Oh! You mean this is Real?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  In my book that's AT LEAST!  And it can also make real what has been, up to now, something that might have been a figment of our imagination, wishful thinking, or an obsessive daydream.

Building permit in hand, our contractor, Brian Shelton, wasted no time preparing for the foundation (and documenting with his camera).  They'd expected to hit rock, but all they found was more and more beautiful decomposed granite.  With no need to bore holes into rock and epoxy rebar, the foundation is flat and level and we'll have a beautiful crawl space with a constant temperature of about 55 degrees, perfection for my beer brewing husband.

The pictures prove we'll have our almost dead-center view of Hackett Mountain, and it appears that the deck will be low enough to the ground in many places that we'll have lots of views unencumbered by railings.  The waterline from the pump has been installed in its deep trench and brought into the crawl space.

Some neighbors said they followed the cement truck up the day after we recieved these photos, and took some more for us.  Once we get those we'll post them -- foundation footers cementing our future in the Rockies.

We're a bit stupefied that two weeks from today we'll have woken up in our trailer, the first morning of a month of mornings.  It now sits far from the building site (and the outhouse), up on a ridge and in the middle of a seldom used track like a railroad car on a siding.  But it's a pretty spot, snugged up into the trees and with a good view.  If we can figure out a way to hook up to the power poles, also a fair distance away, we'll be golden.  Otherwise, it'll be a little more rustic than we'd expected.  A small price to pay for a transition into a real cabin with electricity AND running water!

After dreaming of this for almost 11 months, it seems impossible that it is actually happening.  I feel like a hurricane advisory -- "preparations should be rushed to completion" -- and it's hard to fathom how much I have yet to do before leaving a week from Friday.  Some things I'm trying to decide won't be decided until during the build, but I've certainly spent enough time pondering them that coming to a final decision should be quite informed and fairly quick.  And that's part of the fun of it.