foundation have been dug and filled with cement and metal reinforcement. There is also material stored up everywhere ready to be used and it keeps coming... Before yesterday the cement and more metal reinforcement came and yesterday the mason was working on the second round of our foundation, the above ground pillars on which the first floor will be build on.
Now it is obviously full summer here and the afternoon hours are hot. We are still working on strategies on how to deal with the heat without a heat proof shelter. We are currently also not sleeping that well in the trailer. Last year we slept in our great canvas tent and I am missing that, but for now there is no space for that.  I wish I would be more efficient at shaking off the mood the lack of sleep puts me in :), as well as this lingering worry state if-everything-is-really-going-to-happen-without-further-delays, which is probably enhanced by my poor sleep... 
The envisioned schedule for now is, that the wood structure arrives on August 6, the carpenter will start to put it together on the August 20, and beginning of September we will start our part of the work!!!  

Momentum freeze!

It has been a while since my last post. So I feel I should write an update. Unfortunately there is nothing new to say. It continued to rain...Now it stopped, maybe about a week  ago I think, I lost track. The soil finally had a chance to dry, which is good news. 
However, the mason who has to lay the foundation has so much delayed work that we still didn't get our foundation. To be fair the latest we need it is probably the last week of July. So we are probably not on top of the list. At that point though we really need it, because our wood structure is going to arrive...So we are a bit antsy. Will it be done in time? All our plans got really so delayed and changed. 
Because of all this, to distract ourselves while we are waiting and for a bit of change, we decided to go visit my mom and next Monday we will go visit my grandparents. We might miss the foundation laying or not...we will see. For now we enjoy swimming in the river and next week in the Mediterranean Sea. I guess we are working on not loosing that momentum that we had when the excavation started...We freeze it to keep it fresh and defrost it in August :)

The river we swim in ;)

Small steps and grateful for dry shelter

Today we signed the order for the wood frame of our house!! We hoped to do that several weeks ago... So we were quite inpatient about it... We are trying to be cool about the fact, that the delivery will be more then a month later then expected...Still it is happening!!

These last weeks were a further exercise in patience, and I say that with humor not annoyed :). We still couldn't put our foundation in. Our plot is a big mud puddle.Last week we had continuous rain and in the current week it doesn't rain all day anymore, but we get daily thunderstorms in which in short time we get as much water as if it would rain continuously all day...

At this point we are also very grateful, because we are safe and have a dry shelter.  Our caravan is keeping up very well (although we lost our diy awning in a storm, was to be expected...)
Many close neighbors, and villages are experiencing severe flooding.  Roads are closed, because of flooding and mud, and there is continuous weather warning.  

The locals are quite desperate, they tell to not remember ever such a spring...
I find it quite unsettling...especially when in addition, I see news-titles like "record temperatures"  in Scandinavia!!

Here a picture of our muddy terrain. You cannot see it, but it was raining when it was taken. Maybe you notice also that we can park on our driveway now...Which we feel a bit ambiguous about to be honest...but also a bit excited ;)

A little acquisition we made today to help us keep our caravan mud free ;)

Updates: not much new

After the exciting day on Friday not much has moved. To be fair it was the weekend, and Monday was a holiday. Today they compacted our driveway and that was it. 
For a short moment we were quite excited because we were told that tomorrow the foundation builder would be coming and plan out our pillar foundation and there was a good chance that our foundation would be laid on Saturday. Unfortunately, later in the day we were told that he couldn't come before next week. It is still exciting, but there is a hint of disappointment. We are getting so used to waiting, that if we do not see things happening it feels still not real that we are actually doing this... And on the other hand I know there are times ahead of us when we will be very busy. 
So not much new...Will let you know when more happens...However,  we are hopeful and optimistic, it is all part of the learning curve ;) 

The driveway gets compacted

Is this day 1 ?!?!

It's a while I am planning to start this blog, and I was always waiting for the best moment to start. There were a few moments which could have been the best to start :). I think today is one of them, maybe the last best moment to start in time :). I feel intimidated to write this blog, however, I am determined to give it a try and grow into it. So I thank you in advance for your patience, while I am figuring out this blogging-thing! Please ask questions, if you have any or if I am giving too many things for granted ;).

After waiting for weeks, for this or that reason, but lately mostly because of the rain, today the person who levels the terrain on which we will build our house, came!! That was so exciting for us. This feels like day 1.

In reality day 1 is probably when we started to think about doing something new and this house building project started to develop. In between that day 1 and the today day 1 there is all the decision-making, leaving our community with lots of heartbreak, all the emotional work, hopes and doubts (which still come and go daily), many changes of minds, paperwork etc..

Still, today was a big day. It is day 1 of the part of the iceberg that is above the water and is visible. Here some pictures.