Pictures at last...

These are from a few weeks ago before we had the TV in the Entertainment Cabinet and before we had the extra shelves and such in the bonus room... and before we took the plastic wrap off the new lamps and tags off the pillows, etc.... it's coming together slowly... more pics to come in the near future (once we get a new camera)... :D Oh, and my computer won't let me scroll down and it won't let me move the pictures around in the window so I apologize for the weird spacing and such...

The "Playroom" (as we call it)

View of Great Room from Kitchen

Our Great Room furniture arrangement, for now...

The first load we brought over from my parents house... looks like we own a day care.

Closing Day! First Time Homeowners!!

House Progress

Well, the last few weeks have been busy at the house. It's actually practically finished and we're scheduled to close a week from today!! So, the latest...

The rain stopped long enough for them to put down the sod, and then started again and has been off and on ever since, lol! The flooring went in last week and the electricity was turned on this week. The cleaning ladies have been hard at work getting everything cleaned up and the only things left are very minor. They still have to install the security system, the surround sound speakers, put the screens on the windows, install the blinds, and touch up a few paint areas (which I think they are doing today). We're scheduled to do the home inspection on Friday of this week and the final walk through probably Tues of next week before we close on Wed! This whole process has been SO much fun and we are so excited to get to move into this amazing home!!

House Progress... long overdue

So much has happened in the last few weeks. I've gotten pictures of it all, but I'm terribly behind in posting about it. We will most likely (unless something major happens) be in our house by this time next month! To say we are thrilled is an understatement!

In the last few weeks they've finished the exterior of the house, including the stone, exterior lighting, and even gutters. We also have a driveway, a side walk, and even a mailbox! The sod is ready to go in but it's been raining for 10 straight days now and the rain is setting that back a bit. As soon as we have a few dry days we'll have grass to cover the newly installed sprinkler system. We now have all of our light fixtures and our thermostat controls as well as A/C units. All the doors are on and the walls are painted (some rooms are finished, some still need the second coat). The kitchen cabinets are installed as well as all bathroom cabinetry. The fireplace tile has been laid and we're expecting the bathrooms and laundry room to be tiled in the next few days. Our interior a/c vents have grates on them and all our electrical outlets and light switches have been installed, too. We selected our granite slabs yesterday and they should be installed next week. They're delivering our appliances today and have started locking our doors at night! They finished the stairs and put up the railings, too.... whew. Like I said, lots of changes. Here are some pictures:

House Progress

A lot has happened since my last post! They finished the stone on the front entry of the house, although I've yet to get a good picture of it becuase when they emptied the dumpster they moved it directly in front of the house. Oh well, in time.... They trimmed out the house, delivered and installed the doors (which turned out to be different than what we thought we were getting, but if that's the only real hiccup so far we're doing pretty good), they dug a big ditch in our yard to connect our utilities and plumbing, and they put on the first coat of paint (on the ceilings, trim, and interior walls). It REALLY looks like a house now and we get so excited when we go to visit it! It's also nice now that we can let Caden walk around in it. No more wrestling a curious two year old to stay in our arms or hold our hand. :D

Standing in great room taking picture toward kitchen and brekfast room.

The great room

The dining room

The view from our bonus room window

House Progress

It's been a busy week at the house. They finished bricking the house, delivered the stone and prepped the wall for it, finished the siding and trim work, finalized all the rough in wiring and plumbing, put in insulation, then the drywall on top of that, and today they caulked all the nails and cracks where the drywall sheets meet.. whew! What a busy week! I forgot to add that last week they delivered our showers and tubs and filled them with water (not sure why they do that).

On Monday, after the insulation went in but before everything else I mentioned, we met with an inspector at the house to do a rough-in inspection. Everything looked good and we learned some tips and tricks about taking care of our first home! How exciting! Now that the drywall is up it REALLY feels like a home. I get this really exciting, fun feeling when I go into the house now, thinking about it being OUR home! We'll make lots of wonderful memories in that house and it's been such a blessing to watch it come together from the ground up! Here are some pictures from this week:

In the pictures above you see the bare framework with the wiring and plubming (standing in kitchen looking through wall into the dining room), then the insulation in the garage the day of the inspection, and the last photograph is the sheetrock all patched up in the great room.

House Progress

Things have appeared to slow down a bit with the house, but really they haven't at all. Now, the changes aren't as noticeable (like walls going up- those were hard to miss!). Last week there were a lot of smaller, but still major, changes (mostly on the inside). For one, we got a roof! Before there had been a black tarp, so the change wasn't all that noticeable, but none the less, a roof is on now! Windows arrived late the week before (I can't remember if I posted a picture with the new windows or not?). All of the plumbing and electrical wiring was run, as well as the HVAC system (the A/C). We also noticed faucet spickets (sp?) for the outdoor hoses.

Late in the week, and all weekend long, they started bricking the house. So far, so good! I'm very fearful at this point of regretting choices in colors/style we've made. I'll really be nervous when they put up the decorative stone we chose. I think more than anything else that stone has me the most stressed out. The brick store didn't have the color brick we chose with the color grout we chose, so we had to pick the stone without really seeing how it looked together. I'm sure it won't be "ugly" because the colors all go together (they're all neutral, lol), but I'm fearful it won't look the way I envisioned it. Fingers crossed on that one!

Here are some pictures of the house from the last week. I didn't really take any pictures of the inside because if I do, it just looks like a 2x4 forest....

House Progress...

The framing work continued throughout the week and everything looks great! We are having so much fun building this house! We've enjoyed every stage of it so far, from the picking out a floor plan, to picking out colors, and now to see it all start to come together (with our personal little touches in how we rearranged the plan and such) it is just such a cool feeling! Here are the pictures from this week...

Let the construction begin!

On July 24th they started framing the first floor of our house!

Here are some various pictures we took that day:

Our House: Weeks 1 and 2

A lot has been happening with our house the last few weeks. They broke ground on July 9th and it's been a pretty steady flow of progress ever since. Here's what's been going on:

This is our lot when we first picked it out, back in May.

July 9th... Clearing the land...

July 10- Dug and poured footing

Close up of the footing

July 13- Delivered Blocks for foundation

July 14- Laid Blocks for foundation

July 15- Set up plubming

July 20- Poured Gravel

July 23- Poured Foundation

And I appologize for the crazy coloring in all the pictures.... it's because I visit at different times of the day each day and depending on the sun the pictures vary greatly in color/clarity...