Having been to this particular dance before, we were prepared for many aspects of Dash Landing.

We were prepared to go over budget.  It’s as much a part of the building process as a 2×6 (or in our case — an LVL and a Simpson Strong-Tie) and we’re CRUSHING that expectation.

We were prepared for tense moments.  Thankfully, they’ve been far and few between, but we’ve definitely had our share.  (“THERE IS NO WAY THAT WE’RE USING THAT POST.”)

We were prepared for weather.  When we were building Flying Point Road, it was snow.  On Dash Landing, it’s been rain (one of the wettest springs in history) and now heat.  Maine is having a record setting heat wave right now and the work crew is seconds away from quoting Matthew Broderick in Biloxi Blues.

It’s the clay that has surprised us.

The site is pure clay — not a single rock — and it has permeated our lives in a way that we never would have imagined.

It’s on all our shoes.   It’s all through Flying Point Road.  (Definitely a challenge when you’ve got multiple house showings per week.)  We’ve had to have our cars professionally cleaned.   After a few minute at the site, Toko comes home with a light-grey sheen.  Even you-know-who’s employer had to bring in the big guns to get his office clean.

We’re still a few weeks away from covering the whole place with the topsoil that we saved in Mt. Debbie.

And that part of our amazing adventure can’t come soon enough.

* No, this isn’t a typo.  It’s a bad reference to a great book:  http://amzn.com/B0070O5F4U

You should read it.