Raise the Roof

Yesterday was a perfect, sunny day with cool temps that made exploring the house more fun than usual! After church, we stopped in to see what the crew managed to get done since we last saw them on Friday morning... We had a roof on the east side of the garage and on the north side of the house! Now that the roof is starting to take shape, the building really looks a lot like Mary's drawings. And I suppose it should - it's just pretty awesome to see it go from nothing to looking like the renderings of our dream house. And if it looks this good now, it makes us really excited for siding!

Truss Me

As of Friday morning, the trusses were up over the master bedroom! We met Gerrit out at the site (bright and early at 6:30!) to review several options for the fireplace and the front entrance, as well as complete some paperwork. We figured as long as we were going out there, we should stop and get donuts for the crew. Don't worry - I tested them first to make sure they were ok to serve to others!!

In the Garage

Last night when we rounded the corner, we could immediately see the progress on the house. There were trusses above the living room AND the garage was up and had trusses on it as well!! Aaron was very excited to confirm that he will have enough space in the garage (more than enough, it seems!) and I was excited to climb a ladder to the second floor and roam through all the completely framed rooms. We had a lot of fun exploring last night. It was really easy to see where the rain garden is going to be and we were checking out the views from all the different rooms to other areas. Let's hope the rain holds off for today so the crew can get the rest of the trusses up. I would love to have a roof on this place soon!!

Movin' On Up

We watched the sun set over the site last night. It was beautiful to watch... but also a reminder that our days are getting shorter. Soon, we'll have to go straight from work to the house rather than stopping for dinner first. Hopefully, all of our exterior shots will be complete before we "fall behind" with our clocks.

Our second story is coming along nicely. All four walls are up now and you can see the opening to the loft from the living room! A little framing up there and it'll be as complete as everywhere else. Looking forward to very little rain this week and more progress!!

Come on Get Higher

After a full day of rain on Thursday, we were hoping the crew could make up lost time on Friday. But that wasn't meant to be. They managed to get in about a half a day of work before the rain returned. That isn't to say it wasn't an impressive half, though!! They started our second floor!!! We actually dragged a ladder around on the site so that we could climb up it to see the progress upstairs! And by having a second floor, we also have a ceiling in the kitchen and dining room. Those two spaces feel much more like rooms now, just with that addition. Another exciting week, but we're hoping for less rain and more work in the upcoming week.

First Floor

The first floor is complete with all four walls up!! It was really exciting to walk through the kitchen, living room, and dining room (the hub of our house) as we got a sense of what it will be like when we're living there. It already feels cozier just by having the south and east walls up. I sure can't wait until things are further along... you know, like when the light fixtures are in... they have migrated from the stairwell (which was so tacky and WT) to neat stacks in the living room of the apartment! Serenity now!!

Wonder Wall

The north wall of the living room and the laundry room have been added! There is also more framing in our bedroom. At the rate the crew is going, we might just have a fully framed first level next week! Aaron and I both got to enjoy inspecting the progress today (as you'll see in the below where we are hamming it up!). This is a great end to an exciting week of progress!! Of course, it does make it tougher to go back to the apartment with it being in the 90's today... but maybe there is a cool fall on the horizon. I know the cats sure hope so!!

The Great Wall

We now have multiple walls! In fact, our bedroom is actually taking shape and we can walk through doorways and everything! Tonight was an exciting night at the house. I had the car to run errands and I was without Aaron (that's not the exciting part). I was the first person to walk through our master bedroom, bathroom and closets (yes, plural!)!! It was amazing to see it with windows and doorways and wall separations!

The below is a view of the front of the house, complete with doorway and windows. I really didn't think that we'd have a doorway already.

The below is the view from where the tub will be in our bathroom looking north toward our closets.This view surprised me. In less than a week, it's gone from looking like a hunk of concrete to having the shape of a house.

We're Floored!

This morning, we drove out to the site to drop off donuts for the crew. We figure that framing is a key element to our house and we know the crew will be there for several days. They were pretty pumped for some surprise treats. But we were in for a surprise when we went back out after work today... The main level floor was in and the west wall was up! Plus, the windows were framed in the basement!! It was amazing what a difference one workday made!! We spent a lot of time wandering from area to area (I can't really say room to room yet!) checking out the location of windows, how our furniture was going to fit, what the views would be like, etc. It was a fantastic day!

Lower Level Framing

Framing has officially begun! We can see the window boxes in the basement and the I-joists have started to go up. I was out with friends tonight (hey Tami & Dana!), so Aaron got to go to the lot without me and see all the excitement. He also had to meet a retaining wall expert while he was there, so it wasn't just a social visit. Although, he did get to enjoy social hour with the O'Hearn family as they stopped by to check out the progress. Then some neighbors stopped in to chat as well. It turns out that Kurt & Holly almost bought our lot! Fortunately for us, the guy selling it was a real pain to deal with and several deals fell through before we bought it. They had to settle for a lot in the final phase across the street from us. Funny how things turn out...

The below is sunset from where our sitting room will be. Not too shabby!

The Beginning of Something

The first of our lumber was delivered on Friday and starting on Monday we will be able to watch boards go up! We are anxious to see the lumber in action. That will make it feel more like a house and less like a concrete cave.

As a side note: It's rained all weekend and there were no wet spots or standing water at our site. That means we have good drainage. Yahoo!

Spancrete

Ok - so Spancrete sounds so funny to me that I can't even make up a more interesting title for today's entry. "What is Spancrete?" you are probably asking yourself right now. Well, it's chunks of preformed concrete that are basically "glued" together. This will form the base of our screen porch. Then 3 inches of actual concrete will be poured on top of this stuff to make the floor for the screen porch. It was very exciting to have even one space in our basement start to feel like a room!

The crew got the Spancrete installed on Thursday, and it was just in time. It's been raining non-stop since then. Hopefully, we'll have good weather next week as it's time for some lumber to be delivered. We're going to have a frame soon!!

I thought I would also add one more pic of the grading to try to show the backyard. It's hard to show it from the right perspective, but this will give you some idea. The walkout area is the large opening you see on the lower right. I am standing at the top of the hill by the garage looking west. Not too shabby, huh?

Grade A

Tuesday was a big day... our site was graded (don't worry, it passed!) and backfilled! And in case that wasn't exciting enough, it all happened a day ahead of schedule! It made such a difference in being able to visualize the house and where it's going to be in relation to the yard. It also made it a whole lot easier to climb into and out of the basement. We were able to just stroll through the opening where our walkout will be... rather than jumping into a pit and then climbing out on our hands and knees. We are now thinking that we might only need one retaining wall in the back yard instead of two. We've got some experts taking a look at that later this week to confirm, but hopefully, we can make it work. It'll make the yard more usable and less walls is less cost, which is music to our ears!!

Blue Steel

Well... if you have eyes, you can see our steel is actually red... but I can never resist a good Zoolander reference! As you might have guessed, our steel was installed today. It's strange how excited we get about items that up to this point were downright boring. But suddenly, insulation and steel are the things our lives revolve around!

We also had a fun stop on our way home from work tonight. We confirmed our fireplace and our exterior stone selections. It was only about 15 minutes and it was pretty awesome to just have to nod our heads for once. No changes... no surprises... exactly as it was on the plans. Finally!!

It's not fat... it's insulation!

Added to our foundation walls is now a layer of insulation. Both the pink and the gray parts are insulators... the gray stuff happens to be a UV protector that doesn't deteriorate over time. That's the part that will be above grade.

Saturday also had us making the rounds to more suppliers. We were looking at countertops way out in Ixonia. They don't have the countertop that we originally selected, so now we're waiting for some samples to arrive in the mail so we can try to pick something else. We narrowed our choices down to two at the showroom, but couldn't make up our minds (and it was an hour later by this point!). Hopefully, we'll be able to finalize that one soon... it'd be a long drive back to the showroom to review any other options!!