construction – Dust Bunnies and Dog Toys

The Finishing Touches

Published on November 21, 2013 by JennaLeave a comment

It’s been a very busy few days at the new house! We’ve finished the flooring – after several very long nights.

The counter tops are finished and look fantastic.

The tile in the master bathroom has been installed, grouted and sealed.

The stone work on the fireplace is up, although it needs to be grouted. The stone on the front porch still needs to be started.

The appliances have been delivered and are being installed. I can’t wait to use all the space in this fridge!!

The electrical fixtures (switches and outlets) are almost complete and the baseboard trim has been installed and touch up filler/paint is in progress.

I was worried I might second guess some of the lighting selections, but everything I’ve seen so far looks great.

The prop fan we selected for the family room is on order, so a ‘temporary’ fan was installed for the appraisal.

The builder is now back on-site and doing what he can to keep everything on schedule for closing on December 1. Our movers are scheduled for December 4-6, since they believe it will take a day to pack up our stuff, a day to load the truck and a day to deliver. It seems so close and yet so far away.

Unfortunately, all this progress tends to create a trail an explosion of tools and supplies throughout the house. Every time, I’m there and see the mass of stuff everywhere I twitch unintentionally. But I know it means I’m closer to living in our new home, so I’m working my way through it with deep breaths – which seem to worry my husband more and more. 🙂

The appraisal was supposed to be done today, but might have to be finalized next week once everything is at 100%. The energy rating will be done soon and our home inspection is set for Saturday. We’ve also locked in our interest rate for our loan. If for some reason the paperwork causes a delay, the builder has agreed to do an early occupancy without rent to accommodate our scheduled movers and time off from work.

Other than making sure all the elements are finished, all that’s left will be cleaning and finding a new renter for our current place! Our landlord had someone lined up, but hasn’t gotten confirmation just yet, so we’re hopeful that will work out. Stay tuned for posts on more of the details!

A Quick Update

Published on October 14, 2013 by JennaLeave a comment

First things first, I’m sorry I’ve been MIA recently. It was a SUPER busy at work last week and I had several photo sessions with new clients (that’s a very good thing!) so blogging just fell to the bottom of the list. But, I’m back and I’ll try to make up for lost time with a post each day this week – although don’t hold me to that! 😉

We made our weekly visit to check on the construction progress at the new house on Sunday and didn’t see much visual change, but that doesn’t mean things didn’t happen. The gas line was installed, as evidenced by the gas meter on the side of the garage. That means there is progress still happening while we were sorting out the electrical issue – more on that in a minute.

We also know that R19 insulation was ‘blown’ into the attic, since Matt was there when the contractor arrived earlier this week. Of course I don’t have any pictures of that, but I’m sure the home inspector will confirm it’s all there. As you can see below the metal roof is still not complete, but it is closer than it was last week.

One major thing we noticed is that the debris on the lot has been cleaned up. Remember how there was a huge pile of trash and scrap on this side of the house last week? Well it was moved to the front and apparently burned based on the ashes seen on the right in the picture below. It’s a good thing that Matt pulled out the usable pieces and set them aside in the woods when he was on site earlier this week!! Granted there are still items on the edges of the clearing that will need to be collected and a few items in the burn spot that weren’t completely destroyed that will have to be removed, but overall it’s looking a lot cleaner – which soothes my Type A personality! Although it does make the dirt splatter from the recent rain more obvious… Luckily, I reminded myself that will be eliminated when we landscape next summer.

Most importantly, there were signs of progress on the electrical line being run. The short story is that the seller of the lot did service the lot as he agreed to do, but not in the way that would have been most convenient or cost-effective for us. So it boiled down to our options being 1.) Cut a 15′ wide stretch of trees from the front corner of the lot opposite the driveway to the house for the line to be run, at an additional cost of $3,000 if we cleared the trees ourselves or 2.) Pay an additional $3,500 to have the line run down the road and up the driveway to the house. We chose to maintain the privacy and potential resale value by paying the extra $500 to go the extra distance. Unfortunately, that meant we were over budget and needed to adjust the numbers with our lender. Although I’m not happy with the increased cost, I am pretty proud that the only reason we are over budget is out of our control. Every other selection and decision was made within budget at our original sales price and allowances balancing out. Not many who build a home can say that! Here you can make out the stakes that mark where the line will run up the driveway and to the side of the house.

Hopefully the actual line will go in this week and progress can resume inside with muding and taping, then finish work! With all the recent delays, we’re now estimating we won’t close and move in until sometime in December. Sigh. I really want to spend Christmas in the new house, but ultimately my goal at this point is to be in the house by the end of the year. Fingers crossed! 🙂

Just a Little Update

Published on August 25, 2013 by JennaLeave a comment

There wasn’t much progress this week, so today’s update will be rather brief. The wood roof has been covered with a protective paper material to keep the rain out of the house until the metal roofing, which has been ordered, is installed – hopefully this week.

For now, all the windows and doors are open to let the interior wood dry out after the week-long rain we had. The electrical should be done by mid-week and then insulation and drywall will begin. We met with the builder on-site Thursday, and went over a few details. He confirmed the siding where the nook window size was changed will be replaced by the framers, as it was their error. He also confirmed they will add a header over the entry to the studio, which will give us a place to hang sliding tracks for doors later (watch for a post in the coming weeks about my plans for the office!).

The interior gas lines have been plumbed, but Enstar still has to run the line into the property from the street. I’m not sure when this will happen, but it looks like they’ve already been on site doing some preparations.

While the crew was waiting on the sub-contractors they began installing the siding on the front of the house , which makes it seem so much more solid.

They also built the front porch, which will eventually have partial stone columns on either side where the posts currently are. I can’t wait to decorate this space for holidays! And I plan to add a pretty little rocking chair to that corner to enjoy the view!

It’s not grand, but it’s our own little slice of the mountain, and I love it!

So that’s it for this week’s update. Like I said, not much. Hopefully this week will be more productive so I can share another milestone or two before the hubs and I head off to the lower 48 for a short trip. 🙂

Another Little Update

Published on August 18, 2013August 18, 2013 by JennaLeave a comment

I realized it’s been two weeks since I’ve done an update on the progress of the house, so here’s the latest. Almost all of the exterior doors and windows are in and the natural gas lines are done.

Notice how the windows in the nook are shorter than the family room and the extra framing they had to add to correct the hole size they originally framed? Well this is what it looks like on the outside. I’m not super keen on this little change and will certainly be watching to make sure it looks better than this when we do our walk through! I’ve also questioned why one window opens and the other doesn’t. Seems they should both be one or the other.

Laundry room and Studio

Hall Bathroom and Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

The little window in the garage. I’m not sure of it’s purpose, since it doesn’t let in much light…escape hatch perhaps? LOL

The highlight of the recent progress is our front door being installed! In the design we liked and asked for! Here it is from inside with the framed entry way and outside where the covered front porch will be. Below is a wide shot of the front entry from outside. Can’t wait to see this bad boy painted purple!

Apparently, there was a delay with the roofing contractor and electrician because we were told those items would happen this week, but there was no sign of either being started yet. Instead there was limited progress on the vented soffets and trim around the windows and corners on the front of the house.

There was also a pile of materials to begin the lap board siding on the front of the house and our back deck! We’ve got big plans for the back yard so watch for a post about that later this week!

Progress…

Published on July 25, 2013July 31, 2013 by JennaLeave a comment

The last time I shared pictures of our home construction, it was little more than a hole in the ground with concrete footers. A lot has changed in the 10 days since! I went back to see the progress the following Saturday and found the floor joists finished and exterior walls going up.

From the driveway.

From the back corner of the back yard.

I met the hubs at the site yesterday since I had the day off. There had been quite a bit more progress! All of the interior walls are up and they are set to begin installing the roof trusses.

The garage. I love how that huge door makes my truck look teeny tiny!

The man door in the garage. The other opening will be the electrical panel.

Entering the house from the garage, where the laundry room will be and my new studio off the kitchen.

The dining room and back door from the kitchen.

The kitchen with my PANTRY framed in!

The great room from the dining room.

The hallway to the bedrooms off the great room and the entry way next to my studio.

The hubs envisioning the ‘view’ from bed out the slider in our master.

The other view from bed, the closet on the left and the bathroom on the right.

The master closet. I’m already planning this space out to be as efficient as possible. Watch for a post about that soon. And guest room #1.

Guest room #2.

The back side of the house.

A more straight on shot of the back of the house so you can see ALL THOSE WINDOWS!

And of course we had to make sure the garage door would be high enough to fit the hub’s big rig! 🙂

Stay tuned for more pictures of the progress and little projects of choosing things as we move on to the details. I’m hoping to get some shots with the roof on in the next week!

Broken Ground

Published on July 15, 2013July 31, 2013 by JennaLeave a comment

At last we have broken ground on our new home!! That’s what’s kept me so busy and unable to post regularly last week. It sure is a lot of fun picking out all the details, but it takes a lot of time, especially when you’re working within a budget. 🙂

So here’s a little look at the progress thus far. This is the view heading toward our property. This is where the pavement ends. We are still two more bends in the road away. Notice all the fireweed lining the road? Some of that is gonna end up in my garden!

And here’s the driveway from in front of the house. Yes that is a slight bit of a mountain view through the trees! Something I hadn’t expected, but absolutely love!

Here’s the foundation thus far from the front corner of the garage.

And from the side. With the well going in just beyond.

This is the yard on the side of the garage. The septic system will go here, so some of this will be filled in before construction is finished. The rest will be filled in at some point later by us to make it more usable. I’m thinking some of this area, possibly closer to the driveway, may end up being used for my rain garden due to the natural slope.

A little more mountain view from the back corner!
I’m thinking I’m going to need a bench out front to enjoy that!

This will be the view out the back of the house for now.
We will clear a bit more to create a yard for the dogs next summer.

Here is the view from the area near the well. I love that you can just barely see the edge of the neighbor’s driveway, but not the neighbors themselves! And that means they can’t see us either! Just how we planned it!

The view from the front of the house. The pink flags on the trees are the property line. But the lot next door is the same size as ours so it’s likely that when it sells and is built on the owners will build farther forward so we won’t really see them either.