Update!

Ok, so here’s what’s going on!

Siding is done. Woohoo! I’m very happy with it and how it goes with the shingles.

All the concrete is poured except for the the little things like the garage apron and all that. The porches and patio still have to be power washed and sealed, but for obvious reasons, that won’t be happening until later!

We got the base materials on for the rock portion of the outside and are just waiting on the rocks themselves to get here.

The ductwork has been done. Mostly. I think. And the wells have been dug in the yard for the furnace. All that important stuff!

Now we are just waiting on the garage door to complete the exterior entrance portion of our program. And then we will be able to start on the electric. If we can ever make it to the store to buy the wire!

Menards is having a big Labor Dale Sale currently…I think we will be doing more shopping in the near future…

A little water can't keep us down!

Well, despite the flooding in the area, A was finally able to pick up our last bit of siding material and the last doors from Menard’s this morning.

The doors apparently have been sitting there since the last time we went to pick up doors…they just couldn’t find them. Which isn’t too impressive, but at least we have them now. And since we have all the doors, they can be installed, followed by the siding! Which has been sitting there waiting for doors for weeks because it can’t be installed until the doors are in. So we should be making a lot more progress very soon! I’m thrilled!

The last windows were installed a couple of days ago. I think they are wonderful, and exactly what I wanted them to be. A little old-fashioned looking, with all the modern conveniences of new windows with double hung cleaning capabilities! It’s really neat to see all the windows in, and I’m sure adding the doors will make a huge difference again. (It does make it a bit stuffy – ok, a lot stuffy – inside now that everything can be closed up, but it is taken care of pretty well by opening everything. Hopefully we can get doorknobs and a garage door soon and then we will be able to lock the place up tight! An exciting prospect.

My porches have also been poured and stamped, and I love them. They look just like a wooden porch, with “nail holes” and everything, but with the durability of concrete! Delightful! My patio should be coming soon…if it will stop raining and let the floodwaters go down so everyone can go back to work… and then we will be done with concrete for a while – at least until we get to the finish work like the garage apron and stuff like that.

Duct work is also being installed for the furnace/AC, and we have to get the excavator in there soon to smooth out the yard a bit so they can drill the well holes needed for the geothermal system we are installing. After the furnace and everything is in we will be able to start on the electrical stuff. We are getting into the nitty gritty here!

It should be fun to see it all start to come together a bit more, especially over the next week or so as the things we were waiting for are finally here!

Windows, doors and siding! Oh my!

Well, this weekend was certainly eventful!

Friday was super exciting – the shingles were finished, the windows came and (as many as currently can be anyway) were installed, and we have stairs to the basement now (as opposed to a ladder in a hole, which this girl is NOT attempting). It was awesome! I love when so much comes together so quickly.

We had also been told by our carpenter that we needed to get our tubs and showers and the like so they could be framed in and plumbed. We did that Saturday, and I’m very happy with what we ended up with. Everything has plenty of shelves and everything is a one-piece unit – so I don’t have to worry about scrubbing seams. We were able to get all 4 pieces (2 showers, a tub/shower combo, and a soaker tub) at Menard’s and everything was in stock so we were able to take it all home that night!

Sunday we went BACK to Menard’s, because the siding was in and the exterior doors, partially so. The siding looks like it will go really well with the shingles (it’s so hard to be sure until you are actually seeing the product in person – books can be misleading!) so I’m happy with that.

We had ordered 6 exterior doors, and 4 had come in. We were only able to take home 3, as one of them had a split frame. So it is being reordered – good thing we went to pick them up when we did so the problem was discovered in time to prevent too much of a delay reordering it. My front door is absolutely gorgeous – exactly what I had envisioned. And it goes with my window grille design well, too, I think.

Now we are in the process of meeting with the heating guy at some point to work on getting that started and meeting with one of the guys helping us do the electric work to get an idea of the materials we will need.

It’s all coming together! I love it.

It really is a house!

Our house is looking so housey now! The trusses are on (which made a big difference just with that) and part of the sheeting was done by the end of Friday. You can actually kind of see where it’s going now, and know that it is going to be a house when it’s done – not just a compilation of random walls and windows. Not that there was any doubt…it’s just very much a thrill.

It is so cool to see what we have envisioned  for so long in our heads finally taking shape in the real world. Paper transformed into wood, nails and concrete. It’s an amazing process. I’m sure it’s humdrum to those who see this everyday (A for sure was not as excited as I was for the concrete – it’s just another day of work to him) but for me it is just unbelievable. And exciting and fun!

We are going to be ordering shingles soon…we have picked the color we want anyway. I’m not sure when the actual ordering will take place. This weekend I sat down with the blueprints and mapped out roughly how many electrical outlets I want and where I want them – a task much more involved than you might think. You have to consider placement very carefully; you don’t want all your plugs stuck behind large immovable objects and you have to make sure that you will have plenty (but not too many) because they would be a complete pain to add later. I think soon after the roof is completely on, electrical and heating work may begin. (And we will be back in territory where I really can’t make decisions…because I don’t have a clue what all the terms and questions mean.)

Now if I could just fit time in there to work on nursery décor ideas and name lists…hopefully this decisionless time (for me anyway) will help me with that!

News, news, news!

This weekend was, I believe, one of the most hectic holiday weekends I have ever had. Not necessarily because of the number of things to do, but because of the mental exhaustion caused by the few things we did do!

First of all, let me begin by letting you in on a secret. A and I are embarking on the huge undertaking of building a house…and the even bigger undertaking of becoming parents. We are beyond thrilled – but I think some may question our sanity a little for doing this all at once! We are happy, though.

Now, on to the house itself. This weekend was chock-full of progress! Though not of the visible kind. We found out the trusses are scheduled to arrive tomorrow – which means we should be getting a roof soon! Thank goodness. Looks like we need to get a move on in the shingle choosing department.

We did choose our siding finally. Really, it wasn’t much of a choice. We had been waffling over one color for a couple weeks and we just got over our commitment issues and picked it already. It’s a lovely darker brown called Hearthstone. On sale at Menards! It will look something like this:

We also ordered our exterior doors from Menards – and saved around $1100 by buying them there instead of at the local place. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to be strictly loyal to our local businesses… The doors are going to be pretty though! I’m very excited for supplies to start rolling in!

It is amazing how quickly everything is coming together once we have started moving forward. It is a little stressful, but mostly fun and exciting! The stress is mainly from trying to get everything done by our self-imposed deadline of late-December/early January so it’s done before the baby comes. I don’t think we’re doing too badly, though….now if only our current house would sell we would be golden!