On September 21, 2020, with approved permits in hand, we were finally able to break ground on our forever home.
It had been a long time coming since we sold our first house in the spring of 2018. We had no idea it would take us over two years before we would start construction on the next house, but I am a believer that most things happen for a reason. As frustrating such a delay had been, if we had pushed forward in 2018 just for the sake of moving on, we would have missed out on our dream property and finding the perfect house for us to build.
While it may not have seemed like starting construction in the middle of a pandemic was the best idea, it felt like the right timing for us.
Because we acted as our own general contractors and Andy was doing the majority of the work himself, we weren’t extremely reliant on the availability of subs. As you can imagine, this helped tremendously and we even managed to stay ahead of skyrocketing material costs and delays.
When we bought our property, there was an abandoned house that was beyond repair. We tore it down a few months after purchasing the property so we would have a clean slate to work with.
All that remained of the original house was a hole where the basement was which we ended up filling in because we decided to move the placement of our house to maximize the lake views and utilize the hill for a walk out basement.
When it was time to officially break ground, we rented a small excavator that Andy and his dad operated and the guys got to work digging out the basement. We also had to remove a few small trees and some underbrush, but for the most part, it was a seemingly smooth process that completely transformed an empty plot of land to a full blown construction site.
Maybe even more impressive, Andy and his dad were able to accomplish it all in just one day.
