On the way to framing

We've been taking care of final items in preparation for the rough carpenters. Before we could start framing the house, we had to have the basement walls back-filled with sand.

The green foam-board on the exterior walls was a joy to put up. Just imagine dipping your hands into a bucket of gooey, warm tar; that's essentially what we did to adhere the foam-board to the walls. Big props to Mickey and to our friend and colleague Brad Huttenga for helping us put up the foam.

In this photo, Mickey and Peter examine the freshly back-filled basement walls. You can see the foam peaking above the back-fill just to the right of where they're standing.
Here's Keller Well Drilling leaving after a full day of work. The first day on the job they broke the drill; while we were disappointed to have another delay, we were happy to hear it wouldn't cost us any extra coin!
And here's the top of the well. It's a 94-footer, which means something to people who understand wells. We just know that there's plenty of water.
Just after Keller took off for the day, Man's Lumber showed up with the first shipment of framing material. The rig that the Man's driver is unloading with is sweet; the wheels turn 90 degrees so they can tuck the big stacks of lumber into tight spaces.
Mickey directing my traffic. Peter gives advice.
Mickey just told the lumber salesman to "eat it". Then Peter ate it.
Three generations of Eldon men; it looks like Mickey and Sean found something even more fascinating than the lumber delivery to watch. That's saying a lot if you know how much Mickey loves his lumber. He is the Wizard of Wood, after all.