Almost There

Took a visit to the house on Saturday and it continues to change.  What's changed: 

• Another coat of boring builder white paint (can't wait until the 10 month inspection is done so I can change that)
• We have house numbers
• Staining is taking place on the stairs
• Bathroom fixtures are in 
• Floors are in 
• Wall ovens are in
• Granite and backsplash are in 

Because the stairs were being stained when we arrived, we were not able to go upstairs.  So, no pictures of any of the rooms upstairs but we do have a few from the other areas.  

We have house numbers :)

2 of the porch columns are in.  1 more to go (and the additional shutters on the windows that have the stone)

Stairs getting stained.  Messy stuff.  After the staining of course the white parts will need to be painted again

Lovely floors that are beautiful even when dusty

Taking a peek at the 1st floor bathroom shower

Someone in the finished part of the basement talking about how it's "all his kingdom"  We will see what Chino has to say about that!

Fireplace with the painters stuff on it  No worries.. these guys were working hard on the house (and Rob getting that photo of the stairs being stained)

Here is the dining room chandelier

Molding in the dining room with those lovely floors showing.  Eventually the walls will be painted so that the molding really stands out.  Can't wait for the 10 month time frame

Hello family room

And now... what I've been waiting for... my kitchen!  Double wall ovens are in, granite is in place, backsplash is done, I am loving the lazy susan and the pull out shelves and the pantry (although I think I'd rather have wood shelves instead to keep smaller items from falling through those wire shelves.  We shall see about changing that in time. In the interim, baskets and containers will be key)  Also there are knobs on the drawers instead of pulls.  Didn't notice that in the model.  I feel rather "meh" about those.  We shall see if I really hate them when we move in and put them to use. 

What's next?  A lot of finishing touches!  Also appliances and the deck.  It is clear that with the weather being harsh we won't have our driveway when we first move in so we will have rock until spring and no grass or landscaping either. 

Final walk through is currently scheduled for 1/31 with settlement around 2/10.   Another update and pictures to come after the 1/31 walk through.

As a side note, we started packing.  We hate it since it is very difficult to pack while still living here. Certainly don't want to pack something away and realize that you need it (like I did with the immersion blender when I made pumpkin curry soup!)

Getting Closer

Took a visit up to the house and things are progressing.  We did not get many pictures because we were too busy staring and touching things.  At the next visit, there will be more pictures!

What's happened:

On the outside...

• Siding and stone are done 
• Shutters are up 
• Lights on the outside of the garage are in 
• Outlet on the front porch is installed

Still need the porch completed, grading of the front yard, shutters on the remaining windows, grading of the side and back yard, deck, painting the front door red, driveway and sidewalk.

On the inside....

• Cabinets are up in all of the bathrooms
• Cabinets are done in the kitchen
• Counters are done in the kitchen (most of the counters)
• Interior lights (and I don't have to change the one in the dining room because I actually like it!)
• Cable TV lines
• Stone fireplace
• Crown molding in the living room, dining room, entry way and upstairs hall (we didn't know we were getting it upstairs so that was a pleasant surprise)

Still need all of the flooring, toilets, finished 1st floor shower, finish fixtures in all bathrooms, granite on the kitchen island, appliances, completion of the laundry room, staining the banisters and stairs, closet clothes racks, paint, outlet covers/switch plates and cleaning. 

Here is the stone fireplace.  I am sure Chino will spend much of his time sitting on the hearth

Dining room molding is in.. too bad we didn't take a picture of the chandelier 

Railing with wrought iron balusters.  I love love love these!

The kitchen 

Peek at the kitchen counters.  So happy they are not peach.  This granite can either be brown tones or peach.  Of course this is just a peek.  The rest is under plastic being protected since work is still occurring.  Fingers crossed that there is no peach.. if so it's Rob's fault for picking them and he will be in big trouble

Master bath tub.  Must cover that window so there are no surprises for the neighbors. 

Master shower with seat 

Bathroom light fixture.  This is in each bathroom but size changes depending on the bathroom

First floor bath.  This is the one that was a powder room that we converted to add a shower and shower seat 

Here is the arch.   On the other side is the first floor bathroom and first floor bedroom

I am sure there are still things that need to be done that aren't listed.  We will be going back inside in about a week and a half and then the final walk through will be on 1/31/14.  We will have the inspector come back in and do a walk through just in case.  Settlement is currently scheduled for 2/10/14.  We shall see if that date changes or not.

I guess we need to get serious about packing!

Oh My it's a House

Went to the house for the pre-drywall walk through and the house has changed a lot.  The roof is on, the garage is looking like it should and the porch is close to being in place.  It is really starting to look like the house we have been waiting for.  Looks like the new completion date is 1/30/2014.  About a 2 week difference from the first date due to house size.

 

 

Here it is!  The house wrap and things are starting to really take shape.

 

 

We got to go inside of the house as part of the pre-drywall walk through.  It was great to see the actual rooms, yet strange to see them without insulation or drywall.  Oh.. and it was COLD that day so we were in the house with hats, gloves and shivering :)  Here are some pictures of the rooms.

 

 

 

Here is the front door.  To the right is the dining room and the left is the formal living room

 

 

Part of the dining room and the garage 

 

 

Part of the formal living room.  *side note.. lots of blinds and curtains to buy

 

Kitchen (straight ahead while we stand in the family room).  To the right is the morning room  See how bright it is there.. oh... and that means more blinds and more curtains

 



3 windows in the morning room



 

Sliding glass door in the morning room.  The deck will be located when you step out this door

 

Fireplace in the family room.  The fireplace wall will be stone (the same stone that matches our house exterior)

 

 

Stairs to go up (these will be hardwood instead of carpet)

 

Upstairs hallway

 

Part of the Master Bedroom (yes more windows... 3 in there)



 

Master bathroom (that big block there is going to be where my soaking tub goes)

 

 

Peeking into Asia's room

 

 

OK, so there are 2 more bedrooms upstairs, another bathroom and a laundry room but no point in adding more pictures of that.  Especially when I have to show pictures of the basement :)

 

 



 

Basement (the Kingdom of Rob and Chino the Beast) very large window is the egress window

 

Exercise Room in the basement

 

 

There is also a storage area in the basement and the HVAC area.

 

 

Next up:  Finishing the plumbing (the plumbers had come in when we were having our walk-through), and the electricians.  We are having the house inspected by an outside company and our Pre-drywall inspection with them will be 12/2.  Hopefully there are no issues.  

 

 

It will be a while before we have another blog update since most of what is happening inside the house right now isn't anything to photograph.  Once the drywall is up we will be back in to visit.  And of course, once the siding and stone are on the front of the house there will be photos. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



It is Starting to Come Together

The framing has started and we can actually see the start of the shape of the house.  It is amazing how quickly this all comes together.  When we pulled up to the lot on Saturday, it was a shock.  It feels so real now that we see more than just dirt and concrete. 

We took what pictures we could.  The lot was quite muddy with product laying around and we did not want to end up tripping over something and laying in the mud.  So we did not get any photos of the back of the house.  There were also workers at the house diagonal from us and we saw windows and a door laying around on our garage slab so figured they would be back over to ours before the day was over.

Here is the front of the house (on the left is the garage pad.. no walls yet, then the kitchen and behind that is the morning room.  Above those is the master bedroom.  On the right side we have the dining room (to the left of the front door) and the living room (to the right of the front door).  Upstairs in the front are 2 out of 4 upstairs bedrooms. 

 

Standing on the sidewalk in front of my neighbors house.  Another shot of the master bedroom two side windows (there are 3 total).  Near the back of the house you can see a piece of the morning room

 

Windows and a door sitting on the garage slab. 

Other side of the house you can see the extra window in the living room and the basement egress window.  And all that concrete that will need to be painted so I don't have to look at a grey blob.

 

 

Next up... continued framing including the roof and the shingles.  Next weeks visit will be more fun because Asia is home and will get to come along.

 

Our pre-drywall meeting is scheduled for 11/25.  Things are moving along.  

 

 



 

Started from the Bottom

The work continues.  The foundation forms have been removed, waterproofing completed and the water and sewer lines completed in the basement.  The powder room plumbing has been installed and we now have the garage poured.

 

The basement is graded and the walls are buried (to the point it can be since our lot is on a slant)

 

 

There is gravel in the basement now

Back of the house.  This part of the basement won't be under ground

Plumbing for the basement powder room

  

 

The start of the garage

 

 

 

The week of 11/11 we start framing!  

 

 

Our wood is at the lot waiting for the framing

 

 

So, we are still on schedule to be done by the end of January.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.  It won't be long before it actually starts to look like a house :)

 

 

Woo Hoo We are Digging It!

OK yes that title is corny, but a little corny every day keeps the smiles :)
Well, we did not start on 10/14 as anticipated.  The work started on 10/24.  The foundation has been dug and the next step (which was to occur on 10/28) is to add the footers (have to have that reinforcement to keep the house standing!)

The photo isn't great because of the sun glare, but you get the idea.. it's a hole.  When I saw it I kept saying it's small, why is it so small?  Forgetting that it's the foundation and not really the footprint of the house. 

___________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE:
Much work has occurred during the week of 10/28/13.  We now have foundation walls.  The walls being up makes the footprint look much bigger than it did when it was just a hole.  Within these walls are the storage space, the Furnace/Water Heater storage space, the powder room, the exercise room and the finished basement space (man cave).

Egress Window in the basement

 

Foundation Walls

 

 

Peeking in the egress window at part of the basement

 

 

Next week will be a busy week.  On schedule are:
Removing of the forms for the foundation, do waterproofing, install the water and sewer lines, install powder room plumbing.  Weather permitting, the concrete for the garage and driveway will be poured... then the week after starts the framing. 

 

It's getting exciting!



And the Countdown Begins

We had our pre construction meeting on 9/30/2013.  During the meeting we met the project manager and reviewed all of our selections adding any clarifications as needed.  We also reviewed the blueprints.  Funny to see the house drawn up in such small scale.  Overall with the morning room and the finished portion of the basement we will have approx. 3,700 sq. feet.  See we didn't need that bonus room after all!

We also went to the lot to walk it and learn about the grading.  I suppose I must confess.  Rob walked the lot, I went about half way... the grass and wildflowers were up to my knees and all I kept thinking was that if any of natures creatures jump, slither or land on me I'm going to fall out right on the spot! So... It was best that I refrained from moving in any further.

Our neighbors house is almost done and he doesn't have any windows on the side of his house so that's a nice perk.  The neighbor on the other side is about 2 weeks behind us in schedule so for the most part once we move in we won't have to deal with too much construction.

Since we are getting our build now, the season impacts timing of many things.  If it is cold then our driveway will be gravel until it is warm enough for the builder to come back and do asphalt.  Same with exterior painting.  Landscaping wouldn't occur until the spring.  So when we do move in (sometime in January or February) there will still be exterior work required in the Spring.

Current start date of our build = 10/14/2013

Once we have our stakes in the ground and the building begins the blog will be updated with photos.