Men and Their Machines and Buyer's Remorse

Only two days later: the footing and the foundation walls are poured!

Looking north across the future master bedroom, kitchen and mudroom.

After decades of dreaming, the day finally arrived last Friday.  When I left for work, the new house was but a dream of mere stakes and flags.  When I arrived home, it was a big hole in the ground.  Progress!

Tuesday morning, before the dogs had been fed, men began arriving.  That evening I met an old friend for dinner so I did not get home until late that night.  I was tired so decided to wait until morning to take pictures.  When I woke up at 3 am, I could not wait any longer to at least see what had been done.  Taking the lantern, I ventured out into the cold.  I was shocked to discover all of the footings had been formed and poured!  In one day.  I considered getting the camera but decided to wait until dawn. 

Waiting was a mistake.  Wednesday morning, men began arriving before I had fed the horses!  Thank God I was dressed already.  (Sometimes I go to the barn in my nightgown.)  I was too shy to take any pictures with so many men arriving. Besides, I needed to get my car out of the way to make room for the big trucks and equipment trailers. 

I admit that I left work about 20 minutes early so I could speed homeward.  I was amazed to find that all of the foundation walls had been formed and poured.  In one day!  I was stunned.  I think I have been programmed by the big industrial construction sites I have watched go up.  They take a lot longer than a small house.

I am highly prone to buyers remorse, so when the outline of the house seemed tiny to me, my heart sank a bit.  I think (hope) it is an optical illusion.  My sister-in-law who built several very nice and much larger homes over the years always had a moment of regret when the house looked so much smaller than she imagined, usually as we were standing in the middle of a framed-in room larger than any house I had ever lived in.  I hope this is my only moment of doubt.  How will I fit my furniture in there?!  Maybe I should forget about the garage and have Dan build that space into a living room.  It is not too late!  But actually, it is too late.  Any changes now will cost a lot of extra money, so I am staying the course.  There will be many times in the future when it is pouring rain but I will gratefully step out of my car into a dry garage, or when the world is covered in thick frost but none that has to be scraped from the windows of my Ford.  When energy rates cause the utility bills to double and triple what they are now, I will be quite satisfied living in a hobbit house.

All that psychosis aside, I am thrilled.  And once again the miracles men and their machines accomplish astonishes me.  All that cooperative hunting and gathering produced a marvelous evolutionary product.  Men who build things are just soooooo sexy!