Waiting to go Vertical...

....with the cement blocks, that is. I just can't wait to see them go up. The block layers are busy on a job and will get to our house on Friday. They thought if they started on time, then they should be finished by Sunday.

In the meantime, J has been picking up rocks and moving them to a different location. The less rocks in the crawl space, the less rocks he has to crawl on if and when he has to get under the house for something. He has also been doing more trimming on the roots that are sticking out of the foundation area. I am glad my dh has got a little rest the last few days. If there is a worker at the lot, J is at the lot and it was really starting to wear on him. I think this week has been good for him and he has re-energized for this weekend. I hope to have lots of good pictures to show!

Cement Blocks

2,000 blocks were delivered this morning....TWO THOUSAND!! We drove over to the lot after dinner this evening and the pallets of blocks were all around the outline of the house. I turned around to see G's face and she had this huge grin, like she could finally tell that we were really building a new house there. I know she has probably thought we were pulling her leg because the process has taken so long to get going and to a 3 year old it has already felt like an eternity since we moved here to our rent house. Anyhow, her excitement made my heart happy.

We are hoping they will begin blocks on Tuesday. I am looking forward to seeing lots of progress next week.

Footings

We are right on schedule....J and the other workers finished with rebar yesterday and the cement truck showed up early this morning. G and I visited the lot around noon and the 4th cement truck was there pouring the footings. I think they ended up using 4 1/2 trucks of cement. We were beyond excited to see the truck there and everything going as planned.

So.....what's next? I have not a clue!! Maybe blocks? J worked like a dog all day, came home and showered, and went to his master's class. I'm anxious to hear what is next on the agenda.


Most of the house:



Front porch:



3 car garage:

Breaking Ground

The backhoe man was at the lot bright and early this morning ready to dig the footings. He started a few days later than we were originally told...the house before ours took longer than was anticipated. I expect to hear things like this throughout the build. I will try not to set myself up for disappointment and will just be pleasantly surprised and thrilled if workers show up on time from now on.

J said it only took backhoe man 3 hours to dig. J will be going back tonight after it cools down to clean up and cut roots in the trenches. Tomorrow they will be working on putting rebar in the trenches and the concrete for the footings should be poured on Thursday.





G was so excited that they finally started digging!! And so was her momma!

Making Progress

The surveyer came this morning and set the pins. J has been spray painting the outline of the house since the surveyer finished and he will be tying line to the metal stakes/pins/whatever tonight. We will start digging the footings Friday morning. Moving right along!

Flooring Inspiration

We have always been fans of hardwood flooring. We put it down in our two previous homes and it is our first choice for this home we are building. We were originally going to put carpet in the bedrooms, but we have allergies and the kids are still young so why not continue it throughout the whole house (except bathrooms and mudroom). We are really looking forward to putting on those kneepads and laying 2,000+ sq ft of those beauties. ;) I know J will be visiting the chiropractor after and I just may make an appt with my favorite masseuse. It will all be worth it in the end.

This picture is from the Lumber Liquidators website. It is the Virginia Mill Works 3/4" x 4 3/4" Knob Hill Birch Handscraped Flooring. We visited a local Lumber Liquidators a couple of weeks ago and fell in love with it.

We haven't seriously looked at tile for the bathrooms and mudroom. I have browzed online and came across an 18"x18" ceramic Dal-Tile in a chocolate mousse color. I am wanting something dark enough so I can pick out a very dark grout, almost black grout. I'm not stupid and I refuse to choose a pretty cream colored grout again. Here is the tile I like and I hope to go look at it in person soon.

That's all the pics I have for now. I have been trying hard not to think about the next two days (breaking ground), but I am so excited I can hardly stand it!!

Spending the Money!

I signed the first check today for the house. We paid the man who cleared the lot for us and, honestly, it felt good to be spending money.....like we have finally got the ball rollin'.
The surveyer will be coming either Monday or Tuesday to set the pins. I have been told that this process just takes a few hours and then the footings can be dug.

I hope to have new pictures of the lot soon. But until then I will leave you with some random inspiration pictures that I have been saving. I wish I could give photo credit where it is due, but I did not make note of that when I saved my pics.
I love this desk area/workstation. Our desk will be across from the pantry and it will house our computer and printer. I love these drawers that pull out easily with the printer and built-in filing drawer. I typically love glass front doors, but may not use them here. I am also thinking about doing a butcher block-like desk top just because I love the look.

We will have a few columns in the foyer/dining room area and I love the detailing on these.

I really like this front door. Ours will be black. I am still going back and forth with the side lights because of privacy. They look beautiful, but in my other house we had a front door with glass and I didn't like how just anybody could see in and it doesn't make it easy for me to go to the front door to see who is there and not answer it if it is someone I don't know.....so still debating.


We are really drawn to the tumbled/antiqued looking brick. And we love this color with the black door and light fixtures. This is one part of the house building process where we have just been stuck. We have looked at brick online and we think we see a brick we like and then it shows houses that have used that specific brick and it changes completely with different color mortar right up against it. We have driven through neighborhoods with no success yet. Our next step is to visit a brick showroom.

I hope I didn't bore too many of you, but if you're like me- you probably enjoy pictures.

Have a great weekend!!

One Step Closer

J is at our lot with the builder moving stakes and getting everything perfect before they draw the house on the plat. We go to the bank tomorrow to close on our construction loan. This is all beginning to get REAL and EXCITING!!

I had a dream last night that our house was finished and it only took a few days from start to finish. HA! Hey, a girl can dream- right?

Waiting Game

Wow....I am already learning to have more patience through this building process. We got our appraisal back and it was not what we were expecting and our builder was a little angry with it. It turns out the appraiser forgot to include the cost of the land and some other things on the house. He did another appraisal and this one is a little better. He had a difficult time finding comps for us and one comp really hurt us. This has challenged me and my husband to be right at or under budget on our build. Is that possible?? YIKES! We have signed the bank papers and are getting the subs lined up for their different jobs......YIPPEE!