Sagebrush & Solar

Keith and I had a nice little snow shoveling date this past weekend. One thing we’re stoked for with our new house? To not shovel snow from our living room. It was kind of cute the first time, but it’s lost its appeal and magic. It’s still kind of fun in a strange way to shovel together and imagine our (snow-less) future in those walls.

In other news, well…I’m just going to come out with it…we aren’t pouring by February 6th. And you know what? That’s okay.

The garage took a lot longer than we thought it would due to some issues with the stem wall that needed to be corrected. While I’d love to have poured walls, I’d rather they be straight and properly reinforced—and straight and properly reinforced they are.

The weather hasn’t helped much, either. Between snow and single digit temperatures, progress has been slow moving — and understandably so.

As of now, the plan is to resume placing block when Dad gets back and hopefully pour by the end of the month. Then our truss/roof sheath/framing crew can come in and get us closed in.

My dad will be gone for about two weeks; we’ve decided to take this “downtime” (between our jobs and toddler) to work as much overtime as possible to help pad our coffers. We recently got a foreboding messaging from Idaho Power regarding easements and how if we can’t secure one, we’ll need to go another direction (aka solar aka $$$). My dad leaves again for his real job in mid-April, so we’ll have about 6-8 weeks to do the same overtime situation then, too. We’re very grateful to work in a career field that has endless amounts of overtime opportunities!

We have a few minor projects between now and then, but for the most part, we will be taking a small break while he’s out of town.

We’re also prepared to extend our apartment lease. It’s expires May 1; let’s be real, there’s no way we’re moving into our house by then. I’m an optimist, but I have a healthy streak of realism, too. According to our property management company, we have a few options open to us to consider when it gets closer. Extending our lease takes some of the pressures off of delays. We’re naive, but we aren’t so naive that we aren’t anticipating additional unforeseen delays after we get dried in.

In the meantime, I’m contemplating a small container garden for our back patio. Nothing crazy, just a few grow bags (handles = easier to move, right?!). I didn’t have the chance to plant a garden last year and I was pregnant the year prior, so I’m itching to grow something. We’ll (hopefully) be moving mid-summer, so I want something I can easily transport.