Thursday, November 5, 2015
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Stairs!
We got stairs last week and a roof (pics of that to come)! I am still scared to walk down the stairs because there are no railings and I can see through them, but I managed to get up there and take some photos of the second floor.
One of my favorites in the house: the master closet! We are thinking about putting a wall in to divide the space (his and hers closets) and to add more hanging space, but the I love the openness of it the way it is.
The view from our bedroom. That house you see is our existing house and will be torn down once the new house is done. Our view will be of the backyard and woods.
One of my favorites in the house: the master closet! We are thinking about putting a wall in to divide the space (his and hers closets) and to add more hanging space, but the I love the openness of it the way it is.
The view from our bedroom. That house you see is our existing house and will be torn down once the new house is done. Our view will be of the backyard and woods.
Stairs(!) and foyer.
The basement also has some updates! There is some kind of foam insulation on the ground (I don't remember what it's called) I'll post pics next time.
-Cynthia
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Slow And Steady Wins The Race?
So, there isn't much (visible) progress. The house is waiting for a roof and siding next. We have rough plumbing in and the beginning stages of a retaining wall in the front yard are going to happen this week. Things are going much slower than I anticipated. We have our front door in the not-yet-finished garage and it's beautiful! I can't wait for it to go up so I can take a picture for this blog. We made a couple of changes in the layout of our upstairs before it was done being framed, and we're very pleased with the outcome.
I am terrified of heights, so I haven't been on the second floor in a while and haven't photographed the progress, but here is the last photo I took up there.
This one I didn't even make it off the ladder, I was alone and too paranoid to fall and not be heard, haha. You can see the roof is up though!
Close up of the nook. The windows were framed too narrow, but they're going to change it. This is what they look like now (except the roof above is done)
This is a panoramic of the downstairs taken from the family room. It looks enormous because of the panoramic effect and because some walls are not framed yet.
The first day our roof trusses went up! This picture was taken from the garage/driveway side (from the back of the house)
This is the kitchen from the outside again.
And this is what our house looks like right now! The huge machine is back to work on the retaining wall out front.
I am terrified of heights, so I haven't been on the second floor in a while and haven't photographed the progress, but here is the last photo I took up there.
This one I didn't even make it off the ladder, I was alone and too paranoid to fall and not be heard, haha. You can see the roof is up though!
This is the kitchen. I can't wait to put a table in that little nook on the right! We already have a table purchased and ready for pick up (it was on sale so we HAD to buy it!) but we asked that they hold it for us till a later date.
Close up of the nook. The windows were framed too narrow, but they're going to change it. This is what they look like now (except the roof above is done)
This is a panoramic of the downstairs taken from the family room. It looks enormous because of the panoramic effect and because some walls are not framed yet.
This is that kitchen nook from the outside. You can really appreciate how close our existing home is to the new construction in this picture. Needless to say, I don't think we'll have any trick-or-treaters this year!
The first day our roof trusses went up! This picture was taken from the garage/driveway side (from the back of the house)
This is the kitchen from the outside again.
And this is what our house looks like right now! The huge machine is back to work on the retaining wall out front.
We're thinking of doing this kind of stone. What do you think?
Till next time!
-Cindy
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
A Quick Update!
So I haven't updated in a while. It was looking the same for a while then suddenly a ton of activity! I don't even recognize our lot.
I didn't think I was going to feel this way, but I just want to hurry up and finish! As exciting as building a house is, there's a whole lot of hurry up and wait. Right now we wait. This is how last week looked:
Then at the end of the week a crane was here putting all the trusses on the roof. This week, the framer has pretty much been covering the roof and sides. I will post more photos as soon as I get them off my phone.
The next big decision to make is what color siding to pick, if we should do clapboard or shingle. I'm leaning towards a sandy grey with clapboard fiber cement. I did sort of negotiate that I would pick the kitchen backsplash if my husband picked the exterior color. I'll be happy with anything but green! :)
-Cindy
I didn't think I was going to feel this way, but I just want to hurry up and finish! As exciting as building a house is, there's a whole lot of hurry up and wait. Right now we wait. This is how last week looked:
Then at the end of the week a crane was here putting all the trusses on the roof. This week, the framer has pretty much been covering the roof and sides. I will post more photos as soon as I get them off my phone.
The next big decision to make is what color siding to pick, if we should do clapboard or shingle. I'm leaning towards a sandy grey with clapboard fiber cement. I did sort of negotiate that I would pick the kitchen backsplash if my husband picked the exterior color. I'll be happy with anything but green! :)
-Cindy
Monday, July 27, 2015
We Have Walls!
This is probably the most exciting week so far, after the initial foundation digging. There was some time in the middle where things really stalled, but now walls are up! It seems like real progress is being made and the view from our house (behind the new house) is changing daily.
The following are some photos from the last couple of weeks or so. I'm not the best at keeping a daily log, or dates but you get an idea of the timeframe.
The following are some photos from the last couple of weeks or so. I'm not the best at keeping a daily log, or dates but you get an idea of the timeframe.
This window in the front is where our living room will be.
This is the basement from the back window.
And that's all I have! I'll try to do a post a week, and hopefully have the videos put together to post. (If we even did it the right way)
-Cynthia
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Quick Little Update!
We have a foundation with tar and (some) insulation! It is getting backfilled this week and next we will be ready to frame! I am so excited to see it come together. I am really looking forward to getting a driveway again and not having to trek though dirt and mud piles. It's moving along, slowly but surely. Soon we will be moving on to the fun part: picking out cabinets, wall colors, fixtures, etc! In the meantime, here's a recent photo of how the new house looks. Our existing house looks so tiny in comparison to the new foundation.
I'm going to try to set up a camera for the framing. I'm not very savvy with this stuff, so we'll see if it works out.
-Cynthia
I'm going to try to set up a camera for the framing. I'm not very savvy with this stuff, so we'll see if it works out.
-Cynthia
Friday, June 12, 2015
If Only...
I was hesitant about writing this post at all, but I ended up going for it because my husband said this is the most honest portrayal of things that can happen during construction.
Without going into too much detail, my son receives a few hours of therapy in our house for speech. On Wednesdays, he sees 2 therapists back to back. This week the mess outside was too much to handle and a bit dangerous with big machines and deep trenches being dug, so I canceled the Wednesday sessions the night before. On Tuesday our water was turned off and I still went to wash my hands a few times a day, once even getting the foamy soap on my hands before I remembered there was no water. So on Wednesday we ended up leaving for the day, first to a play our daughter had at school, then making the decision not to come home after and instead meeting Tony for lunch at his office. Apparently, during this time there was a major electrical problem at our house! When the guys working on our foundation went to cut the water line to reconnect it elsewhere, they were jolted by a shock of electricity! They immediately called the electrician and he came to fix it. I don't understand how it all works exactly, but the way it was explained to me was that the wrong wire was grounded which caused a powerful power surge in our house and had we been home, anything that we touched (that conducts electricity) would've basically fried us. Dead. This is where I can't help but think 'if only' I had kept the therapists appointments we would have been home during this time our house was "hot". In only I hadn't been so annoyed the day before how much I took our water for granted and kept going to the faucets for different purposes, I wouldn't have decided to spend the day out. If only I hadn't decided last minute to meet Tony for lunch, then stayed there a little longer than planned. I was really shaken up by all of this and I couldn't sleep all night that night. I unplugged everything in our kids' rooms, checked our appliances all night, and was even terrified to jump in the shower before bed (fastest shower I've ever had)!
Our electrical issue pretty much fried a few of our appliances; our espresso machine, AC, cable boxes, Xbox, light bulbs, lamps, phone, microwave, and probably other things we haven't discovered yet. It also caused a small fire in our master bedroom. A power surge plug was smoldering after the power was restored and I discovered it when I went into our room and walked into a cloud of smoke. I ran outside with the kids and the guys doing our foundation ran in and turned off the power again, just in case. Our neighbor Dave across the street is a retired fire marshall and he came in here to check everything out. He found the power strip and said it was safe to come back inside. Just to be safe the electrician came back and made sure everything was fine. The power strip had been slowly burning since the initial surge and we hadn't realized because no one had gone in that room. (PSA: make sure your smoke detectors have fresh batteries in them once a year, we failed at this!)
Anyway, I feel so lucky that it was all material loss and the guys cutting the water line are ok, just a little startled and that Luke and I were spared from it all because we were gone all day. Thank God! I'm disappointed in the people who wired this house to begin with. There could have been a huge tragedy! So I leave you with a few pics of the visible damage. It doesn't look like much, but the fire was really the least of the problems.
Without going into too much detail, my son receives a few hours of therapy in our house for speech. On Wednesdays, he sees 2 therapists back to back. This week the mess outside was too much to handle and a bit dangerous with big machines and deep trenches being dug, so I canceled the Wednesday sessions the night before. On Tuesday our water was turned off and I still went to wash my hands a few times a day, once even getting the foamy soap on my hands before I remembered there was no water. So on Wednesday we ended up leaving for the day, first to a play our daughter had at school, then making the decision not to come home after and instead meeting Tony for lunch at his office. Apparently, during this time there was a major electrical problem at our house! When the guys working on our foundation went to cut the water line to reconnect it elsewhere, they were jolted by a shock of electricity! They immediately called the electrician and he came to fix it. I don't understand how it all works exactly, but the way it was explained to me was that the wrong wire was grounded which caused a powerful power surge in our house and had we been home, anything that we touched (that conducts electricity) would've basically fried us. Dead. This is where I can't help but think 'if only' I had kept the therapists appointments we would have been home during this time our house was "hot". In only I hadn't been so annoyed the day before how much I took our water for granted and kept going to the faucets for different purposes, I wouldn't have decided to spend the day out. If only I hadn't decided last minute to meet Tony for lunch, then stayed there a little longer than planned. I was really shaken up by all of this and I couldn't sleep all night that night. I unplugged everything in our kids' rooms, checked our appliances all night, and was even terrified to jump in the shower before bed (fastest shower I've ever had)!
Our electrical issue pretty much fried a few of our appliances; our espresso machine, AC, cable boxes, Xbox, light bulbs, lamps, phone, microwave, and probably other things we haven't discovered yet. It also caused a small fire in our master bedroom. A power surge plug was smoldering after the power was restored and I discovered it when I went into our room and walked into a cloud of smoke. I ran outside with the kids and the guys doing our foundation ran in and turned off the power again, just in case. Our neighbor Dave across the street is a retired fire marshall and he came in here to check everything out. He found the power strip and said it was safe to come back inside. Just to be safe the electrician came back and made sure everything was fine. The power strip had been slowly burning since the initial surge and we hadn't realized because no one had gone in that room. (PSA: make sure your smoke detectors have fresh batteries in them once a year, we failed at this!)
Anyway, I feel so lucky that it was all material loss and the guys cutting the water line are ok, just a little startled and that Luke and I were spared from it all because we were gone all day. Thank God! I'm disappointed in the people who wired this house to begin with. There could have been a huge tragedy! So I leave you with a few pics of the visible damage. It doesn't look like much, but the fire was really the least of the problems.
And here's a photo of our beautiful footings! :)
Just keeping this construction process real. You never know what might come up! Hopefully no more surprises, just good (steady) progress!
Another PSA: Always keep your house clean, you never know who will need to run into your master bedroom in case of an emergency! I also learned this the hard way. :/
Until next time,
-Cynthia
Monday, June 1, 2015
Waiting For The Concrete Guy...
So because we didn't want to have an enormous hole in front of our house for weeks, we have postponed digging until the concrete guy is ready to pour the foundation. He seems to be caught up in another job, but hopefully we will have a turn soon!
We have been discussing doors because we need to figure our how to frame the entryway. We found a door we loved! Unfortunately, it was all wood and with the weather here, fiberglass seems to make more sense.
We also started looking at exterior paint colors for fun. I even knocked on our neighbors' door to ask what color their house was painted (they weren't home).
Is this color gorgeous?!
We have been discussing doors because we need to figure our how to frame the entryway. We found a door we loved! Unfortunately, it was all wood and with the weather here, fiberglass seems to make more sense.
We also started looking at exterior paint colors for fun. I even knocked on our neighbors' door to ask what color their house was painted (they weren't home).
Is this color gorgeous?!
We were also discussing interior colors and my daughter wants navy blue! I didn't think I would like it but I came across some rooms on Pinterest and I think if the whole room isn't navy, it can look really nice! Here's a little bit of inspiration.
I can't wait till we're at the point in the construction where we have to start picking out finishes! Hopefully next week I'll finally be able to post a pic of the foundation hole!
-Cynthia
Friday, May 15, 2015
It's Started!
Over the last week, we have had a huge machine parked on our front lawn! They have prepped the ground for excavating, but since there's still a live gas line that has to be shut off by the pros, the digging is a little delayed. Here are some pics of the ongoings. Hopefully we can get a camera up, to capture a time-lapse video of the foundation progress.
Check in again next week to see a big hole! :)
xoxo-
Cynthia
Friday, May 1, 2015
Unexpected Sadness
My daughter was so upset over the trees being cut down. She made a comment about how long it had taken them to grow and how sad it was that they were being taken down.
She was saying goodbye to her "favorite" tree in the photo above. I hadn't given any thought to missing the existing landscaping or house. Her reaction made me tear up a little as well.
Pardon our incredibly dirty windows.
Next week we dig!! I most likely will be out of town for the foundation dig, but I'm asked Tony to take lots of photos! We really want to set up a Go Pro and capture it on a time lapse film. We'll see if we can get it together before then.
xoxo-
Cynthia
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