That's a lot of concrete!

Our concrete (all 66 tons of it!!) is curing -- and, fortunately, it cures better when wet. This week we'll be seeing less dramatic changes. The guys are removing the footing frames, installing a footing drain and a water barrier, and putting ecofoam against the sides of the excavation.

At our site meeting yesterday, the footing drains (and more hay for mud control) awaited installation:

       

 

The footing drains are made of packing peanuts!

Another fascinating aspect of house-building is the prevalence of lien notices -- or, more accurately, "Notice of Right to a Lien." Each subcontractor wants to ensure that they get paid, so their credit companies send us lien notices stating that our property may be subject to a lien unless this particular supplier is paid within a specified time. The supplier/subcontractors get paid by our contractor, in this case Hammer & Hand; these are just heads-up notices for us that these people had better get paid.

These lien notices are sent certified mail and must be received with a signature (which is a challenge, since we're so rarely home to sign for them). So far, we have received three of them -- and we've only been at this a few weeks! This is standard practice in this industry, and we were warned by our lender and by our builder that we would be receiving a lot of these. Our lender has built lien-protection into the way the contractors are paid, so that the subcontractors can't cash their checks without releasing their right to lien, so we have no worries. But still -- this seems like a lot of extra work, time and money. I hate to think that that the cost of this insanity is part of what I'm paying to build my house, but of course it is. This system undoubtedly arose out of necessity, but it still seems excessive.