Time capsule - how the current project began (Part 1)

After we decided on our house plan and I had drawn them up, we made a tiny, scaled model of the house. It made it so much easier to 'tweek' the design by seeing it in 3D. The picture below is of a house we didn't build. We had a difficult neighbour who objected to it's design and we decided to start from scratch rather than modify our design. We made a model of the second plan too, but I can't find photos of it - my son played with his cars in it until it fell apart.



Model of Plan A. We are currently building Plan B.



The photo above shows the house we purchased and demolished and below the commencement of excavation of the site.

My son loved this part - playing in mud puddles!

We made a massive hole in the ground to accommodate underground storage for a boat, trailer and furniture, in addition to space for water tanks, double garage, stair well and pool equipment.

My hubby was building our place in his 'spare time' which meant a very slow start. I took more than 6 months to get 'out of the ground' and ready for the ground floor concrete pour!

Once the ground floor concrete was complete we started building the walls that would form the underground level of the house.

Storage areas, tank room and stairway walls constructed in the big hole before being 'buried' again.

First floor concrete pour. Yeah, finally a building platform!

This is where the house is at now. Still unfinished, but we're in and 'camping' more or less to save on those big wasteful rent dollars!