Ipe Decking, Laundry Room & Appliances

We are in the home stretch! Brian says he only needs 1 more week to wrap up! We went ahead and scheduled the movers for August 15th (2 weeks from now, just in case!)

Brian continues to keep things moving along. The electrical is almost done with all the lights installed, the plumber is done with all the fixtures installed, and the hvac is hooked up and working. Brian has installed almost all of our appliances in the kitchen and is now working on the ipe decking (ipe is brazillian walnut that is very resistant to the elements) which look phenomenal. The carpet has been installed in the attic bonus room, and the front walkway is complete with blue stone.

I also spent another weekend at the house installing things, this time the cabinets for the laundry room. Things are looking good!

Hopefully our next post will be when it's completely finished!

Countertops, Floors and More

It's been a few weeks between postings so there's been a lot of progress. See the pictures for the highlights, but items include the kitchen countertops installed, the hardwood floors stained, the exterior paint is completely done, and the master bath has had a lot of progress including installing the shower glass, cabinets, and our brother-in-law Chris's custom made concrete countertop! It is awesome, a big hats off to Chris.

Alyssa and I also went the do-it-yourself route on a "California" closet system and spent all of last weekend building our own completely custom design, saving $2000! Saving any money at this point deserves a big woohoo! Plus it came out great. Next do-it-yourself stop, the laundry room and a date with Ikea.

As for a move in date, we were feverishly working towards Aug 1, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. It's unfortunate because much of my family is coming in town to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday on Aug 10 and a bunch of folks were going to stay with us in the new house, which I was really looking forward to. Now were just hoping for a mid-August move in.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Driveway, Interior Paint, Etc

We've had another few weeks of progress going on over here. Things are moving along...not always as quickly as we'd hope but they are moving. The most exciting things going on lately have been the interior paint going up on the walls, the pouring of our driveway (specially designed for Alyssa to not have 16 point turnarounds), and the exterior deck rails are all installed. The detail work on things continues to exceed our expectations (case in point, our exterior railings) and we eagerly anticipate our move in date as we get closer and closer. Speaking of which, the move in date last time we checked with Brian was mid-July but we're not hiring the movers just yet. There are still many more things to go and next up should be floor stain, countertop installation, fireplace stone, and more... There are lots more pictures in the album for those of you who want to take a look

Kitchen, Stair Railings, & Cedar Shingles

The kitchen cabinets arrived! They're only partially installed, but there here and they look awesome. Also arrived are the kid bath cabinets, soon to be installed.

It took us a couple iterations to work out the stair railing details, but we finally decided how we wanted them to look and they're in and we're really happy with them.

Also, we decided to wall the inside of the 2 screened in porches with cedar shingles instead of siding, which was a much better decision. Looking at the pictures, I'm so happy we switched. The siding just wasn't doing it for me, and the cedar now looks awesome.

As for the next week, the cabinet installation will be complete, the garage doors should be installed, and the exterior paint should start!

Doors, Trim and Stairs

So we're in the middle of a 3-4 week trim phase at the house. As far as phases go, not the most exciting. At least it helps it look more like a finished house on the inside though. The stairs and railing started too which is cool and also helps the finished look. I think we're on the verge of a lot of more visible progress though. Soon to be started are the cedar shingles on the inside of the screened porches (we changed our minds from the siding, which just looked ugly), the fireplace stone build-out, the "mud-room" nook in the front entry way, the driveway and front sidewalk, the kitchen cabinets!, the bathroom cabinets, the porch railings, and others. Hopefully soon we'll have more than just bare wall, empty room photos.

Interior Finishes Continue!

Its been an exciting couple of weeks here as hardwood flooring went in in the entire house in 2 days! Slate tile followed behind on both porches and marble in the future 'kid' bath/guest bath. We celebrated a very low key but very nice 3rd wedding anniversary by picnicking on the front porch, complete with chocolate souffles from Bacchanalia - yum! You should have seen Dan broiling those in the toaster using the extension cord to the temporary power line...who needs a kitchen??
The house is looking more and more like a place to live as building materials slowly disappear from the lot and the yard is starting to reappear. Grading, driveway pour, and interior trim are next on the docket according to builder Brian...
He also says that he thinks we will be moved in by June, so we are VERY VERY excited about that.
This process has been a long and exciting one. While we cannot wait to get home everyday so that we can see what's happened at the house, we are also growing weary of the decision making and underlying stress that goes into building. We are still thrilled that we've been able to do this but we are getting to the point where we just cannot WAIT to move in!

Insulation and Drywall

Well it took 3 long weeks and a lot of yelling at Brinks Home Security but we finally passed the electrical inspection. The story is, they're supposed to pull a permit for the low-voltage wiring (alarm, phone, internet, cable) before they do the work, but never did. Nor did they get one after they finished the work before the inspector came, who then failed our inspection. Then when I yelled at them they got one but only for the alarm work. So the inspector failed us again. Then after yelling at them some more they got another permit, but had the wrong address and permit number. Then after a fourth time they finally got it right and we passed the inspection. It was a very annoying 3 weeks. My recommendation to you is don't ever call Brinks for anything.

So after a long time of not much happening on the inside of the house, we're finally moving again, and quickly. In the last week we had the cellulose insulation blown into the exterior walls, the batting rolled into the attic, and the drywall started. At first I loved the drywall guys because they worked really fast and made a lot of progress. But then I noticed a nice puddle of urine inside the screened porch. One of they guys decided it was too far of a walk to the port-a-john and just let it go on the porch. I guess it's just a risk you take when hiring a bunch of illegal immigrants to hang your drywall. At least they work fast though because they'll be done in a few days, and that means hardwood floors by the end of the week!