What Progress!

Well, our house has come a long way on the interior. All of the HVAC system has been installed. The plumbing has been roughed-in and all the tubs installed. All of the electrical system has been run (outlets and light fixtures) and we have two fireplaces installed. Next week, the low voltage man will come and install the sound system, phone/internet/cable, and central vacuum system. The carpenter has started building all of the cabinetry for the house and sheetrocking will begin in a few weeks! Whew! What a month! Here are some random pics from the inside of the house.

This will one day be my kitchen!!

Upstairs living room with fireplace.

Master bath tub.

Downstairs living area, will also have fireplace.

It Looks Like a House!!

Wow! These framers work so quickly! Our house has a roof and the deck has now been built on the back of the house. The roofing materials have been delivered and we should have a roof by the end of the week. Once that is done the windows can be installed. I spent the afternoon looking at appliances and feel very overwhelmed! The appliances have to be chosen now so that the dimensions can be given to our cabinet builder to help layout our kitchen. Looking forward to April when we will be done choosing things and can sit back and watch them finish construction!

It's Looking Like a House!

After two week of framing, our house has come a long way! All the walls are up and they have started laying the rafters for the ceiling and roof. It's so exciting to walk in and start to visualize what the house will look like. We chose the color of our shingles last week, Driftwood. What an easy decision. We looked at the board and that was the only color that made sense to us. This week we will go to the plumbing supply store to pick out all of our fixtures. On Friday, some men came and drilled our well. It was interesting to watch them drill off the back of their truck. Now that the well is done, the next phase of the house (after framing is complete) is to lay all the rough-ins for plumbing.

Day Two of Framing

Here is a picture of Daddy and Miss A standing where one of the bedrooms will be. Maybe hers?? We'll let her choose!
These framers are fast. This was taken after just two days of framing. They have completely finished all the basement interior walls and already started laying floor joists for the main floor. I can't wait to see what they accomplished today!

Framing Begins

Framing began on our house today. A crew of 8 Amish men will be framing for the next 4 weeks. They are very hard workers and they do use power tools. However, they still do not believe in having their picture taken so you won't see any pictures with them in it. I have to wait until they are having lunch or done for the day to take a picture. In other news, we did finally choose a brick, our house will have Royal Burgandy brick, which is a deep red color. It should look nice against the stone we chose since it also has a few red stones in the mix. Next on the list is choosing roofing. We are already getting tired of making all these choices and we still have months to go! I can't wait until we are finished!

Basement Walls

The last few weeks have been very rainy here, so construction has been delayed.  However, last week we did have a break and they were able to pour the basement walls.  A plumber was also out and roughed in the plumbing.  Sometime this week they should pour the basement floor and then framing of the house will begin!!  We have made some choices for the house already.  We met with our builder at Meeks and picked out all the windows for the house.  We also met with a woodworker who will be custom making our front doors.  Check out his website at: http://www.jamersondoor.com/.  The biggest problem we are having right now is picking out brick for the house.  We had settled on "Old Washington" then found out the plant that makes that brick is closed so the brick is no longer available.  Finding our second favorite has proven tough and we must decide by the end of the week!  Yikes!  I'll keep ya updated!

Concrete Footing

On Monday the concrete footing was poured.  (The footing outlines the house.)  Today the foundation guy was back out and placing the base rock for the basement floor.  This will be packed down and then concrete poured on top. 

The bucket on his tractor is right where our pool table will be one day!!

This is a view down our driveway that was cut on Friday.

Daddy has been working for a couple days sawing up the tree!

A Big Hole

So here's a look at the lot after three days of digging.  I'm standing by the front corner of one of the bedrooms.  I had to stay over to the side since they were still digging over to the left when I came by.  What a big hole!  Tomorrow they will pull down some dead trees where our driveway will be and will begin framing the footings for the concrete.

Here's a picture of just one of the piles of dirt that has been excavated.  I made sure to get my car in the picture for a frame of reference. 

The Blank Slate

As a few of you may know, we are undertaking the biggest project of our lives... building a home!!!  We wanted to document our journey over the next year so we can look back at all that has been done.  My plan is to update the blog each time something new is finished on the house.  Here's a look at where the house will be.

And this will be the view from the front door:

The plans are all done and today marks the first day of contstruction!  I went by earlier and they were excavating for the house.  Yeah!!!