Window Into My Soul

Yesterday was a big day at the house! The crew got most of the rest of the shingles onto the roof, they put in stone where our garage floor and front step will be and they installed windows! The windows were hands down our favorite part - they really look amazing! And in case that wasn't enough, they also started putting up siding on the back of the house too! The changes were drastic... the house looked so different than it had 24 hours earlier.

We'll be rockin' the Kasbah in TX for my bro's wedding the rest of the week. I guarantee we won't recognize the house when we get back! More to come then...

When Having Shingles is a Good Thing

The house has shingles! It's not complete, but about 2/3 of the roof has been covered. It looks so much more like a house with shingles... can't wait to see what a little siding and some windows will do! As an aside, I have learned that if you are at work and see someone in the hallway who knows you're building a house, you should probably not yell, "I have shingles!" if you don't want some strange looks. That's a free tip.

Mid Week Madness

It's been a long and busy week, but we finally made it out to the house last night before the sun went down. The crew made good progress on the soffits and trim, but my favorite part was that the beginning of our siding was on! You can see the corner pieces in one of the pictures, so now there is a hint of the trim color and the main siding color... the only piece missing (besides filling in over all the Tyvek, of course) is the shake color.

In other news... we had the most fantastic meeting last weekend with the folks at All About Organization! They had storage solutions for every room and we got to play with all the various different choices in their showroom. Some of their closets seemed like celebrity closets (fun to see, even if ours won't look like that). But I will say that our closets are going to be spectacular!!!

Side A

We were at the house last night and in addition to having some visitors (the Verbers were there for the 6:00 tour) we were thrilled to discover that the very first pieces of our siding trim were up!! Just having a few pieces of siding really seemed to dress up the house, so we are anxiously anticipating what it will look like when the whole house is covered. And the siding only has a base coat of paint and will get one more after it's all up. I think it's going to be exquisite!!!

Outtakes

On Thursday night, I stopped by the house to see what was new. I ended up doing a whole lap before I figured it out... soffits (the aluminum thingys up by the roof)! I know those are important, but they just didn't seem interesting enough to have me post pictures of them. So instead, I thought I'd include a few pics that hadn't made the blog yet.

Ally testing out a chair and the view in our sitting area in the master bedroom.

The very beginning of our lawn!

Signing paperwork with our builder

Aaron wondering about something (for once, we didn't have our plans handy to refer to)
Ally rockin' the broom guitar

Get Off My Porch

Construction has started on our front porch and our back porch! The front porch is a smaller gathering area (not everyone loves front porches apparently) and the back porch is going to be screened in with doors that open up into the dining room. On nice days, we can whip open the doors and let the outside in! This was our architect, Mary's, idea. She has it at her house and we saw it in action - it is REALLY cool. We might not get to test it out right away since we move in in February... but the first day over freezing, you can bet we'll be trying it (even if it's only for a few minutes!).

There were other little changes like more framing on the fireplace and soffits starting to be added to the roof, but the other big change is that now there is a much more civilized way to get upstairs! We were thrilled to take advantage of that and explore the loft and bedrooms in great detail. Everything looks amazing and is coming along nicely, so it's been fun to explore. The hard part is waiting for it all to be finished!

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other

We're back from a long Labor Day weekend! On our way home from the UP yesterday, we were able to spend a little time exploring the site - don't tell the cats, they were put out enough with our trip as it is.



It was a lot like the game where you try to find the differences between two pictures... we had to look harder to see the changes since Wednesday. After our thorough inspection, the changes included more framing on the fireplace wall and bench, the start of a staircase from the first floor to the second floor (no more ladders soon!!), complete framing around all the windows on the back of the house, a chimney for Santa to climb down, the final pieces of roof plywood over the drop zone, vents added to the gables, the first pieces of the screen porch, and framing of the cubbies for the dining room cabinetry. Whew! The crew was definitely busy last week!! And today is another wonderful, sunny day, so there should be plenty more progress where that came from!

Subtlety is My Specialty

Now that the walls and most of the roof are up, the changes to the house were much more subtle last night (as you might notice from the exterior shot included). We peeked upstairs and saw that more framing was happening in the doorways up there and the fireplace/hearth in the living room was also starting to be framed. I guess we'll take progress... subtle or otherwise!!

Note: Due to the Labor Day holiday, this blog will be on vacation! Postings will resume early next week. Have a safe and happy long weekend!!

The Second Story is First Class

The trusses and roof were on the second story last night! It's really starting to look like a house now that all the peaks are on. We could even see our house from the road when we turned into the subdivision!! It's still a long way from completion, but it'll be a relief when it's all buttoned up and we can stop worrying about the weather forecast! Fortunately, this week has been downright gorgeous and rain hasn't been a problem at all. Let's hope that keeps up for another week or two!!