The Need for New "Stuff"

Isn't it funny how you get a bigger place to store all the stuff that had outgrown the old house, but then you find you need more stuff for the new house? I have seen people who buy or build new houses and then go into much more debt buying all new furniture and decor. My contractor even told us a story of how one couple stiffed him out of the last $17k they owed him cause they got the money and spent it on furniture and decorating instead of paying him. Well, now I finally understand the urge.

Not that we haven't paid off our contractor, because we have...or at least most of it till he finishes the rest of the punch list items. But there's nothing like a new house to show you just how old and ratty that sofa is...you know...the one that seems like you just bought it yesterday, but when you start counting you realize it's over 10 years old. Or what about the console TV that you bought second hand back in 1986 (yes '86!) that won't really work with the satellite you have now? Let's not even talk about the totally cool granite countertops with no barstools or the 2.5 acre yard with the continually breaking push mower! When the grass finally does grow, it's gonna get interesting!

Anyway, I do now totally understand the need/want/desires/whatever. I know when people come over I will be continually apologizing for my lack of new stuff, but with the economy the way it is, I'm a little nervous about the house payment itself, much less the idea of going into debt further for "stuff." Now that I've been living here a month, I have a long list of things we need to buy: a new TV and stand, a desk and office chair for me, a bed and new dresser for our room, barstools, clocks, other wall decor, the patio and basement pads, towel and toilet paper holders, lawn tractor, just to name a few. But I am very happy to be here and very happy to have come in pretty much on budget. The other stuff can wait if needed. In fact, to be honest, I've had no time for shopping and when I have had time, I've not found the things I wanted.

A friend at work told me last week that now that I have the house I can take the rest of my life to decorate it, and she's right. That is, providing it doesn't take the rest of my life to push mow the yard.

House Update

I know, I know...where are the pictures and the updates? We have been so incredibly busy that I really haven't had time. In fact, the only reason I'm posting now is because it's a way to procrastinate on that real work I need to be doing.

Anyway, we got moved in and mostly unpacked. We still have quite a few boxes in the garage and in the office, but there are some things we just can't unpack yet. The books can't be unpacked until I get the book case out of the storage unit. And the office didn't have a desk because our old one is just too big. So while we certainly have everything livable, we are still working on making things neat. (That would be the reason for the lack of pictures--not posting pics of my messy house! LOL!)

I also want to get a picture or two of the outside posted. I got a couple planters on the porch and a few Christmas lights in the yard. It's not my usual Christmas overload, but there are a few. In fact, I just found the rest of our decorations in the back of the storage unit, so we might work on the tree this weekend. I also bought wreaths for the house, but I can't find the wreath hangers. Oh well, I've got a few more weeks.

We do have an open-house sort of party scheduled for late December, between Christmas and New Year's. I figured that if I didn't have it sorted out by Christmas, it wasn't getting done, so I may as well go ahead.

As far as living here is concerned. It is very quiet. No one has bothered us at all. We don't have our fireplace installed yet, and I'm looking forward to that cause it's a little drafty in here. I think it's the combination of hardwoods, tile, and vaulted ceiling. But I'm looking forward to the fireplace.

We're also missing our back patio. We actually came in just under budget, but we knew all along that the driveway might be an issue. We went ahead and poured the driveway, which was much costlier than we originally anticipated (since we pushed the house back further from the road than we originally planned), so that didn't really leave patio money. I don't anticipate it being much overall, but I can't really use the back doors without the patio. With no grass, we would just step out into mud. But we will get that done by spring at the latest--definitely in time for pretty weather again.

But all the negatives out of the way, I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! So far, everything has a place. I have room for once for all my crap. We did Thanksgiving here, and the kitchen is wonderful to entertain in. The raised bar is great for homework, eating, appetizers, etc. And it's really roomy. I'm even learning to use the convection oven and used the warming drawer over the holiday--very cool!

Well, this post is getting too long as it is. I have more comments about how a new house means a need for new stuff that I'm apparently reluctant to buy, but that'll have to be in a later posting.

We have moved in!

Yeah! We are finally here! That's the reason for the lack of postings lately. We've been so busy trying to get things finished up here and out of the apartment that I haven't had time. I also spent much of the week with no internet access at home.

Things are not totally finished here. The painters were still working through this whole week, so we moved most of our belongings into the garage for now. We moved the rest of our clothes and bed on Wednesday and spent our first night here then. But we still don't have much inside the house. The kids are bunking together in Braxton's bed because we don't have Anna's bed together yet. That's the plan for this weekend. But to be honest, I'm so tired that I just don't want to move. I also have some papers that I must get graded this weekend. So wish me luck.

I'll be posting some new pictures soon. I want to get things cleaned up a little more and take some then.

Final Inspection...

Well, we are calling for final inspection tomorrow, not one minute too soon of course. The major systems are all in. The trim painting and touch ups have not begun, and there are so many things still left to do, but we have plans to move in this weekend anyway.

I'm fine with roughing it for a week or so. As long as we get our stuff out of this apartment, I can handle taking several weeks to get things straightened out. I guess Thanksgiving is my real deadline. I'd like to have some semblance of order by the holidays.

There has been so much activity at the house in the last week that I really haven't had a chance to get many good pics without being in someone's way. I have also been out of town, so while I would normally have time to wander around and take pics on Sunday, I wasn't able to this week. I'm taking the day off tomorrow to work on getting some packing done and to wander around the house without the kids bugging and getting into things. So perhaps I'll be able to get some good pics then and get them posted soon!

Done in a Week?

Will we really be ready to move in next weekend? It's a little hard to believe when you consider these pics. The inside is coming along a little better than the outside, primarily because of rain today. The outside pic here was taken this morning (those are the septic drain lines). Supposedly those were all covered today before the rain set in, but I didn't go out there again because I figured it was a mud pit.

The kitchen and tile pics are from earlier in the week. The tile has been grouted, and the granite countertops were installed today! It killed me not to rush out there to see them.

There still seems to be too much to do for the time we have. Outside, the water lines have to be run from the road to the house. The footers have to be poured for the retaining wall and front porch. Then those have to be built. Then there is some final grading, and the concrete poured for driveway, sidewalk, and porch.

Inside, the electricians were out there today, so that may be nearing completion. They had a few more fixtures to install and lots of finishing up to do. The plumbing fixtures still have to be installed and the water lines run. The trim still wasn't finished by this morning, and a couple of the interior doors weren't installed yet. The painters still need to come back and paint those plus touch up all their work. The closet organizers still all need to be installed. And finally, the fireplace insert and mantle haven't even been begun. Talk about waiting till the last minute!

I think Brad is still hoping that the interior is mostly done by the end of the week so that we can get in there over the weekend and clean up some. I don't think that's gonna happen though. Even if it is pretty much finished, I won't really have time to be there much since I'm going out of town for three days.

I WILL be out there tomorrow morning, so I'll try to post again before the weekend to let you guys know the update. Stay tuned...

This Week's Progress

Lots of progress was made this week. The concrete was finally poured for the garage. That's Thomas and Philip in that first pic. Thomas was doing the siding and guttering, and here he's working on wrapping the garage doors.

The crown moulding was installed this week, along with most of the trim around the doors and windows (except that window in Anna's room, but she wanted to pose for a pic for you all). Speaking of doors, most of the interior doors are in. There were a couple that we replaced or were delivered late, but those shouldn't take much time to install.

When I was out there this afternoon, the laundry room and bathroom tile was being installed, so hopefully I'll have a pic of that for you later this weekend. There were all kinds of saws and other power tools being used out there this afternoon, making it very difficult for me to control the kids, so we checked it out and decided to get out of the way and come back later.

Finally, the appliances were delivered this morning. They are awesome--sooooo beautiful! I know I splurged a little (a lot for me) on them, but I don't think I'll be disappointed. I can't wait to cook something! As I came home this afternoon and was trying to cook here in this tiny apartment kitchen, I found myself daydreaming that I was really working with my new appliances and those beautiful granite tops. Wake up, wake up, Nancy!

Appliances

We bought our appliances last night. After perusing the options at several stores in the last couple of weeks and researching online and through Consumer Reports until my eyes were threatening to bleed, we headed out last night planning another grueling schedule of shopping around, visiting various stores, getting quotes, etc. I figured we'd be at it for hours. Well, we did spend hours, but all at one place. We decided to visit Sunrise Appliance first, just to look at all the various options besides Kenmore, because we also knew the odds of finding a knowledgeable salesperson there were good, as opposed, frankly, to the refrigerator guy at Sears who seemed befuddled and confused.

So to make a long story short, they had slightly higher prices on individual items, but when buying several appliances in a bundle, they definitely were very competitive. We did actually spend a couple hours there, but it definitely wasn't grueling, and most of that time was me being indecisive. The sales guy definitely knew his stuff, and the price was good for what we got. It was such a relief to just go ahead and buy everything and NOT to have to run from store to store comparing everything.

We went mostly with GE Profile appliances, and I got the french door fridge/bottom freezer with the ice and water in the door and a convection oven--hey, you only live once, right? I did vary from the GE on the dishwasher because I was just not happy with the choices there. Instead I chose a Kitchenaid dishwasher with the clean stainless front with hidden panel and stainless tub. Overall, it was a better dishwasher for the price, and it is on the opposite side of the kitchen from the other appliances, so I don't think people will really notice the difference in stainless finishes. (GE really needs to update the look of their stainless dishwashers. The big plastic control panels cheapen the look for the price you have to pay.)

So, the appliances will be ready for delivery by the end of next week. I can't wait!

Oh, and one other quick update: we get to pick granite this week too. Wahoo!

Exterior Trim, etc.

In addition to the flooring being installed this week, the exterior trim was begun this week. So the soffits and vinyl shakes are pretty much done, and the guttering will be done on Monday. The guttering, porch ceiling, and some trim around the doors and garage doors is all that remains. All the exterior fixtures, doors, and windows have been caulked in advance of yesterday's rain.

The garage floor will be poured Monday, so that will help keep the hardwood flooring nice and clean. Of course, the flooring is covered anyway to protect the finish, and we just bought some rugs to help keep things clean.

Other updates: the grading will be done sometime next week, so the huge mountain of dirt that all my new neighbors are coveting will go away. That also clears the way for the septic to be installed, because that's where that needs to go, under the big dirt pile. That also allows us to get the driveway prepped. And, warning to my hubby and his back, that allows me to begin planting trees!

Flooring

The hardwood flooring was installed this week. At the same time, the outside trim was being installed, but I'll post on that separately.

I'm excited to see the floors. I was worried about the color of the flooring next to the cabinets, but they are different enough that it works just fine. Ignore the dustiness. Obviously nothing has been cleaned yet.

The hardwoods are throughout the whole house except for the bathrooms and laundry room which will be tiled probably next week.

Braxton's Room

So if Anna's room is bright and refreshing, Braxton's is calming, which is exactly what he needs! I like this color a lot. He wanted to pick a wild color for his room too, but I wasn't going to buy him new bedding. He already has Cars/race car and Spiderman bedding, so we just decided on a generic blue (as opposed to the red paint he wanted!).

He does like it, though, and it will be a nice background to his race car furniture and goes well with his skateboard ceiling fan, which is really cool by the way. This room was also the most fun to paint because it didn't take nearly as long since I had help, and after running out of paint in all the other rooms and trying to stretch it (we decided there's no way these walls were ever primed), I had gone ahead and bought an extra gallon of paint before we started. So I didn't have to stress over how much I was using. I could just really coat it well. That relieved a lot of my worry from the beginning.

Fresh Pear

"Wow," is the general reaction we're getting to this room. Some have said, "Oh my." My aunts just let out a high-pitched cackle. My contractor said he was going to send us a bill for the damage done to his retinas from the blinding paint color.

It actually looks nice in this pic, but when the bright sun is shining through that room, the paint reflects off itself and makes the whole house glow...no kidding...it glows down the hallway. And yes, you can see it from the road. I checked.

I took Anna by there to see it tonight, because even though she picked the color, I didn't know if she'd really like it on the walls. I had already resigned myself to repainting it a shade lighter, even though I really don't have the time or energy. But she loves it! Loves it! It's exactly what she wanted, or at least that's what she says.

I guess I shouldn't worry. Most of the time her room door will be shut anyway because she keeps her room in such general disarray that I'm afraid for people to see it. What do you think?

Kitchen, Full View

Here's the view of the kitchen from the great room doors (that will in the future lead out to the back patio).

Cabinets and Paint

The kitchen and bathroom cabinets were delivered and set on Thursday and Friday of this week. I was very excited to see them, and they are really beautiful. The picture on the left is one part of the kitchen. The range and fridge fill those holes. The cabinets are maple with a honey glaze and a bit of antiquing around the panels/doors.

After oogling the cabinets for a while, I did find some time this evening to paint. There are three rooms (mentioned below) that we will paint ourselves, and this one is the office/dining room. This is Calm Sky. It is very blue, but according to my husband, it's soothing. All I know is that this new dryall and coating of flat paint they used is making it hard to paint. It just absorbs all the paint it can. It's like painting new drywall. This room probably needs another coat of paint although I couldn't really tell since it was getting dark on me.

I can't wait to see how the Fresh Pear paint looks in Anna's room. I think that room will pull together nicely, especially with the bedding we just bought. I'll post pics when I get them. While those two rooms have bright colors, Braxton's room is a nice light blue. I hope it doesn't seem too light compared to all the other rooms, and maybe, just maybe, it'll calm him down a little!

Well, that's all for now. I desperately need sleep, so I'm going to go work on that now and rest up for another day of painting tomorrow.

Flurry of Activity

Early this morning when I dropped by the house to deliver some of our new light fixtures, there was a flurry of activity all around. The brick masons were loading up their equipment, the drywall/painters were there sanding and touching up some of the walls, and the electricians were there itching to get started working on the final wiring. So, needless to say, I was very excited about going back this evening to see all the progress.

Almost all of the light fixtures we had dropped off were installed, including the ceiling fans in the kids' rooms. And sometime during the day, the cabinets were delivered. While they aren't set yet, it sure is nice to see them in the house. Very beautiful. So now I'm more excited than ever.

We bought several more fixtures today. The only things lacking are the ceiling fans for our bedroom and the great room and the vanity lights for the two main bathrooms. We haven't found the perfect fans yet, and the vanity lights will be largely dependent on what faucets we choose. I'm still waiting for the booklet of those.

We also bought the rest of the paint, or all we intend to do now. We bought fresh pear for Anna's room, calm sky for the office, and stratosphere for Braxton's room. I wanted to start painting those rooms tomorrow, but with Anna's homework situation, they may have to wait until the weekend. (Let's just say that experience has shown that she won't do her homework if I leave her with mom.)

The next thing I'd love to see going on is some grading happening outside. It's time to lose the big mountain of dirt once and for all. The vinyl trim and guttering is also slated to be done next week, I think, so that will really make the outside look complete. After weeks of stand still, I can't say often enough how nice it is to see real progress on a house that has been 3 years in the planning/building for us!

We've Got Mail

Well, after a week of wondering if the mail carrier even noticed the new mailbox as there aren't any houses immediately near us and we hadn't even gotten any junk mail, I finally mailed myself something. Got it the next day. Now I'm going to go ahead and have all our magazines and other things transferred to the new house. I've been avoiding having addresses changed because I didn't want to have to do it twice, so right now, we're still depending on the mail forwarding system. And I hate to think about how much mail we might be losing.

Paint....too purple?

Many of you were accosted by me and my paint swatches a few weeks ago as I contemplated cobblestone versus earl gray or purple surf versus whatever. Well, finally, the paint is on the walls. Yippee! I really like the darker paint we chose for the feature wall in the greatroom and the buff we chose as the standard (everywhere else) color. But I think Philip has some qualms about the purple surf in the master bedroom. I happen to like it, and it will be fine for a while. In the end, it's just paint, so if he can't live with it, we'll change it.

The cabinets are scheduled to go in next week and the flooring soon after. We had planned to get in there and paint the office and kids' rooms ourselves, partially to save some money and partially because we haven't committed to those colors yet. Well, if we are to get that done before the floor is done, then it looks like we'll have to get busy real soon.

I am incredibly excited, however, to once again see progress. We had a meeting with Brad today, and he assures us that things will progress fairly quickly in the coming weeks, with the interior getting largely finished out in the next two to three weeks. Plus, the brick is very close to being finished. We've got the quotes on exterior trim, and he should get that lined up very soon as well.

Meanwhile, I have been busy studying brick mailbox columns, choosing light fixtures, perusing faucets, etc. I have my assignments: finish purchasing light fixtures, begin picking out tile, paint any rooms I intend to paint myself, start calling and checking interest rates daily to begin thinking about locking in a rate. (That last one scares me a little because it is very much akin to gambling, and I really fear locking in too high or missing a low rate because of being afraid to lock in too high!) Anyway, I have some things to keep me busy for the next couple weeks myself, which might be good for all this nervous energy that seems to keep me awake at night.

It's getting good...stay tuned.

The Mailbox

I never really thought that putting up a mailbox would be a big deal. We went to the post office, got permission to just stick one up, so all we needed was to go to Lowes and get it. However, if you know me, then you probably could have told me that this was yet another little thing worthy of my obsession.

We did go to Lowes to check out mailboxes, and then to Home Depot, and then off to a different Lowes. After probably an hour of standing in the aisle debating all the pros and cons, we chose a black metal mailbox with some nickel trim....we decided that we could use that later when we brick the mailbox in, and we wouldn't waste money. But what about a post? In the end, we decided that probably would be money wasted, no matter how we did it, so we got this plain black metal post that we could just drive into the ground, thinking it would be nice and sturdy until the brick column gets built.

Well, as you can see, because of the slope of the ground, the mailbox arm had to be extended as far as possible to be the right height for delivery, which really looks stupid. What you can't see is how much the box wobbles, even with Mr. Philip behind the wrenches and ratchets.

Oh well, despite our best efforts and all the hours of agonizing over this one, it didn't turn out quite as expected. However, it is up, allowing me to begin changing my address on stuff now, instead of having to use the temporary address. I hated the idea of changing our address twice so close together. Now I'm going to send myself some mail to test it out. Maybe I'll send myself a birthday card. Happy birthday to me!

Between the Hurricanes

Wish me luck that we get a bit accomplished this week in between the hurricanes. I haven't even talked to my contractor in the last week because I know the deal. Waiting on the rain to clear. Well, I think it should be clear for a few days until the next hurricane....which is Hanna, with Ike close behind. I was really hoping to be done with this house by hurricane season. Oh well. Pretty soon these will all just be funny stories to recount in the future, right?

I hate hurricane season!

Yessir, I do.

Is there an end in sight?

Well, as you can tell, we're pretty much 3/4 of the way done with the brick. In fact, the back of the house is a straight run, and with the corners already set, that should only take a few days. But people are asking me daily when it will be done, and I truly have no idea. I know when it needs to be done, but that may not be the same thing. It is looking good though.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that painting begins this week. That will go quickly, and once that is done, the electricians can get back in and begin installing fixtures. I'm very excited about that. I had planned to start buying some fixtures this weekend, but we unexpectedly got offered Panthers tickets, so we did that this evening instead. Priorities, right?

We also got the go-ahead from the post office to install our mailbox, or at least a temporary one. I'd like to have a brick column made at some point, but I think that should wait until after the last of the big trucks has to get in there. Once the remaining concrete is poured, we might be safe, but I want to go ahead and start changing addresses permanently instead of having to do it twice, so we will probably stick some kind of mailbox up for now and change it out later.

That's the update for now. Stay tuned...

Decisions, decisions

Needless to say, after two weeks of apartment living, I am more than ready for this house adventure to be over! Check out my other blog for more details on my apartment adventure.

Slowly but surely the new house is coming together. We finally closed on the old house on Friday, and I have lots of decisions to make about the new house: cabinets, flooring, paint, interior door styles, etc. I'd like to do that in some type of order, but it really all has to be done at once because the paint color is going to be very dependent on flooring and cabinets, etc. Let's just say I'm not going to ever be known for my decorating sense, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to screw this up somehow. Look out to my friends at work--I'm bringing some of this stuff with me to work this week. You might want to hide if you hear me coming!

Picture from Monday

Here's the pic from Monday that I was unable to upload then. Hopefully, I'll get back out there Thursday or Friday and have new pics that show mucho progress to post then.

Bricking around the front

I'm anxious to see the house all bricked up with the front porch, and the masons are making their way around to the front. I have a picture but cannot get it to load for you tonight for some reason. It's looking good though, so I'll have a new picture soon. They are very close to the front porch now, so my hope is that by the end of the week I'll have a good idea of what it looks like and can post better pictures than I'm trying to post tonight.

Brick well underway

Well, the brick is well underway, with one whole side of the house completed so far. And the sheetrock is moving right along. It's been mudded and sanded at least once as far as I can tell. That's the greatroom in that top pic.

We chose a light brick, so I'm getting a little paranoid about that red dirt and the light brick. We're using sand right now to help keep it clean, but I can't get grass planted quickly enough, I'm sure.

Now that the first move is over, I hope to take more pics and update the blog a little more often. Very soon I hope to be able to post pics of cabinets, flooring, etc. Wish me luck!

Sheetrock and Brick

The sheetrock and brick were delivered this week, and the sheetrock team is moving quickly. When I got there tonight around 6:00, they were still working and didn't appear to be slowing down. Walls were up in almost every room except the great room. It's funny how having walls really makes some of the rooms much smaller. Closets that I thought would be huge just aren't so large anymore, but it's still wonderful!

The masons have started prepping for the brick. They had laid some additional cement block today where the dirt will fill in around the front porch, and I assume I'll start seeing real brick go up by the end of the week. I'm obviously more than excited about that.

I didn't take new pics tonight because there were a bunch of strange men I've never seen before working all over the house, so I didn't want to get too much in their way. But I'll take new pics before the week is out and get them posted asap. We're moving this weekend, so that may not be this week, but it'll be very soon.

New Windows and a Front Door!

I was excited when I pulled in to the lot today to see my front door installed. Yahoooo! They have also finished installing and switching out the small windows that I just couldn't handle. I really am pleased with the decision to switch some of them out. Philip thinks the window in our bathroom might be too big, but I disagree. I think it's perfect now--lots of light and easy to see out. I also switched out the windows in the tiny powder room and the laundry room and am much more pleased. You can see in this pic above that we also replaced the single window in Braxton's bedroom with a double. Again, very happy with the way that has turned out.

I don't have the best angle right now to get a good pic of the front door, but at least you can see most of the glasswork in the top pic above. It really is pretty and will be stained probably in an oak grain.

As far as the schedule....we are waiting for the plumber to finish the rough plumbing. He should be done in another day or so. Then Brad can order the rough inspection and the exterior inspection. Once that inspection is done, we can begin bricking and finishing the interior. Yay!

Plumbing and Electrical

They have been working in the last week or so on getting the plumbing and electrical roughed in. The first pic is one of the switch boxes in the kitchen, and the second pic is the view into the master bath. There are so many light and fan switches that I'll never keep it all straight. I'm sure it'll take me 3-4 months to halfway remember what switch hits what light.

We weren't happy with the drawings for the master bath all along, and we knew that once we began building, we would figure out how to rearrange it then. So I think we've finally got it all figured out. We ended up separating the closet from the bath, which makes the bath a little smaller, but it still fits the tub, large shower, and vanity with double sinks just fine. And the closet is huge. I've never had a closet this big before--I think it's larger than Braxton's current bedroom. Oh yeah!

Other progress? The front door is on order as well as the replacement windows for the ones that were too tiny. The rest of the doors were sitting in the garage when we were out there this weekend, so they should be installed this week. I think he's pushing to get the rough-in done this week or next and get that inspection done soon. My experienced eye tells me that the electricians have another day or so, and the plumber probably needs the same.

This is the point where Philip wants me to take a virtual photo tour of all the walls with the electrical and plumbing, so if there are any questions later he can refer back to the "rough-in retrospective." Those aren't the most fun pics to look at, but I agree it will be useful, so I'll probably be doing that this weekend.

Roof complete--Tiny little windows

Sorry it's taken me so long to get a post up here. I've been sick with a miserable summer cold/sinus thing, been working like a dog to get the current house ready to sell, and been fretting over the windows in the new house. As you can see from the above (very bad cell phone pic), the windows are really tiny. Granted, when the dirt comes up to grade, they won't look as small, but I pretty much decided last week that the windows have to be replaced. Yes, that will cost me, but no, I cannot live with them the way they are. These windows are much smaller than what I have now, and truly much smaller than depicted in the plans and elevations. So yes, I should be arguing with my contractor, but really, I just want them gone.

I have come up with an ingenious plan to move some of the windows around to save replacing all the windows in the house. The new windows have been ordered, so I cannot wait to see what it will look like in a few weeks with the real windows. I've been kind of sick looking at these the way they are.

I was very worried about the roof color, but I really like the driftwood that we chose. I think I'm really going to be happy with it. Other updates? We have the kitchen laid out and are waiting on drawings from the cabinet guy. We have the interior part of the A/C installed complete with ductwork and returns. We have just today determined the final layout for the master bath, and I managed to eek out more closet space for me (yay!) and a mini linen closet for the bath. They are separated now. The closet is no longer accessed through the bathroom anymore, which I'm fine with. I had no opinion on that either way.

The garage floor is ready to pour, but that may be another week or two before that's done. The plumber and electrician are due out any day. Oh, and I think we've sold our current house after just a couple days on the market. Yep, that means we're gonna be homeless for a month or two. Now the panic about the house not selling just turned into panic about where we're gonna live. Oh well, better to sell early than not at all, right?

I know there's a lot more to update, but it's late and I'm achy, so I'm headed to bed now. I won't keep you hanging as long next time, I promise.

Almost ready for shingles

The roofing is set to begin today I hope, and the windows should also be installed. The plan is to have the house "in the dry" by next week. They should have finished getting the sheeting done by Monday, which is why I'm expecting the real roofing to begin today. Choosing shingles was difficult, and I'm still not sure I'm getting what I wanted. I see the color I want on other people's houses, but I cannot determine what that is in the little shingle brochure or with the little 2-inch samples you get. So I did a girlie thing and told my contractor to go look at such and such a house and match that. He loves that. Luckily, one of the sample houses is near my new house. So who knows what that homeowner thinks, but apparently he has been by there several times trying to match up shingles for me, and he's even taken the shingles out there and had the shingle salesman out there. Those poor homeowners must think we're stalking them!

Anyway, I'm afraid what I'm getting is a little more gray than I like and less brown, but regardless, it will be fine. Philip likes it, and poor Brad has tried his best to match the house I pointed out. And really, I'm at the point where I don't really want to think about brick and shingles anymore. The decision has been made, and I'm sure I'll love them cause they're attached to my new house.

Hmmmmm....the house does get bigger and smaller depending on vantage point. Usually it seems so big, but in this pic it seems a little small. Nah, I guess that's just the optical illusion of the various stages of building.

Enjoy. I'll post a pic with the real roof as soon as I can afford to drive out there again. Haha!

Back of the House

Just in case you're interested, I thought I'd also post a pic from the back yard. We had transplanted some plants into a little garden way back behind the house, so I took this image from the knee-high grass in the back.

Anyone know a good lawnmower repair person? If so, send me a name and number please.

It's really taking shape...

I just keep getting more excited as I see the house finally taking shape. You can probably tell a lot more what it will look like now that the roof is coming along nicely. I think this pic was taken last Wednesday evening, the 21st, so I imagine that between Thursday and Friday they got the rest of the trusses set and hopefully covered. You can see a pallet of roofing felt in the front of the house, so I assume that's next on the agenda.

I'm sure that between today and Monday, even with gas nearing $4, my curiosity will hit its peak and I'll have to run back out there. As usual, I'll post another pic then.

By the way, Philip says no to Christmas lights on this roof (something about it being too steep, blah, blah, blah). I don't know if I can make it through a Holiday season without my Christmas lights on the house. Wonder how much it is to rent a cherry picker???

Roofing underway

Just wanted to update you with a pic of the roof trusses going up. They've been working on these for a couple days. They still have the uppermost point to go. I think he was waiting on the crane to come back to help get those up there, LOL.

Rooms.....

Now that most of the walls are up, it's very neat to see how the rooms are all going to be laid out. There have been a couple surprises, like how big the laundry room is and yet how small the powder room next to it is going to be. The stairs to the basement ended up not needing as much headroom as allowed in the plans, so we have some extra space that we could have used to either extend the pantry or make into a closet for the dining room/office. We chose to make it into a closet for that room. I can think of a hundred uses for that extra space, and it's neat to have.

I keep worrying about kitchen space, making sure I have enough, that is. So far it looks plenty roomy. I hope it stays that way. We keep going through phases where everything looks big, and then it looks small, and then it looks big again. Everyone warned me that would happen at different points during construction.

To explain these pics, the first one is the view from the entry way, looking down the foyer. To the left will be the office and a coat closet, straight ahead is the great room, and to the right are one of the bedrooms and the kids' bathroom. The next photo is another one from the front yard, this one showing a little different from the pic last week in that it shows the true window opening size. I'm a little worried about some of those, too. I really like big windows, and they all looked fine in the elevations we had, but I was afraid of their being too small. In the end I asked Brad to size up wherever he could. I think he did that, but some of the bedroom windows still seem small. I'm just trying to go with the flow and not agonize over things like that.

When we were out there on Thursday, they were setting the roof trusses, but I forgot my camera, and I didn't even have my phone with me to take a quick pic either because its battery was super dead. I thought I'd be out there again for sure this weekend to have another opportunity for more pics, but I haven't had a reason to be over that way yet. Maybe tomorrow...

Walls...

We have walls. I love walls. Somehow a house just isn't a home without them! I know it's hard to tell what these pics are without the in-person tour (which you are welcome to at any time, by the way), but the first pic is the front of the house from the vantage point of the driveway or thereabouts. The second pic is looking from approx. the laundry room, through the kitchen and great room over towards the kids' bathroom and bedrooms and the master bedroom.

They've only been at it since Monday, so there are still some walls missing, like everything that will eventually be where I'm standing in that second picture, and the windows and door openings aren't fully cut out yet in the top picture. That being said, it's still exciting to actually be able to walk in and around the layout of our new home!

The weather has been cooperating with us as well lately, and depending on that, the schedule is for roof trusses to be delivered on Monday and for those to be set next week. Today we were given the chore of perusing the brochures for brick, shingles, and front doors. Decisions, decisions. As many of you know, it's a little difficult to pick out brick from a 2-in. picture. We'll be doing some driving around this weekend, I'm sure. We know what we want, but I can't figure out what that would be in the pictures. Maybe we'll visit the brick showroom this weekend, too. So far, I'm pleased that we basically agreed fairly easily on the brick and roofing we want and even on the front door styles we like. Wonder how long that will last?

Floor Trusses and Subflooring

Sorry I haven't posted this week, but needless to say, the end of a term for me is always crunch time, and add to that baseball and dance, and you can see why I haven't had time to get the pics off the camera and onto here lately.

We did get some wood laid on the foundation this week. They started by framing up the load-bearing wall that bisects the basment, and then set the floor trusses once that was in place. I was hoping to see some walls going up near the end of the week, but that didn't happen. I'm wondering if something didn't get delivered as planned. I honestly haven't had time to call Brad to check. I've only been out twice this week, and I was quite happy with what had been done.....no time to complain, certainly. These pics are in reverse order, by the way; the first pic is Friday evening, and the second pic was taken the Wednesday before.

Maybe when the semester ends I'll have more time to post, so until then, keep wishing me nice weather for a while...no, not another drought, just a couple weeks of rain only late at night!

Framing Begins Next Week

I'm sure you all are excited to finally see a new picture up here instead of me whining about something or other, right? Actually, several things have been done this week, but not much visually until today, so I opted not to waste gas running out there daily and to just wait until the end of the week and make one trip.

On Monday, they filled the block walls with concrete. In fact, two of them are filled solid. The walls that are 12-inch block and which will have dirt filled up against them needed to have concrete every so often if they were over 6 ft. high with more than an 8 ft. span (or something to that effect). As is typical with inspectors, Brad checked several different times with a couple different inspectors as to what they preferred and got a different answer each time. So basically, instead of filling one cell every so many inches as the codes require, two of the walls are just filled pretty much solid. Bet I won't be getting any cell phone reception in the basement, huh? But if there's a tornado, guess where I'm heading?

By midweek, Brad bolted the treated lumber caps onto the walls. This is where the framing is attached. I just know that it sure is nice to see some lumber being attached to the block--a nice step in the right direction (upwards, that is). Then Thursday, the basement floor was poured and sealed. We took these pics right after the sealant was done, so it still looks pretty wet, and it smelled pretty fresh, too. By the time I walked around to the basement doors, I was getting a little contact high, felt like I'd been sniffing a few too many markers! You remember the old-fashioned Marks-a-lots that were just a little too toxic? Ah, the good old days!

Anyway, depending on the weather, Brad is ready to have floor trusses delivered and begin framing on Monday. Like usual, the weather forecast has changed three times already today. Here's hoping for pretty weather. Everyone promises it goes quicker once the foundation is in place, so I'm counting on all of you to be right. If the weather holds next week, I'll head out there a couple times and post more pics, rest assured!

As suspected....

You know what really irritates me? When Philip makes some smartass comment like, "You know nothing will get done this week," just to irritate me, and then he turns out to be right. Of course, as Thomas puts it, he is rarely wrong. Thanks, Thomas, for having my back on that one!

Anyway, earlier in the week Philip made that comment about the concrete not getting poured this week, so I was ecstatic to find that it would be poured on Friday. And since I didn't hear anything to the contrary, I drove out to the site to see the newly-hardening concrete on Friday night to find NOTHING! Need I say I was furious?

Not only was I irritated that it didn't happen yet we didn't know, but I was also irritiated to waste probably a gallon and a half of gas. What's that, like $5 or more nowadays? Suffice it to say, I was mad enough that Philip didn't argue with me about who was to call Brad this time. I think he realized I was past the point of civility and reason.

Turns out, Brad didn't realize until late in the afternoon that the concrete would not be poured, and it was because the concrete pumper (or whatever) had broken earlier in the day. He did line up someone different to be out there Monday morning and has a full week of activity lined up for next week. I hope so, but I'm learning that it's a toss up as to whether or not it will really happen.

I realize that my posts probably don't paint my contractor in the best light. I shouldn't do that...you just have to realize this is a venting tool for me in addition to an update for you all. I do trust him and his work; otherwise, I wouldn't still be working with him. We are just very different people. I think I should get a daily phone call update to ease my mind, and he apparently has it all under control and doesn't think it's important to give me the blow by blow. And yes, I know I could call and bug him a couple times a day, but I don't want to be totally irritating either.

Many of you have assured me that once they start the framing, the construction will go much quicker. I hope you're right. I do have to say that at this point, Brad has been relying pretty much on other people and their timeframes, like the masons and the concrete company. So many of the delays are not his doing. Just to be fair...

Wish me luck next week to see some concrete pouring and some framing beginning. I'll post new pics when something out there looks different.

Fixed?

Hmmm.....well, the dirt has been dug back out, and the wall is back in place, still braced mind you. But I have been assured and reassured that the wall will be fine once it's poured solid with concrete and braced with the wall trusses. I'm going to have to take it on faith that these people I've consulted know what they are doing.

I doubt the concrete gets poured this week, just because that's my luck. A whole week of little or no rain, and nothing will get done. As usual, I'll keep you posted if and when there's any progress.

Two steps back?

What's that saying about one step forward and two steps back? Well, I think that's where we are this weekend. We went out to the house this evening for the first time all week because we were thinking nothing much had been done. Brad had said last week that he was waiting for the basement walls and floor to be poured before starting on the floor trusses and that when he got the trusses in as support for the walls, he would back fill those walls.

So when we got out there tonight we noticed he had already started backfilling the walls. We wondered why he did it before all the other stuff, and then we noticed the braces...yes, the braces, the ones keeping the wall from falling down. Yikes! Yes, when you look carefully at the pics you see how the wall has bowed in under the pressure, cracking some of the blocks. I'm thinking this cannot be good. Just when I go trying to relax about the time frame, he goes and gets in a hurry and screws up big time.

We called and asked him about it, and yes, it is his fault. He doesn't understand why it did it cause it's never happened to him before. But it goes against the whole order of events he laid out for me last week, so it seems like he'd have figured it was a possibility.

I'm trying to decide if this is going to worry me to death or not. I'm concerned that there is no easy fix for the problem. Brad is going to have to dig all the fill dirt back out without damaging the wall, then crank the wall back to plumb (or whatever), and I guess see if it holds??? I am concerned that whatever fix we use is going to cause problems in the long run, if not in integrity then in waterproofing at the very least. But if his fix doesn't work, the only other option is to tear the wall down and rebuild it

Oh well, so much for my rushed timeline. I have no idea how much this will cost in time or money. I spent this evening taking my anger out on dustbunnies and cobwebs. This might just bode well for my spring cleaning!

(Sorry about the picture quality--these are from my phone.)

No Progress

No rain this week, yet no progress to speak of. I don't really need to go on a rant about this, do I? At this point, if you've been reading, you know how I feel.

Basement drama?

Well, not really, but Philip did get a little pissy about the basement bathroom. The plan for the basement is to finish it eventually, as in years down the road. But we did talk a little about going ahead and planning in advance for plumbing down there and maybe some roughed in electrical.

Well, turns out that planning ahead for a utility sink and a fourth toilet in the basement might be more costly than we really want, as in $2000-3000 more. Apparently a fourth toilet requires a bigger drain pipe and more trenching, etc. This is one of those areas that's a little too technical for me. I just do a lot of nodding when Brad goes on about this stuff. Instead, he recommended a pump system where the toilet has a pump that allows it to drain upwards (or whatever). Those apparently work very reliably nowadays, and they only cost $600-700 and include the toilet. Sometimes they involve a raised floor, but not always, and I can live with that.

However, when I tried relaying this to Philip, he got pissy with me, so I just told him to call Brad. But, according to Brad, I did relay the info correctly (yay, me!). So Philip does the "Fine, nevermind then" thing with Brad on the phone. Brad, good sense of humor that he has, basically tells Philip to think about it and call him later. Philip gets pissy again, and Brad says something to the extent of, "You can't get like this already. You've got a long way to go to be acting like this this early on." I LOVE IT!!!!!

By the way, Philip told me this story verbatim later in the day, and obviously, I'm highly amused. I get to see the pissy Philip all the time, and I'm used to it, but for him to get called out by Brad....priceless! Doesn't that break a rule in the man handbook or something???

In case you're wondering, Philip was amused by it later, too. That's a good thing since I was laughing hysterically at him when he was telling me the story. I don't know if he knows I'm blogging about it, but he ought to know me by now. There are no secrets with me....

What's the point in 10-day forecasts, really?

So my friends all know I've become rather neurotic about checking the weather lately. And I know it's spring and all, but seriously, the 10-day forecast changes more often than Braxton changes clothes, which is A LOT! Earlier this weekend, it was supposed to rain one day next week, then it turned to two, then three, then four. And just when I was beginning to think the rainy season was here to stay, now the rain has disappeared from the forecast. As best I can tell, the forecast changes every couple hours or so.

In the end, who knows really what the weather will be? The lot is a mess, so even with the pretty weather, I don't know how long it will take to dry out enough for them to get big trucks in there. I don't think today was enough to do it.

Our bank tells me that they have deposited our first draw, though, so tomorrow, I get to write the biggest check of my life so far, $22,000. I just read an article on CNN about all these people losing their jobs, homes, and just not able to pay their bills in general, and I wonder if the timing of this was a mistake. I guess there's no way to know that now. With my previously mentioned financial worries, I'm all too aware of how the well can be drained dry. But there's no turning back now....not that I even want to. I am so ready to move into this house!!!

About that "little progress" idea...

....well, maybe not. It's not anyone's fault but Mother Nature. I told everyone that we would single-handedly end the drought, and they didn't believe us. Well, what do all you doubters think now? LOL

I did go out to the site today, my only time this week, for those of you who are counting, and saw that there's a little gravel and creek sand out there, but no concrete has been poured in the blocks, and the walls haven't been back filled, and we're no where close to pouring the basement or garage floors. All that will need to be done before the framing starts. And unfortunately, next week's forecast has changed to include rain four out of five days. (A couple days ago, it looked like the week might be mostly sunny. Too good to be true, I guess.) I know Brad's been trying to get things done, partly because I've talked with him a hundred times this week and partly because the yard out there is torn all to hell from the trucks trying to get in and out with the ground so soggy. Today was the first day I wondered if my car would get stuck or not, and no, it didnt! Thank goodness.

I've been too whiny lately

I know I should be using these rainy days to focus on getting the current house on the market, but I have so much to do, here and for work, that I'm just frankly paralyzed. I am going to spend the next several days planning for a huge yard sale, probably the first of many! I've been analyzing the forecast daily for the last couple weeks, promising to be out there the first sunny Saturday, and I went ahead and put an ad in the paper for next week, but who knows if the rain will hold out or not. The last two Saturdays have been a bust, and there's a 100% chance of rain tomorrow. So we'll just keep crossing our fingers for next week.

I'm in the mood finally, after being bummed all week, to get some things done. Those of you who are close to me know that we went through a period about 4-5 years ago where it seemed like everything we owned that was expensive broke. We had to replace the heat pump, the well pump, the pool pump, the front door, the dishwasher, the washer and dryer, and God know what else in that time period. We were financially scraping for a while there. Well, my luck can only hold out so far, so in addition to the house building expenses, we are also experiencing another financial trial of sorts. I had to have massive work done to my car recently, including a new transmission, amounting to the whopping total of $4000. Then Philip needs a crown replaced--$800. Anna is starting orthodontic treatment--$750 for now. Braxton has some dental work that needs to be done--$900. The bank suddenly decided we needed a foundation survey--$300. Anna's summer camp and girl scout camp fees are due--$1100 total. And today's news was the worst, just because he's the member of the family least able to help himself, but the dog has developed more bladder stones, only 8 months after his last surgery, confirming that this is something we will be dealing with for the rest of his life since apparently the prescription diet is not working. There is some medicine that we can try, but it's pretty much our last option, and even that still doesn't change the fact that he needs another surgery. That's probably another $800 total, not to mention the strain and pain for him.

But overall, we are all happy and healthy, and I do know that it's only money. I'm blessed to have a little savings to pull from, even if that is mostly tapped out now, and I still have a little available credit left....haha! So I guess with my luck that won't last long. And we still have our jobs and can still pay our bills. I guess it took the bad news about the dog today to really put it all into perspective. The money is just money, and who needs that???

Well, thanks to those of you who actually read all of this. If you made it this far, you really deserve a prize! Maybe one day soon I'll actually have more house stuff to blog about.

By the way, if you know my dog, Mac, he'd appreciate a visit from you to wish him well. And no, he really doesn't seem sick in the least. But we'll probably schedule his surgery in the next week or two because it really is something that will only get worse and could turn into an emergency very quickly.

A Little Progress

Because of the rain this week, there has only been a little progress. I'm not sure where we are with pouring concrete for the walls, but I know we are waiting for the rain to clear for a delivery of gravel or creek sand to back fill against the walls. I also know the bank inspector has been out and approved the first draw, so we're 10% complete. And now I'm 100% anxious about needing to get on the ball and get this house on the market. I'm such a procrastinator...ugghh!

We had to get an unanticipated foundation survey also this week. The good news was that it was fairly cheap and done quickly. We also now have home owner's insurance, which is incredibly cheaper than our current house/policy. Some of that I'm sure is the lack of pool, but my goodness, this is twice the house and only one third of the premium. That's about my only good financial news this week. I have been telling people that I'm hemorrhaging cash this week between all of us at the dentist, Anna's various summer camps, the dog, etc., I'm about done for.

The windows have been ordered, so I got to make some fun decisions about that. The most interesting window set up is actually in one of the kids' rooms, probably Anna's room because she likes the window, heehee. It'll be a triple window with the center being an arch top. It looks pretty neat. I also added a double window in the dining room and took out the arch top there. That would be too hard to do because of that being a load bearing wall, or something like that. And in general, I asked Brad to size up the windows wherever he could. I just like big windows and think that bigger is always better.

I guess I'll get back out there to check tomorrow evening or Friday afternoon. Tomorrow is crazy with appointments, so it will probably be Friday. To be honest, I really have to focus on getting the current house on the market....forget the new one for a while. That's much easier said than done!

House Plans

I've tried to upload the house plans here, but so far I can't figure out how to upload a .pdf file. Well, it's not that I cannot figure it out; there is just no way to do it in the blog.

If you want to see the plans, just email me, and I'll be glad to forward you a copy of the floor plan and elevations. How's that?

Rain, rain, rain, and Windows!

Well, it's rained non stop pretty much for three days, and it looks to rain the rest of the week, but the windows have been ordered. Yes, if we ordered by the end of March, we got a free UV (some other technical term I forget) coating, so Brad ordered those today. The windows will be a little different from what's in the plan for various reasons, but it's still very neat!

Foundation almost finished

The basement is almost finished. The walls are up. They've been painted with waterproofer, and sometime this week we'll get the 12-inch blocks poured with concrete to make them solid. The underground part has to be solid fill. They switch to 8-inch block anywhere that might be above grade or close.....that will be sided with brick at the end.

Also this week, barring the rain that's supposed to happen every day, the plumber is supposed to come out and set the pipes for the basement bathroom. Those pipes need to be in before the floor is poured. But basically, within the next two weeks, the basement foundation should be complete and we'll get started framing up the house.

Moving on from the Basement....

Well, today's update shows that progress has moved on from the basement walls, which now look complete, over to the foundation to the garage and laundry room. It's kind of neat to see how it all connects.

To give you some perspective, I stood at the back corner of the garage to take this photo. In fact, this is the perspective I'm using most often because you can see almost the whole house from this vantage point. The L-shaped dirt area in the foreground and to the right is the garage and storage. The little square area inset in the garage will be the entry into the house and will be a laundry/mud room. From there you'll pass a small powder room and walk into the kitchen. I'll try to post the floor plan soon, but we did mirror the plans when we saw the slope of the lot, so I need to get a mirrored version for you all.

All the masonry equipment is still out there, and there's plenty of block left, but it looks like these guys have to be pretty close to finishing up. I haven't talked to Brad in a week....guess it's time to call for an update, huh?