A few more pictures to add, also from last weekend.

The burn pile continues to grow, although this should be the tallest it gets. Rocky and guest blogger  are providing scale.

We also walked to the other side of the ravine/valley to see how visible the house will be from the other side. You can see the foundation walls in the middle of the picture. We would be looking at the back right corner here. We’re about 300′ away here. From this angle, the house really appears to be perched on a cliff, as you can see the hill drop off all around it.

When we arrive, we learned that we were the cause of some heavy traffic in River Escape. These trucks are loaded up with the concrete forms that were used for the foundation.

The drive has its first layer of gravel. There’s loose rock from the site work under that as a base, so hopefully this will carry us through most of the build.

With an excessively large septic system (no one will ever have to worry about upgrading it…ever, even if they put 2 bedrooms in the basement), we had some concern about the effect of all of that digging. The septic field is to the left of the driveway in the picture, and as you can see, once you get halfway down the drive and look back, everything looks good. There will be some short grass seeded under there as ground cover, but so far it turned out better than expected (or feared).

This will be the side of the house you see when you drive up, so I’m more happy now with the decision to wrap the porch around this side. I think it will look great.

This is the view from the “front door”. This gives you some idea of the elevation, and we’re now realizing that the view from the second floor will be of the tree tops. This should be pretty cool.

Left front and side. We’ve ended up with a small flat area off the basement on this side. It would make a nice patio, so we’ll be adding another door out of the basement.

Now you’re standing under the side porch looking across the basement. This gives us an idea of how “daylight” this basement will be. I think even the basement is going to make you feel like you’re in the trees!

Builder Tim, his son, and super-agent Chase spend the better part of a day clearing more undergrowth between the house and the river. The view keeps getting better.

If you’re wondering, which I’m sure you are, there are 2 houses within ear-shot of our driveway. One was completed last fall and is used as a weekend house, and the other is currently nearing completion awaiting a buyer.

The new house is technically across the street, but you can’t see it unless you walk up or down the road a little bit. It’s almost complete, having been under construction since June. It has nearly identical square footage as we’re building, but is set up differently. It has a bedroom and bath on each level (basement, main, upper). Although it doesn’t have the riverfront, it does have a pretty awesome view over the valley. If you want to see actual pictures of it, you can see them here, this is just the view of it from the road. It’s currently for sale for $369,900 if you decide you must have it.

The other “neighbor” is around the bend. Their house is built on the very top of the ridge and has the best view from anywhere in the neighborhood. It’s a weekend house, and is a little bit smaller than the others (all 3 of us that exist) with about 1400 feet- it’s a 2 bed/2bath with everything on 1 level. It’s not set back from the road, but that was a necessity to build on the top of the ridge, and traffic noise isn’t a factor as there’s only 3 lots on the road past it. Had this been for sale, and less expensive when we were looking, it would have been at the top of our list.