Saturday, August 31, 2013

Days 32-33: Crickets

I can't believe that we have had no activity on our lot these last couple of days. The weather has been perfect, not a drop of rain.

As I was pulling into the neighborhood and saw a delivery truck unloading wood onto the other lot our builder is building. I was so excited and though I'd see something on ours, but nothing was touched since Wednesday.  I'm not sure if I should email my SR to ask. Now it's a holiday weekend and we for sure won't see anything until next Tuesday at the earliest. Bummed.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Days 28-31: Brick to grade finished

We have had great weather all week, I was expecting to see some beams, maybe the start to some framing but when I drove up I didn't see any of that. I'm a little bummed, but there is nothing I can do about it. The "brickers" finished the brick to grade and I didn't expect to see some brick around the back of the house...

From the back, you can see the line of brick, it really gives it a finished look
 

Close up from the left side

The French drain is stuffed with red mud, I hope that's cleaned out soon

From left corner to right corner

Scary stoop picture, it's about 11 feet down, crazy :/

This was the last area they bricked, still needs to be backfilled

From the front
 
So, once again...rough in for plumbing is next as well as pouring the cement in the driveway, stoop and basement. Then FRAMING. I can not wait to see some structure. I will say that while staring at the basement from the back, it still looked really small. But, when I actually walked through and visualized where rooms would be, it felt bigger. Hopefully my next blog post will show something more fun to stare at :)

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Days 25-27: Brick To Grade

We got a good sneak peak of our brick to grade today! It looks really good. We weren't given the option to choose the brick color, I didn't even think to ask about it. It looks like it's a good neutral brownish/gray color. Of course, until they wash it I won't know but I like it so far! There is still a little bit of brick left to complete on the right side of the house. The did some back filling on the finished brick areas also, looking good! We felt the waterproofing, it looks like tar but it is actually really soft to the touch, I didn't expect that!

They also smoothed out the basement dirt and I'm guessing it's prepared for plumbing and then concrete. We have really good weather for the beginning of next week so I am hoping we see framing by next Friday!

Entrance to garage

From the back

From the back corner

Basement. Dining room will be on first level above left and the kitchen on the right.

Basement. Bumpout on left, the guest room will be on first level and the family room
will be in the right portion.
 
 
Eventual Deck
 

Front Porch

I was able to finally see the right corner of the house,
they still have to apply brick.

From the front "spot"
 
Plumbing, basement floor then FRAMING!!

 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Waterproofing and Brick Prep Days 22-24

Over the last 3 days the basement walls have been waterproofed. It looks like we have gotten the black tar with a French drain at the bottom. This was really awesome to see. I had never seen this particular method but it looks really great. There was also a ton of brick there for the brick to grade, along with the sand and some other mixture.
We also met a couple that live on the other side of the neighborhood. They were out walking and saw me taking photos, super nice people!

The front porch looking into the basement


The back

Addison with the brick
 
 
Up next is probably back filling, brick wrap, plumbing and pouring basement floors!


Sunday, August 18, 2013

We have basement walls! Days 18-21

Squeal!! yes, over some concrete!

So happy to see these basement walls this afternoon, however the house looked tiny! I think that's what most people say so I'm sure it's just an illusion. It was really neat to be able to visualize the rooms. I was surprised to see how high the driveway is...I didn't expect it to have such a slope but it looks like it will be steep. Hopefully they can grade it and it won't be too bad.


The front

The back

The back left corner

My "bump out"- 6'x17' addition to the side of the house,
this allowed a jack and jill bath on the second level and
a larger guest bedroom with a better layout for a
3rd bathroom. (oh, and obviously a bigger basement)

If we were on the first level, we'd be looking at the dining room on
far left and straight ahead will be the kitchen
 
 

This is the driveway, I'm assuming it will be filled in
and we'll drive in at the base of the first level...seems high.


Next up I'm guessing is plumbing rough-ins and beams to start framing.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

1,000 Views- Yay! And some products I found

Thank you everyone for reading my blog! I've officially had 1,000 views as of tonight.
If you'd like to "follow" my blog, click the "followers" link on the right side of the page. It'll show up on your blogger.com homepage when I make a new post.

The husband and I went to Lowes and found an awesome fan...

The glass shade is actually textured and looks like faux linen. There are also little grommets/bolts on each blade that give it an industrial feel. We will probably get this for our bedroom and possibly the living room.
Can be found Here
 
We will probably do white fans for the girls rooms, we found this one at Lowes and it's very inexpensive and puts off good light
Can be found here
 
 
 We're going out to the land this weekend hoping to find some basement walls, although that may be pushed back until next week. We will see!
 

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Days 16-17 Footers have been poured!

Justin and I are both off on Wednesdays so we had lunch and drove up to see if anything was going on. There were several workers there and they had rebar in the footers. It looked like all of the footers had been poured and the workers were doing some measurements.

One guy was telling Justin that the first couple of weeks drag by (and even more so because of the rain) but he said that framing would begin in 2 weeks! He said it'll fly by then. I'm so glad we went out today and saw this stage. Next we should see forms for the basement walls. We will probably go back Friday or Saturday.

I don't know why blogger won't let me put make all the photos larger, does anyone know why? It lets me enlarge 2 and then won't let me do the rest. Oh well, here are the pics! I didn't get a ton because I didn't want to get in the way :)


Lanie standing on one of the footers. I think this is where our deck/patio will be but I don't know why they stopped the concrete like that.

From the back

The girls on the side of the house

In front, garage to the left.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Day 15: Footers are dug ( question about this) and what color fans?

We made the 35 minute drive out to the lot tonight to see a bunch of trenches dug out. This was completed last week because my father in law saw it on Saturday. It was actually a really nice day and I don't think it rained at all. There is a chance of rain tomorrow but Wednesday it's supposed to be sunshine all day, I'm hoping the footers will be poured. I wonder if an inspection is required before they can pour, anyone know?

I also need to start purchasing the ceiling fans. We have an outside fan in the porch, a living room fan, 3 bedroom fans and the master bedroom fan that we need to buy. I'm thinking about getting white fans for the girls, I'm just worried they'll be too washed out because their 2 rooms will have cathedral ceilings so the fan will need a drop. Should I go with some contrast and get a brown/oil rubbed bronze to pull out the oil rubbed bronze on the door fixtures? I'd like some advice!


On to the pictures :)

Looking down into the hole from 'front porch' garage to left

Back View


Back left corner
 
 
The front looks exactly the same, tons of red dirt.
I will probably go back on Wednesday since I'm off . Until then...some
inspiration for my 6 year old's room...
 
 
 

Lanie's Nautical Themed Room

Days 9-15......a whole lot of...

Nothin' :(

We were on vacation all last week and I was really hoping to come back to some poured basement walls or something. But because of all the rain, (I'm assuming that's why) nothing has happened. They started to dig for the footers but just a few were actually dug. This update is from Saturday, my Father in law drove down for us to see what went on.

We are hoping something happened today because the weather has been nice, but it's supposed to rain this evening, so I don't know if they'll risk pouring the footers or not. I know it's not the builders fault, and one day I'll look back and comment on how anxious I am, but no progress makes me sad!

I'm going to catch up on everyone else's blogs now. We are driving out tonight to see if anything was accomplished, I'll post tonight!

Monday, August 5, 2013

Days 4-8........

Nothing major has happened since my last post. Probably because it's been threatening to rain and has been raining off and on. We are also on vacation until this Saturday! I am wondering what is happening on our lot and I can't wait to see what it looks like on Sunday. We are having a blast in Florida. I'm expecting the footers may be poured as well as the walls. We will see! I'll post this weekend and hopefully have some good pictures!