We have footings!
After staring for weeks at dirt and the hole where the old house used to be... We have footings! That means you can now see the shape of...
A very serviceable, but temporary ramp...
From October 7 to December 9, a ramp constructed over the unexcavated part of the original basement gave us access to the back yard for...
Why are we using a coal waste byproduct?
Some readers of this blog might be surprised to learn that we are incorporating coal fly ash, a waste byproduct from coal combustion, as...
Our vision
Anybody who has talked to me in the past 7 years has heard a lot--maybe too much!--about our Olson Lake House project. For everyone else,...
The piano stands alone
I have spent the last year+ deconstructing the old 1957 house my brothers and I grew up in, doing my best to make sure that everything...
Ready to go!
Break out a bottle of wine—we are ready to go! Our builder Josh received notice Friday morning that the building permit was approved!
The well
There are two wells on the property—the existing house well, and the pump house well. We originally intended to reuse the existing house...
Trees
I am a tree lover. Most of all, I love oak trees, which once grew plentifully on the land around our home project. Over the years, most...
Demolition day
I missed the main chimney/entire living room brick wall coming down, but managed to catch this moment. The house is mostly down, the last...
Minnesota-bound!
Today we began our journey home to Minnesota where we will begin the final stage of our multi-year odyssey to build an energy-efficiency,...
