Garage Paved

Garage 2008-04-08 1
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

Dropped by the house today after work to see how things were going and found that the garage floor had been poured. We also found the front and back doors were locked so there was no way into the house.
Well, almost no way. I found that one of the windows was unlocked so I crawled in through that. (Note to self: Make sure we ALWAYS lock the windows once we're in the house.)
We were also excited to see that the wood floor is completely done in the hearth room as well as the pantry.

Wood You Be Mine?

Wood Floor 2008-04-07 4
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

We stopped by the house last evening and saw that they had begun laying the wood floor in the hearth room. It looks awesome!
The wood will eventually cover the Hearth Room, Kitchen, Breakfast Nook, Office/Flex Room and the Entryway. I know that it wounds like a lot of wood but when we decided on it, wood was really inexpensive.
The siding guys are supposed to start any day now. I see that the weather forecast is for rain this weekend so I'm hoping that they'll be able to get some of it done before then.
We also saw that they had begun leveling the dirt in the garage. I'm assuming that is in preparation of pouring the floor.

Lighting

Kitchen Light 1
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

We picked out our lighting fixtures this weekend at United Electric. Most of the selections were pretty simple in form and pretty inexpensive. A few months ago, we found a line of fixtures that we liked and mentioned it to our sales guy. He found the line and priced things out for us. Fortunately, they fell within our budget. It is the Tahoe line by Hinkley Lighting.
The fixtures that we picked from this line we placed above our kitchen table, in our entryway and hung the pendants above our island in the kitchen.
I've posted a picture of the fixture that will be hanging over our kitchen table because it shows the detail the best.

New Blog Layout

So, as you can see, I changed the appearance of the blog. Hopefully you all like it. I'm hoping it will be easier to read. Any feedback is appreciated.

Ceiling Texture

Kitchen Sofit 2008-04-06 1
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

I posted some pictures of the ceiling texture.
This week they are supposed to start laying the wood floor.

We Like This Kind of Mud

Drywall Mud 2008-03-28 1
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

Once the drywall arrived there was a lot of progress. The walls went up and are now covered with drywall, mud and the rounded corners are on.
Tom and our flooring guy walked through the house and marked off where the transitions between wood, carpet and tile will occur.
I am amazed at every step how much of a difference it makes. Even between when the drywall went up and when they put the mud on it.
We walked through the house last night and saw that they had textured the ceilings. I didn't have my camera with me so I'll be snapping those photos and putting them up later. I did post another batch today showing the drywall and mud.

Drywall!

Bonus Room Drywall 2008-03-24 2
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

We went to visit the house today and saw that they started to put up the drywall. Jill had been to the house earlier in the day and talked to one of the drywallers. He told her, "Nice house. Really straight. Really REALLY straight."
Apparently one of the inspectors hadn't seen something with the HVAC system before they started drywalling so they had to take down some of it so he could inspect the insulation around the ducts.
They got most of the upstairs done and the stairs down to the basement.

Pink Walls?

Main Bedroom Insulation 2008-03-21 2
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

They have begun insulating the walls of the house. They have blown in insulation in the outside walls and have put trafitional fiber glass insulation in the inside walls between rooms.
The drywall has been delivered and distributed to each room and they will begin drywalling next week.

That's Hot

Fireplace Vent 2008-03-19 2
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

Now that the snow has melted and the ground has dried out around the house, I took the opportunity to walk around the outside of the house and take pictures of some things that we haven't had access to.
Jill went out to the house on Wednesday and ran into Tom (of Thomas David) and his kids. They were cleaning up the inside of the house. He said, "It always looks better when it's clean." I like that Both Tom and Dave think about things like this.
The inspections are done, finally, the soffit above the kitchen "batwing" is framed in as is the alcove in the hallway to the Master Bedroom. They've also ran the drain for the floor of the garage.
Everything is now ready for insulation and drywalling to begin.

Water Main

House 2008-03-10 1
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

I posted some more pictures to the web site. We now have our main water line run into the house and stairs down into the basement. When we went down there this past weekend I was kind of alarmed to see water on the floor. It wasn't until I saw the water main that I calmed down again. Jill had mentioned that she had seen some machines moving some dirt around in the front yard earlier in the day so I went out and looked and saw that it was the trench for the water main. Which made sense once I stopped to think about it.
There are a few more things that need to be framed and inspected and then the insulation and drywall can begin.

Cabinet Door Sample

Cabinet Door Sample 2008-03-07 2
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

Here's a sample of our Kitchen Cabinet Doors. Aren't they pretty? This color and style will be used for our Kitchen Cabinets, and the cabinets in the Master Bath, Laundry Room and Upstairs Bathroom. The difference between them will be that the cabinets in the Kitchen will have a black highlight on it and the rest of the house won't.

Basement and Inspection

First of all, we actually have a basement floor. We have been waiting and waiting for the ground in the basement to dry out. They have had heaters running down there for what seems like forever. When they began pouring the foundation you may remember that the weather was really cold. All that frost that was on the ground thawed and turned the ground into mud. They sealed the basement up, put some big propane heaters in there and let them run, and run, and run.
We went out there today and saw that there were big ruts in the lot next to ours leading up to our basement daylight window. We peered in through the hole where the basement steps will eventually go and saw that the floor was not only poured but had already solidified. It has a beautiful smooth finish.
Along with that, we saw that the inspector had been there. There were stickers on a few of the beams certifying that both plumbing and electrical had been inspected. Now that is finished, the next phase will be to insulate and drywall. After that will be the hardwood flooring and cabinets.
Simultaneously, they will begin on the outside of the house, installing the siding and the stone.
Also, it looks like the roof is complete. All the shingles have been installed.
This next phase is supposed to take about 2 months to finish. That will put us at the end of April. Then the finish work begins which is about 1 month. That phase will be to install the plumbing and electrical fixtures, painting the walls and laying the carpet.

Power, Water and Cabinets

We picked out our plumbing fixtures last week. I think we did really good. We were able to get pretty much what we wanted and we were under our budget allocated. We were even able to get the pot-filler over the range.Last Saturday we did a walk-through for the electrician's work. Everything was pretty much the way it was supposed to be. We only found a few things that needed to be changed or fixed. One big thing that we discovered was in the Laundry Room. The setup for the washer and dryer was backward from how you traditionally see it. Since both of these are going to be front load, the doors on these open away from each other. After we pointed it out, Dave was quick to say that it was an error on the draft and that it would be fixed right away. This must have happened because we flipped the plan when we found this lot.We also finally settled on what our kitchen cabinets were going to look like. To give you a summary:The wood is alder, the door sytle is French Country Square and the color is Wheaton with a black glaze. We are going to do the island, the hood over the range and the cabinets under the range in Black with the Regent door style. You can see these individually at http://www.crystalcabinets.com or in the showhouse on http://www.tdbuilders.com.

Wiring

Wiring 2008-02-13 20
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

The electrician has started wiring the house. It looks like most of the can lights and lighting outlets have been placed. Also, a lot of the basic electrical wiring has been run to the various outlets and light switches. Data and phone has not been run yet. We're going to wait and see what the budget allows for him to fun as far as data cables go. Anything that he doesn't run will be run by me for data cables.
It also looks like they've started to put the shingles on the roof. The back of the house has shingles on it right now.
I've posted more pictures on flickr.

These Aren't Microsoft Windows

Master Bath Window 1 2008-02-02
Originally uploaded by lander_quill

We've got windows! The framers are done, we've got tarpaper on the roof, the windows are in and the plumber is pretty much finished roughing in. We've taken some pictures of some of these things and posted them on our Flickr site.
We are really excited for how good our window looks in the master bathroom. (As seen here.)