Heading For The Light

I've been listening to the Traveling Wilburys lately and it struck me that I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel lately, and so the title for this post. I felt like such a turd after my last post for complaining so much because I have had it so good. I have just been trying to keep an accurate record of the ups and downs of building this house for those of you out there who might be considering building one of your own. It is hard. There are times when I have thought I was out of my mind for trying this, especially the paying for it as I go part. The guys at work who have built their own houses have all asked me how much weight I have lost so far. Not, have I lost any but , how much? For the record, 28 pounds so far. I have kind of leveled off now as far as that goes but the stress of this is hard. I think it is more mental now because I am so close to moving in. When you are very far from that in the beginning, you don't dwell on thoughts of living there etc. but now, all I can think of is what all I can do and what it is going to be like to actually live in MY house. But I have had so much help with Allen and the guys at work too getting me salvageable material etc. Even the architect.
OK, these photos are from some work we did this past weekend. Allen had rented a backhoe to do some work on his land so he scooped out this section for me to put the propane tank. The top photo is where the parking area is going to be and we graded on that just a little bit, then he dug this little area over to the side and scratched out the trench for the gas line. The line will enter the house right under the stone work so it is sort of a straight shot. Allen was proud that I decided on something simple. I will build a little retaining wall against this bank (there will be several retaining walls in this area for the parking etc.) and plant some shrubs and stuff to hide the tank. Hopefully, we can get the gas lines ran, the living room painted and the scaffolding completely down over the Thanksgiving holiday.
I finally finished grouting the shower this weekend! I just need to clean the tile and lay the final few pieces that I was short when they come in. I also located my power outlets on the new kitchen wall ( no actual wiring yet though) and cleaned up around the house. It had rained a little recently so we finally burned a couple of brush piles that have been around for months. Clumsy me fell against an iron pot that I had a small fire in and burnt my shoulder. Now I'll have a nice scar to show off at the Christmas party when I finally get to wear that nice sleeveless dress. Oh well, it will match all the others.