Construction: Days 31-36

Because I posted the video tour instead of the regular photos on construction day 33ish....then I went out of town last weekend and blah blah blah the construction title dates didn't quite add up.... so I fudged it.  

Regardless, here are the most recent photos. 

We have shingles!  A real roof!!!

my apologies on the crazy slant in this photo.  No time to edit today.  

They have also completed the wiring/electrical throughout the house.  The electrical inspection is today, then tomorrow they do insulation, then sheetrock starts Saturday.  Whoot!

Here is my recessed lighting in the kitchen.

the green stuff is termite protection.

 these are the air return vents and AC vents.  The return vents are pretty nitfty because they keep the 'pressure' in the house even. Thus, keeping random doors from slamming when you open the front door or a window, or whatnot.  

(Am I the only one who lives in an apartment that does that?  It scares the shitttte outta me sometimes)

They also added that grey stuff where there is an "slant" in the ceiling line (in the bedrooms, playroom, master bath, and family room).  I forgot to ask what it does... maybe one of you wonderful readers can identify it?

The next photos will be of our house with sheetrock!  It's really coming along!!

Interior Photos, Pre Drywall, Continued

Here is Round 2 of the photos I snapped on April 21 of the progress of the house.

The playroom.  Standing under the arch that separates the 'extended entry' from the bedroom wing. 

Bedroom #3.  I don't have a photo of bedroom #2, so just imagine it reversed... and located on the other side of the playroom.

Guest bath.  The set up all the pluming for the double sinks. 

Guest Bathroom tub.  (with water??)  I'm guessing they're checking for leaks?

And lets take a second and marvel at these beautiful PROPERLY PLACED windows.  It took them three times to get the spacing right... and I love them, finally!

The amazing master closet. 

Master bathroom with the tub and 42''x42'' shower stall.  

View from the back door into the family room and kitchen. 

duct work for the air conditioner.  

Outside view as of April 21, 2011.

Interior photos, Pre Drywall

These photos were taken April 21st.  I'm going to break the entire house into a few posts over the next few days.  It's starting to resemble a house!

Entry way (with a temporary door to keep the hoodlums out).  I love how high the ceilings are in the foyer:

What you see when you walk in the front door. 

The dining room, to the left.

 Standing in the dining room, in front of the window - looking into the planning area/laundry.  Past that - is into the kitchen and family room. 

More "art" in the laundry room. 

This is the pantry (left) and doorway back into the planning area (right).  You can see a small arched window in the planning area that looks into the foyer. 

The kitchen.  The fridge surround has been framed and the peninsula is taking shape.  You can see the pluming has been into the peninsula.  Our sink will be located there.  

The family room.  Photo was taken while I was standing in the kitchen - behind the peninsula. 

I love love love that window above the back door.  It was totally worth the argument with The Husband.  

Our big, bright, beautiful family room. 

Standing in the kitchen, looking into the playroom.  (The arches are starting to be formed!)

I'll do a tour of the current state of the bedrooms/bathrooms very soon.

stepping into the unknown.

The Husband and I had a long talk last night about the house.  If you don't know us, personally, let me introduce myself:  I am decisive.  When I make a decision I hit the ground running.  The husband needs time to "marinate" on most decisions in his life.  He marinates for days, weeks, months....

This house came to "be" on quite a bit of impulsiveness.  Not that we weren't founded, financially, for a decision like this... but it happened very quickly.  We weighed our options, make some decisions, and jumped.  Together.

Last night we were talking about his concerns (that have been marinating since we signed the contract in February) - and it all hit me like a mac truck.

oh. my. god.
we are buying a house.

we're spending a lot of money.
this is a huge commitment.
this could/will impact our future finances forever.
what if 'x' happens?
what will we do if we have an unplanned 'y'?
how will we manage the mortgage without 'z'?

Now, let me assure you that we are financially sound.  We had already thought about 'what ifs' and our plan if x, y, or z happens - but it never seemed like reality.  For some reason, last night, everything felt like a reality.  A big, heavy, reality.

I guess this is part of the process.  I've never had a mortgage before.  I've never had to write a down payment check with seven figures.  I've never had to commit to anything (other than my husband) for 30 years.  This is all new and exciting, although suddenly: very scary.

Construction: Day 26-30

The house has been "dried in".  Which apparently means that if it rains water should not be able to access the interior of the house.  I'm not so sure... but okay.

Today I noticed there were doing the air conditioning tubing and venting to the exterior.  I also took a peek inside and they were framing up the "peninsula" in the kitchen and the wall that encloses the fridge.  

Here's exterior shot on Day 30:

You can see in the center of the exterior wall where a vent is sticking straight out.  This is where our stove vent will be in the kitchen.

Here are the damn windows again.  I couldn't go inside the house to measure (workers there) - so I'm not sure if they're right or have been changed since my email.  I'm tired of thinking about these stupid windows. 

Thirty days into this construction process... I can not believe it's ONLY been 30 days.  It feels like we've been dealing with this house and stressing about this house, and worrying about finances and mortgages, and f*cking window configurations for 3 years.  

I'm tired of building a house.  I just want it to be done, and for us to move in - and move on with our lives.  The holding pattern is hard.  

House Tour Video!

I finally got my camera to work on video (yippee for upgraded memory cards).  I pulled out of the store and headed straight to the house to capture the progress so far.  The video was taken on Saturday afternoon (April 16th).

It's about 7 minutes long.  I apologize in advance for the excess of "ummms".  I'm working on it. 

What do you think?

p.s. Went home, did some measurements for the master bedroom.  Windows are wrong again.  

I'm trying not to stress, while focusing that energy into writing a clear, direct, purposeful, and firmly worded email.  

Construction: Days 24-25

I was so excited about the progress on Wednesday's visit - I went again today to see what was happening with the house.

We have windows!!!  Glass Windows!!

We also have an entry way that is not arched... gahhhhhh! :(   You can see in this post that the elevation we picked has an arch over the front porch.  I'm about to make another phone call about it. 

Back to the good stuff: 

Breakfast nook windows.

And they fixed the windows in the master bedroom!  yay!

And they installed these super cool vent things that keep the attic cool.  Apparently these are pretty energy efficient.  

Here is the back of the house!  

For those of you that have built homes... are these mistakes typical?  I feel like the construction quality has been very good - it's just these "tiny" details like Arched Entry Way, Three Windows in the Master Bedroom that seem to pass over them.  

Construction: Day 20-23

The roof has been framed out, the interior framing has been finished up, and they are starting to "wrap" the house.  I have a feeling shingles are coming soon!  Week four of construction is off to a great start!

You guys.  I am soooo excited.

I know the house isn't officially "ours"... and that it won't be until we close (they're estimating June 8th), but I have broken all the house buying rules and fallen totally in love with this house.  If anything happens (god forbid, knock on wood, all all those other things you say to avoid things sucking) during the final parts of this deal, I will be crushed.  I love our the house too much.  

And don't you just lurve the roof line??

here you can see the wrap process they've started.  You are looking at the back patio (covered) and the living room windows. 

 This is the entire right side of the house.  You can definitely see the breakfast nook window and the living room windows now!

I snapped this photo as quickly as possible because it's kinda awkward to photograph men who have been busting their balls in the heat doing construction - while you prance around photographing your the house.  

(I told The Husband that when I drive down next week, I'm going to bring cookies and water bottles.  I think they'll appreciate it... right?  We're building in Texas and it is already into the 90s every day.  I cannot imagine doing the hard labor these guys do!  And not only hard labor - detailed labor.  I'm impressed.)

This photo is the left side of the house.  It is the garage, then a window for bedroom #2, then a large window for the playroom, and then a window for bedroom #3.  You can't see the window from the master bath in the back... but it's there.

Shit's gettin' done.  I love it!

Construction: Day 18-19

After the window debacle, The Husband mentioned going out to the house again on Saturday to check the INSIDE of the house for any "oopsies".  So we did.  I'll take any opportunity to visit.

Here's what it looked like on Saturday afternoon (day 19).  They got a lot of work done on day 18 before they left! 

(and no interior mistakes!)

You can see the finished framing the garage and all exterior and interior walls.  The roof is next!

I went a little shutterbug crazy and took photos of every single inch of the house.  When I got home and uploaded them, I realized it looked like a bunch of wood and nobody would be able to differentiate between the rooms (except me).  So, I only included this one for today.

That is our front door and foyer.

(Pretend like you just walked into the front door).  Once you get to where the two slats of wood are (on the floor) - that will be a large archway.  The doorway that would be to your right (left in this photo) leads to the garage.  The door next to it is a closet.  To your left would be the entrance to the kitchen. 

I'm thinking a video tour is in order very soon.  I'll work on that next week. 

Construction: Day 17-18

Well, I guess once the concrete was dry someone put the pedal to the medal.  Look at my beautiful (slightly imperfect) house!

 There are walls, and places for windows, and doors, and EVERYTHING.

Who has two thumbs and is pumped about progress???? This girl.  

Here you can (sorta) see the big window that's in the breakfast area, and two small windows in the living room (look for the headers over the windows to find them).

And above, you can see the back of the house...

 where all the windows in the master bedroom are WRONG.  

#1:  There is currently four windows... and there should only be three

#2:  Three of those four windows in the flat out, wrong location.  

Trust me, we went over window locations in the "pre construction meeting" but I guess someone didn't take very accurate notes.

The window on the 'bay' (turn) is correct.  

The one to the right should not even be there.

The one to the left is about two feet too far to the left.  

The furthest one is about four feet too far to the left.  

Thankfully, it's just wood and can be re-done without too much issue.  The 'guy in charge' assured me they would get it fixed asap and he apologized for the mistake.  I guess it's not too big of deal.  When I called The Husband at work to tell him, he was all excited thinking we could get an extra window for "free".  Sadly, the way the windows are placed right now leaves exactly zero wall space for furniture and doesn't make sense at all.  It's got to be fixed.  

This is just a gentle reminder I need to continue my (obsessive) check ins.  

Construction: Day 14-16

I guess this phase of construction is called "watching concrete dry".

It's super exciting.  And super affirming that they're going to finish on time.

When I drove by the house this morning they had chalked out where all the walls would go - so it was neat to 'walk through' our house and see where everything would be.  Everything still seems impossibly small, but I'm sure that's because there are no walls and my perception is with the great outdoors.  

I didn't even check my camera to see if the chalk lines showed up.  And they didn't.  So here is a shot of our concrete slab. 

Here you can see they knocked down an additional tree.  It was about 7 feet from the foundation, and although the builders/engineers said it was fine to be that close to the slab - it made The Husband very nervous.  His grandmother's house was wrecked with foundation issues and the trees seem to be an easy target.  I was sad to see this one go, but it wasn't worth The Husband's irrational fears for the next thirty-something years. 

You can see it here, before the slaughter:

(photo taken from the back side of the house)

Construction: Days 10-13

With word that the foundation would be poured in the latter part of this week, I snuck out of work a little early on Friday and drove straight to the home site.  Sadly, there was no foundation - but it still had some pretty big changes.  

you can see here that they have dug trenches in a grid throughout the house.  I'm assuming this will all be filled with concrete when the foundation is poured to make it more stable. 

You can see the red/blue pipes for hot/cold water that will run through the house.  

Tapped into the sewer lines.

The husband and I went out again on Saturday afternoon to see if they poured that morning.

We were so pleased to see the concrete truck still there - and everyone working!

After they finished pouring they had some kind of 'buffer' that they used over the entire foundation

Basements don't really exist in Texas, but you can see the slight dip in the foundation where the garage and front porch will be.  There's a dip in the back for the patio as well.  

Hip Hip Hooray!  They're now saying we should be able to move in no later than June 15th.  We're down to 73 days.  They took forever to get started, but I think is going to be a quick build!!