Country Livin’ Blog

After the lot was bush hogged and we had met with our builder to determine where the house would set on the property the process of building began. When we signed the contract with our builder he put aside $10,000 in what he called “The Murphy Fund” explaining that things happen during the building process that are always unforeseen. We must have looked skeptical because he said he hadn’t had a job where “Murphy” didn’t get paid. Two weeks into the building process the foundation was laid and the concrete slab was poured. The lot that we believed was very flat turned out to be on a much steeper slope than we could have guessed. The north side of the slab was a comfortable 18 inches above the ground, the south end of the house was approximately six feet above the ground! Levels set on the slab showed it to be perfectly level. The cost of the foundation had been underestimated by about $8,000 dollars! Nearly all of our builder’s “Murphy Fund” was gone in the first step of building.

Just about the time the foundation was completed a little storm named Ivan blew in from the Gulf of Mexico. Since we only had a foundation and construction hadn’t begun we didn’t have any damage. However, building materials were now in high demand. The cost of lumber and brick skyrocketed from our original estimates. Our builder made a wise choice to wait a few weeks to see if prices would come back down when the shock and havoc of Ivan had dissipated. Even though costs didn’t come down to pre-Ivan amounts they did come down some and it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but our builder’s “Murphy Fund” was now empty.

One afternoon my husband was at the construction site when no one else was there. A truck pulled up and the driver off loaded several pallets of framing materials. When it was all off the truck the driver looked at my husband and asked if this was the construction site of our builder’s. My husband said yes. The driver looked relived and said he was glad because he wasn’t really sure where he was supposed to deliver the wood and if it was the wrong place he would have to reload all the wood on the truck!

A few weeks went by as the house was being framed and it was now time to begin to pick out the exterior brick colors. This is the fun part! We skipped along to the brickyard and told them the address of a house in Montgomery that had the very brick we wanted. They said they would send someone to look at the house and order the brick. Two weeks went by and our builder contacted the brickyard to set up a time to have our brick delivered. The brickyard didn’t have our order. We had to go by the house we had liked to get the address again and then go back to the brickyard. Once again the brickyard employee assured us someone would go by the house and order our brick. Again, we must have looked skeptical because the brickyard employee said that they do this often and we didn’t need to worry. A few days later my husband got a phone call from the brickyard employee saying they had looked at the brick and it is one they keep in stock. Our builder could request delivery anytime and they would have the brick sent out to the construction site. About a week later my husband called me at work and said the brick had arrived, but he didn’t think it was the right brick. I remember the scene well, our builder, my husband, and me all looking at the stack of bricks. Our builder said if we really hated the brick that was sent he would send it back and get whatever we wanted, but he thought we would like it when it was on the house. Turns out we do like it, but it isn’t exactly the brick we had hoped it would be. I just avoid driving by the house in Montgomery that has the brick I really wanted. It saves my feelings a little!

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