Thanks Fred! Its not a perfect world but if you are willing to work at it you can make it good enough. We are going to show everything even if its a total disaster lol. This is our first time building houses from nothing . Been around it pretty much all my life but there’s still much to learn. Wish my grandpa was here to help. He was a simple man but knew how to get things done. Terry

You are welcome. Glad to hear that and thanks so much for the comment and feedback! Terry

Great to be back. I know all about projects dragging on lol. The wife is never happy about it. Terry

Thanks! Glad to be back!! Terry

Hey Steve! I agree if you want it done right you might better do it yourself. Terry

Thanks! Good to be back! Terry

That and we have a lot of irons in the fire. We tend to keep very busy. Its the only way we know how to live. As soon as we start a new project we are already planning on another lol. Terry

Thanks so much!! It’s good to be back.

Thanks! Agreed! It may take a little longer but we will get things right! Terry

Thanks! If all goes well we will be going wide open till the housed are finished! Terry

Thanks! Hope to keep things rolling from here on out! Terry

Thanks! Terry

Thanks. Yeah when things are busy around here the jacklegs come out of the woodwork. They tend to thrive in good times then fade away when the economy tanks. The good ones make it long term. Problem is all the good contractors are so busy right now that they can not help us little guys. Terry

Thanks! Sorry to hear that. I have heard several similar stories lately. One friend of ours had his house framed. The contractor hired a sub to do it because he was to busy. The sub messed up lots of random stuff throughout the framing then left and never came back. They never even started the roof! Then our friend had to tear things apart all over the house and rebuild and then get the roof on. Big bummer for him. Terry

@@ForestToFarm wow, that sounded like a real nightmare.

Yeah but lucky for him he has a dad, two brothers and a couple uncles I believe that all do some construction from time to time so they at least had the skills to get things done. By the way the company that messed things up for us started with a “P”. Terry

It probably is in states or areas where the soil is softer. Here this red clay we have at the level we dug down to is very solid. The inspector said it is as solid as they have ever seen. We were glad to hear that. Terry

Actually I was going to pay them but the owner came in to pic up his equipment and stomped around like a child acting as if we some how were doing him wrong and then left ripping it down my gravel driveway. We no longer felt the need to pay them. Then when we measured and realized just how bad a job they did we did not feel the need to pay them. The work they did will cost us several extra yards of concrete each. Terry

@@ForestToFarm I'm glad to hear that you didn't. After I retired at the end of 2005, I built my own home. I hired a contractor to do the excavating, and then to help me do the foundation and shell (and there were a couple of times that I insisted we stop and do things correctly). After that I did EVERY thing else by myself. I've seen so much shoddy workmanship from contractors over the years that I knew that I'd only be satisfied with the final project if I did it myself. Good luck with the project(s). P.S., At my age I don't think I'd do it over again, but I'm proud of the fact that I live in a home that I built with my own two hands.

@@MrTks1959 I agree. If you want it done right do it yourself. I hope maybe some day my grandson will enjoy this house and know that Papa built it along with his daddy. He is about to turn one year old and absolutely loves every minute he gets to spend on the property and watching us work. He is basically going to be cutting his teeth on the build of our two homes. Don't get much better than that. Terry

Yeah. That hurts. We just have to bite the bullet. Been waiting far to long to get this project rolling. 😂 At least we are saving the labor costs on most of it. Terry

Unfortunately its not likely that will happen. The original contractor was very rude about it, came and got his equipment and stormed out of there as though we had some how did him wrong. The way I see it what goes around comes around. People like that usually pay in other ways. Life is to short to be dragging my family down with fighting him. We will just pick up the pieces and move on. Honestly deep inside I knew we were supposed to be doing it our self. :) Terry

@@ForestToFarm this type of thing makes me want to have a lawyer draw up a contract for me to use for my build, but good luck getting a contractor to agree to sign it. I feel for you guys...but this is just a minor setback. Imagine if you lived in a municipality where you were obligated to use a "professional". Take care.

@@mashoutman I agree. It is a minor setback. Very glad we can do our own work. Gonna save us a pile of money. Thanks. Terry

Yeah its a bummer but we don’t let things get us down. Life happens and ya just gotta roll with the punches . One day in the not to distant future we will be setting on the front porch laughing about it all and enjoying our little piece of heaven. Terry