PROGRESS! (A Little Bit of a Driveway.)

I know (or, well, at least I assume) that a driveway going in is usually not a landmark moment for home builders. Probably a side note lost in the more exciting business of the actual house. But for us, the driveway going in is a very big deal! It means there will actually be a way for construction vehicles to get over all of the muck and mud leading to where our home will be built! 

After YEARS of work, and money, and stress, we have a building permit! And the house is even staked out! 

And when I drove over yesterday to feed our steers and saw the drive being put down, it felt very VERY exciting! It's just a gravel drive. Not something that would make most hearts beat faster, but I can hardly keep from driving over several times a day to see the progress on that driveway! I guess because it's progress in general! After so much time of pauses and roadblocks, progress is so great!

This wasn't any real driveway anything being put down. But several weeks ago, the guy doing it just came and sort of carved out roughly where it would go. This is looking from where the house will be out towards the road.

But then yesterday there were actual piles of dirt being moved out of the way as the path was created in earnest, and some type of thick material was being rolled out to stop the mud from eating all the gravel, and loads of gravel/base stuff were being dumped and spread out.

A view looking out towards the road.

This is looking from the road in towards where the house will be. You can see the black tarp roll they have begun spreading as well as the first load of gravel.

Hans and Starling came back in the evening with me and Mike and were thrilled to have two dump trucks arrive to empty their loads while we were there.

From the road turning into the driveway and heading down towards the house. (You can see piles of moved earth off to the right. They look much larger in person, and I wonder ... what we do with them?)

The black material stuff and gravel/dirt being spread over it.

I was there again today. It's been windy and pouring rain all day, so nobody appeared to be doing anything, but the drive was carved the rest of the way back to where the house will start!

Looking out towards the road.

You can see they have about half spread in gravel. You can even spot an orange stake marking the house just to the right of the drive.

The way, for all of time, that we have entered the property is further south by the barn. So, while we've stood on the spot where the house will be many times, it's been hard to really imagine turning into the property at that spot and driving back there. And I'm so excited. I think it is the best spot on the entire farm for the house to be! It doesn't interrupt any of the area where family come to ride 4-wheelers, picnic, or play on the dock; but it isn't so far north that it feels separate from that area. Rather it connects the "fun" area more perfectly to the further pastures where cows, etc. will continue to be kept. (I honestly had never even walked on that section of the farm until recent years, so it will be nice to have the house making it feel more closely connected and a part of things. Plus, many of the trees Mike's dad put in are near this spot. I'm so grateful to him for the trees he put in! 

There was a moment in all of the craziness of the last years when, due to the high water table in the area, it looked like we might have to choose a different location to place the house. I knew anywhere on the farm would be fine, but I felt so sad at the prospect of not having it built right there! And I'm so happy Mike discovered a high, dry spot just a little way further back!