Days 62-63: Stairs and Arch ways installed

I was in the area picking my girls up and swung by. I honestly didn't expect much because I was just there 2 nights ago. Boy was I wrong! They had the basement cut outs for the windows and doors and had the bathroom framed ( this will be unfinished but they had the walls framed out) There were no stairs in the basement but there were stairs on the first floor so I could go up and check out the second level! I love it!

I took a ton, I mean seriously a ton of pictures, so try and I'll narrow them down!

Almost completely wrapped

 

Basement windows and doors are cut out

So many windows! Still waiting on porch

What a difference a week makes!

 

 

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The Basement

 

 

This entire area will be left as is. You can see the plumbing rough in for

the future full bath. They framed it in.

 

From the other end. The big framed opening is to the mechanical space,

 I'm wondering if they are putting a door there?

 

 

A few of the mechanical area. you can see the bathroom cuts into it.

We will put my tanning bed in here and our deep freezer and probably

some shelves for the stuff I buy in bulk. The stairs to go to the first

level are to the left of this picture

 

 

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First Floor

 

Stairs! This is when you first walk in the front door

Arches from the living room into the breakfast area and kitchen (LOVE!)

From the kitchen, then living room and the guest room is in the far back

The (not technically) bay window in the family room/office

 

Standing in the family room looking through the foyer (front door to left, stairs to right)

and dining room is straight ahead

 

 

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Second Level (eeek!)

 

Stairs and the laundry room is to the right

Straight down the hallway; media room on left and the girls

jack and jill bathroom is straight ahead (they framed a door where there shouldn't be one)

Their bedrooms are on either side

Walking in our bath. Tub straight ahead and our vanities on either side.

Toilet room to the right and Justin's closet is to the left.

You can't see the shower or closet yet...

 

 

*sigh*The view from our bathroom

 

Standing in the media room, you can see our master in the back.

This is where I'm adding the Roxul (click here to read more on that)

 

The archway in the media room (the laundry is directly across the hall and my closet is

behind the laundry)

Lanie's room, I love the corner windows!

Addison's Room

 

The girl's jack and jill bath

 

 Up next is finish some more arches and the wall then roof and windows :) See you next Wednesday!

Days 56-61: Completely Framed, Can't believe it but I love it!

We were floored to see this last night as we were driving up!

 

Walking through the house for the first time was so surreal. We had never been in a house with this exact floor plan, because we modified the model a good bit. It was so amazing. I was a little worried I might not love it since I've only been imagining the space in my head for months. We couldn't get to the basement  because they had the back boarded up and no stairs and we also couldn't get to the second level because there were no stairs. I can't wait to see our bedroom, we modified our bedroom and bathroom the most so it's going to be  all new to us to walk through it! Hopefully we can next week. Now for the pictures, I know some are overkill, but I want to be able to look back at these if necessary in the future.

 

If some of you readers are like me, I try to visualize every one's houses and it helps to see the actual blueprints and compare against the pictures, check out the top of the page for the house plan if you'd like. I added it a few weeks ago!

From The Front

 

 

Walking around (basement is all boarded up still, there will be 4 windows and sliding glass doors)

Back (still missing the screened porch too, that probably won't come until much later.

The other side (I LOVE my bumpout :) )

 

 

The girls standing in the pantry

I'm standing in the breakfast area/living room and I'm looking straight to the kitchen and the pantry and mudroom are on the left side

Stepped further back so you can see the opening for the 3 windows in the family room. I'm actually standing in the guest room!

 

Standing in the living room facing the hallway (where Justin is standing) There is a closet to the right and to the left is the guest room. Straight ahead is the full bathroom on the main level.

 

Lanie standing in the full bath. The toilet will be behind her to the right and the shower to the left of her. You can't see the linen closet or sink from this angle.

 

 

This is a terrible picture but the only way to get a picture of the family room and dining room space. The front door is right behind Justin. I'm standing in the family room/office and the dining room is to the right of the picture and you can't really see it.

 

 

I seriously can't believe that in less than 1 week they framed (almost) our entire house. I could see my younger daughters bedroom from the first floor and I could see that all the framing was done, she has a cathedral ceiling so it was neat to see that. I just can't get over how quickly they did it. Next is to finish the wrap and cut out the basement windows and then we should be under roof. I'm guessing we'll be under roof by next week sometime. My SR said we would be scheduling the electrical meeting soon, we are adding some outlets and I want to make sure some are placed in certain areas. Our Roxul should be in this week as well.

 

 

 

 I can't decide when to go back up b/c I'm dying to see the second level!

This is really coming together and I'm so excited. Thank you if you made it this far! :)

 

 

Days 53-55: I can't believe i'm saying this, WE'RE FRAMING!!!

I was going to go up tomorrow but I was in the area picking up my girls so I swung by and wasn't disappointed! It was raining and has been raining most of the day so my pictures aren't great but they are there! The first couple of pictures are from last Friday, I was too upset to post them because I had expected to be framing but I wanted to post them on the timeline.

 

 

 

 

Al the above are from Friday, 9-13-13. The concrete for the basement was poured.

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The ones below are from tonight, like I said it was raining and super muddy (ruined my shoes!) so I don't have great pics.

 

Looking in from the side, you can see the stair framing on the right

 

From the back, the opening on the right is for the sliding door, the opening to the left is for the double windows and then there is another window on the far left near the corner.

 

Looking from the garage at the wooden beams

Next is first floor framing, yay!

 

Feeling Relieved, Bank/Rate Info.

No updates on the house, I am going back on Sunday.

 

But,  I am SO relieved to say we found a different lender for our mortgage. I was very unhappy with Park Sterling, which is who we have our construction loan with so I've been looking for a new bank. Well, one fell in my lap, God is SO GOOD! It's a local credit union with NO origination fees and we can lock our rate within 60 days of closing. I'm just waiting on an email back with some timeline/schedule information so that I know when I can start the process.

 

 I know our rate is still not guaranteed, but at least I know now I don't have to wait until we are in the house to do something!

 

Since I feel bad there are no pretty pictures to show you, here's a picture of the bedding I bought. I've had my eyes on it for a long time and it FINALLY went on sale, yay!

 

 

For the master, color is "Blue Sage"

Days 47-52: I had been told framing would start...

I had been told 5-6 weeks ago that framing should have started 3-4 weeks ago..and then I was told 1.5 weeks ago it would start last week, and then I was told it would start this week and so when I got out there last night and saw nothing I was pretty mad. No beams, no framing, NOTHING! 

 

I left a voicemail for our contact with the builder and of course I got an email about 2 hours later saying framing would start this week. And it's Thursday, seriously? It's getting really old. If I was given a reason as to why it's taking so long to get this process going I might be ok, but since no reason is given I can only assume it's because they have scheduling issues and they aren't managing the build well at all.

 

So I feel bad that my posts haven't been interesting for the past few weeks and I really hope that soon I can show you some pretty pictures but I just don't have any. I've been reading everyone else's blogs and everything is looking so good!

 

The only thing that has changed having to do with the house, is what we are putting IN the house. I've been looking for some chairs to go with my world market table I posted about on last weeks blog. I found some on Craigslist that I'm redoing and they are gonna look ugh-mazing.

 

Right now they look a little sad:

 

But I have big plans for them.

 

I'm also ordering our Roxul Safe n Sound for our media room this week, I'm hoping to find a 10% off coupon code or promo code because it's going to cost about $350 to insulate the walls, but it will be well worth it in the long run. For those of you don't know about this, Roxul is now sold at Lowes (previously Home Depot) and it's a stone wool insulation that is fire proof and sound proof.

 

The reviews are great and I wouldn't have even known about it had other bloggers not posted about it! I'm excited because our media room is between the master bedroom and one of our girls room, this should keep the noise from going through the un-insulated walls while someone the husband is watching loud movies or playing loud games.

 

Ok, I'll stop rambling, hopefully next post will show some framing.

Day 46: Concrete is poured & furniture re-do's & purchases!

They ended up pouring the concrete yesterday on "Day 46". My father in law drove up to see what had changed so I don't have any pictures. I probably won't go back up until next Wednesday and I'm REALLLYYYYY hoping to see some beams and framing going on.

 

Until then, I've been blogging on my personal blog about redoing some furniture for the new house. If you are interested you can check it out , I use Annie Sloan paint and it's amazing what a few coats can do to a grungy piece of old furniture.

 

 

Annie Sloan Paint Furniture Makeover - Headboard and Nightstand

 

Annie Sloan Buffet Makeover- An awesome Buffet I found

 

 

We also bought our dining room table from World Market. I LOVE it! It's very distressed in person so I'm on the hunt for some old vintage wooden chairs that I will paint a solid muted color. I can picture a big white milkjug vase (which I bought from Target btw) with a pretty arrangement of flowers and sticks right in the middle of it. *dreaming of being in my house*

Arcadia Extension Table

I also scored on 2 armchairs from Target. Clearanced out for 50% off! I'm not sure where I'm going to put them yet, but I loved the look of them so much!

Cooper Upholstered Chair

 

 

Hopefully next week i'll have some great pictures to show you of the framing!

Plumbing Rough in, does this look right? Help, please! Days 39-45 *Updated*

I waited a week to go to the lot and it was killing me, I fully expected to see framing. Obviously I didn't and that's another rant for another day however I have concerns about our plumbing rough in for the basement. We paid to have the rough in's done so that we could later easily install a full bath. Look below and tell me what you think please.

The rough in's for future bath is the 3 tubes on the right. Why are the two so far away from the wall?

I'm thinking the one flush with the wall is the sink and the other 2 are toilet and shower but shouldn't they be up against the wall too? They are a good 5-6 feet away from the wall and according to our blue prints, the set up should be like this:

 

I rotated the view so you can see where I'm standing. See how the set up is : Sink, Toilet, Bath.

I just can't see how the rough in could be correct?

 

 

 I emailed our contact last night and I'm nervous because it looked like they were preparing to pour concrete soon.

 

 

*Update*

 

SR said that the really tall pipe is for the sink, then the toilet is the shorter more round one and then the tub and radon pipe is the others. She said it was correct and they are pouring concrete today. I feel better!

 

Other Pictures:

From the back

Backfilling was completed, first time I've been able to walk around this side of the house

From the front, no more huge piles of dirt, yay!

Garage, waiting for concrete.

 

I also realized I've never shared our house plan, I'll be adding that today :)