Back porch project

The back porch project is underway and is turning out to be quite the construction project! As you can see the porch was stripped down to the barewood. Paul had to tear out the foundation on Saturday and jack the floor up so that he could replace the foundation block as there were a few problems. The porch will be completely insulated and will actually become a working part of the house. For those of you that have been in the house, the wall that separates the porch from the stairs (to the immediate left of the picture below) will come out and we will be replacing that narrow winding staircase with an open bannister that leads out onto the porch. It's a big project but needed to be done before winter came!

On a separate note, the septic system is going in today! HOORAY! The crew was out working in the downpours of rain that we had yesterday. They got the old tank pumped and pulled out and dug the hole for the new one. As of 9 a.m. today the new concrete tank was supposed to go in. They will be working on the leach fields for the remainder of the week. According to Al, the guy we hired to do the job, the tank that he pulled out was like an old farm diesel barrel and was rusting out. He said that perhaps we could have made it through the winter, but that's a BIG perhaps! So we got it done at just the right time! As of July of this year, Iowa has a new law that all septic systems on acreages have to be inspected and approved before title is allowed to transfer. Even though we are transferring title from family member to family member we still had to do this. So as soon as Al gets the job done and the sanitarians have given it the ok, we can close on our loan at the bank and the farm will officially be ours. I know that Paul is excited for the day that comes as he said he's been looking forward to owning the acreage for years.