All You Create

The weekend’s visit to the new homestead was fruitful. We now have windows! Correction: We now have most of the windows! Very exciting, to say the least, since “windows” was the first thing to cross off on the builder’s checklist.

Here’s the front of the house (the upper window — my hubby’s office window — has yet to be installed, but all other windows are in) and the roof has a weatherproof covering on it. The shingles should be installed shortly:

Here’s a view of the kitchen windows, all ready for fingerprints and such:

And here’s a rather dark photo of the installed fireplace. It’s a see-thru indoor/outdoor gas fireplace — should be lovely on a cool fall evening out on the deck:

We’re still in the process of choosing certain items, such as wood flooring, carpet, island pendant lighting and faucets. Perhaps we can knock some of those off the list this weekend.

SK

Our new house has become engulfed in Tyvek, the DuPont-brand weatherization wrap that keeps water from seeping through walls. And at this point, the construction is now authentically looking like a house. Yay! And I must add that it looks especially nice and cozy — or potentially so, at least — on this cold, wet day:

And now for a side view; the lone window is in what will be the Jack-n-Jill part of the girls’ bathroom (which, who are we kidding? is really the Jane-n-Jill bathroom):

We’ve also determined our handles for the bathrooms and kitchen. Here’s a sample of the master bathroom handles, in satin nickel:

Satin nickel for the bathrooms, oil-rubbed bronze for the kitchen

Next up for review: island pendant lights. That decision is coming a bit harder, folks.

SK

I can hardly believe it, but choosing stone for the front of our house has been one of the easiest, quickest things we’ve done so far. I explained the look we are going for to our builder, who suggested looking at Cottonwood tumbled stone. We took a look, we liked what we saw and ta-da! We have our stone chosen.

Uniform color and matching mortar give this Cottonwood tumbled stone the look we're after

We’re going with a matching white mortar so that everything blends together. Done.

SK

It’s going well! Fast! Fun!

For starters, here’s the front of the house, with Molly standing on the “driveway” and Abby waving from Molly’s room (on the left):

Here’s a shot of the master bedroom; in theory, we can place the bed between the two windows or under the transom, depending on our mood:

And a parting shot of me and the girly-girls in the space that will soon hold our kitchen table, with a great view of the water:

Like I’ve said, super-fun.

SK

Don’t plan on blinking much when you get a chance to build a house.

We now have part of the front structure up (that’s Abby playing a mean guitar at the edge of what will be the driveway):

And to coordinate with the lovely front structure, we have a back wall going up, with window, door and fireplace cutouts, to boot:

We’re happy campers so far in this building gig.

SK

Since my husband and I switched our morning routines, which includes taking our two daughters to two different schools, I don’t have the opportunity to drive by our new lot as often as I’d like. What this means for the blog is that I’ll be receiving some photos from my husband. It also means that the photos may not be taken from the exact spot each time, which would allow for a fun timeline-type video on down the road. I had thought about it, going so far as to scribble a lovely Sharpie ‘X’ on the curb opposite where our front door will be, but there’s a problem — a big problem: Trucks tend to park right smack in between that lovely X and the future front door.

Ech.

So — here we go with some of the hubby’s photos! Photo No. 1 is a view of the guys readying our basement floor:

Next up — basement walls:

Holy fast build, Batman! This thing’s going up mighty quick.

SK

No rest for the weary, right?

Since the basement walls have to cure for about two weeks, what’s left to do? Well, “the guys” have laid down a bed of gray pebbles/rocks where the driveway will be:

The driveway is coming along nicely

In the meantime, I’ve been looking around town for all sorts of things. Toilets and sinks, you say? Absolutely. These lovelies will go in the hall 1/2 bath:

Memoirs by Kohler pedestal sink and toilet

What about the front door? Oh, yes. First impressions are the thing, or so everyone says. Come knocking at our door and this is what you’ll see — unless we change our minds, which is entirely possible:

Looks good on the door, feels good in the hand

Such fun picking stuff out, truly. But truly, not always an easy decision. Onward and upward!

SK

Week 2 has had great weather again to bust a move on our house, and the guys working on it are, indeed, busting a move. Take a look — we have foundation walls just itching for cement to be poured!

Week 2: Foundation walls

Then just a few days later (Friday, in fact), the cement has been poured and black stuff has been applied to the walls. We’re thinking the black stuff’s some sort of water-prevention material. Yay!

Week 2, Friday: black walls

SK

Digging has begun!

Day 1

The crew had a gorgeous day to begin on our house. First step — start digging that hole! The basement is being created by displacing a crazy amount of dirt. Love it.

Day 1 — Dec. 28, 2011 — Digging the basement

Day 2

Another lovely day for building! Replacing the dirt-mover is a crazy-tall skinny contraption. Perhaps something to do with pumping concrete for the footings?! Yeah, I’m one of those people who knows what she wants the end product to be but doesn’t necessarily know exactly how to get there (like most computer users, if you want a goofy comparison). I’m pretty sure, though, that these guys know what they’re doing.

Day 2 — Dec. 29, 2011 — Long, pointy thing doing whatever it does

Day 3
More great weather today and, boy, do these guys move fast. Today’s drive-by gave me and the girls a lot to look at — all of a sudden, we have basement “walls” going up. Really, they are the forms that will soon support the concrete that will become the walls. Our contractor told us that once the walls are in place, nothing will happen for about two weeks, as they (and we) have to wait for the concrete to cure.

Day 3 — Dec. 30, 2011 — concrete forms

Woot, woot, woot!

Ladies and gentlemen: We have stakes!

We were told last week that we received the go-ahead to begin our little project (gulp) and that they would put the stakes in the ground to indicate exactly which was our house will be situated. We went to the lot and slip-slided through the mud — each shoe gained about 10 pounds, I think — and decided that, yes, this placement is good.

Dec. 2011 — stakes!

Now they tell us that the digging will begin Wednesday. That’s tomorrow! Aaaack!

And now it really, truly begins. Schnikies.

SK