• Home
  • Our Farmhouse
    • Starting From Scratch
    • Buy Land… They’re Not Making it Anymore.
    • Building Progress
  • About Me
    • Meet The Blogger
    • Contact Me
  • Disclosure

Sycamore and Slate

Building Our Farmstead - From the Ground Up

Farmhouse, Farmstead, Forever Home, Home Building

Ground Breaking

April 16, 2018

breaking ground at the farm

Well, my friends.  It finally happened.  We broke ground last week on our new farmhouse, and I’ve been in a state of surreal excitement since then.  Here’s a quick breakdown of the building process so far:

Day 1 (Tuesday, 4/10/18):  They skimmed off all the topsoil in the building area.  Afterward, they staked all the corners and bump-outs, and basically laid the house out.  They also marked the setbacks, where they will be digging next.

Day 1

Chad and I had to make some decisions about how we wanted our back patio to look since it wasn’t drawn on our plan.

Day 2 (Wednesday, 4/11/18):  They dug a very big hole in the ground.  We will hopefully, one day, call this hole “the basement”.

day 2

Day 2

Day 3 (Thursday 4/12/18):  The hole got deeper today as they fully finished excavating the basement.

Day 3

Day 3

Our first unexpected change came about when Chad and I noticed that they excavated the entire area under our front/side porch.  Our builder wanted to do it this way because the angle of the hill the house sits on.  Since it was already dug out with the rest of the basement, we asked if we could turn the space under the porch into additional basement storage.  They were just going to fill it back up with stones and concrete after they poured the walls, and it seemed a shame to waste the extra space.

Our builder only had to make a few minor adjustments to allow for this: First, planning for a door in the wall to the room under the porch.  Also, he made a note that the ceiling material would need to change to metal decking to support the concrete that will be poured over it for the porch floor.  And lastly, adding insulation to this space to prevent “raining in your basement” (as our builder put it) and other condensation issues.

Also done today, A silt sock was placed around the perimeter of the building site to help prevent erosion and drainage issues while the team is working over the next months and making a big muddy mess.

day 3

day 3

Day 4 (Friday 4/13/18):  It was an exciting day with lots of “TRACTORS!” as our almost-three-year-old daughter calls all the heavy construction machinery.  She really loves tractors.  They brought in a backhoe to dig trenches for the footers.

We got to the site just in time to watch the cement truck and pump truck work together to pour concrete into the basement.  Evie loved it and when we came back later that night to check out the progress, she informed me sadly that all the tractors were gone.

Cement for Footers

Today was really neat because, by the end of the day, we could really see the layout of the house and get a feel for how it’s going to look eventually.  I’m still in a state of awe and have been feeling oddly humbled and very blessed.

The area shown below will be the basement area under the porch.

footers done

Day 5 (Saturday 4/14/18):  Not much work will be done most weekends, but someone came in to set the pins where the poured walls will be in the basement.  We expect the basement walls to likely be done next week.

So there you have it.  One week down, many more to go.  It’s been a great start and I honestly have just been having so much fun with this process so far.

building farmhouse home land spring
by Elana 
Leave a Comment

About Elana

Elana is the creator and operator behind the blog, Sycamore and Slate. She loves home design and decor. One of her passions is writing and sharing her ideas with the world.

View all posts by Elana

Related Posts

  • Snow Days
  • House Build Week 81-85
  • featured image graniteHouse Build Week 80
  • House Build Week 67-74

Subscribe to Sycamore & Slate’s Newsletter

previous article: Spring Snowstorm
next article: April Showers Decor

Leave Your Comments Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




about me

about me

Hi! I'm Elana. Welcome to my little corner of the web, Sycamore and Slate!

Follow Me

Subscribe!

Categories

Archives

Snow Days

Just a quick update to say that we are enjoying the snow storm that hit us here in PA over the last few days! We got about 16 inches of snow total and we’re having a blast playing in it! Evie’s all about the snow angels this year: We saw some beautiful foxes playing in […]

Love morning visits from this little guy! Love morning visits from this little guy!
That mist over the stream!! 😍😍❄️❄️ # That mist over the stream!! 😍😍❄️❄️ #sycamoreandslate #winterstorm2020
Watching church from home means building her own f Watching church from home means building her own for this little girl! Happy Sunday!
Instagram post 17856330680070149 Instagram post 17856330680070149
Adventuring on the farm today 🥰🦌 Adventuring on the farm today 🥰🦌
One of the brightest, most beautiful rainbows I’ One of the brightest, most beautiful rainbows I’ve ever seen! 🌈 Evie said, “Dear Lord, thank you for this beautiful rainbow! Amen!” My heart is full. 😍🥰 #rainbow
Deciding where to put some trees in our yard this Deciding where to put some trees in our yard this evening. Evie has to do everything just like daddy #daddysgirl #sycamoreandslate
The sunset tonight! 🌅😍 “Those who live at The sunset tonight! 🌅😍 “Those who live at the ends of the earth stand in awe of your wonders. From where the sun rises to where it sets, you inspire shouts of joy.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭65:8‬ ‭NLT‬‬
My little tree hugger. She said she was pretending My little tree hugger. She said she was pretending to be a koala. 🐨🌳 #springonthefarm #latergram
Found these this morning before the storms chased Found these this morning before the storms chased us in!  I can’t wait to go back out and keep looking. #foraging #morelmushrooms
Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2021 · Prima Donna theme by Georgia Lou Studios

Copyright © 2021 · Prima Donna on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in