The trusses are up, without the peaks, but it looks so good! I would have loved to have taken a picture of the crane putting the trusses on, but I was at in-service. J got a picture on his phone and that crane was so stinkin' high in the sky! It was very exciting to see.
On Monday, maybe it was Monday?, we went to a brick company with no luck. We picked out a brick we thought we liked and the salesperson gave us a few addresses of houses with that brick. As we drove up to the house, we both basically said "uugghh" simultaneously. We didn't like it one bit. So we drove around a few neighborhoods and wrote down addresses of houses with brick we did like. Most of the houses were not in her computer, so they were done by another company. One brick we liked was the most expensive brick they sold. Eeeek! That won't help with staying on budget. We called it a day and made an appointment at a different brick company with a larger variety of bricks. We went to our appt yesterday. Funny story- we drove around a few months back looking at houses and found a brick we loved, but didn't really know how to find out who made the brick. When my husband called this company to set up yesterday's appt he explained the brick to the lady and she knew exactly which house we were talking about. They did the brick! We were ecstatic! So we walked in yesterday and we just knew that was it. She showed us several pictures on her computer of houses that have used it and then we drove by two houses with it. IN LOVE. So this is the brick we have chosen. And did I mention we will be UNDER BUDGET? Wahoo!! It is called Rustique Shakewood and it's a concrete brick.
Those pictures are of the same house and they definitely don't do the brick justice. The color looks different when the sun is shining on it. It's a tan color and has a tumbled/antiqued looking edge. We will be doing black light fixtures, shutters, front door, garage door, and I think black architectural shingles on the roof. I can't wait to see it all finished.
The first day we went to look at brick, we also chose our front door, sidelights, transom, and windows. It was an exhausting day to say the least. I am thrilled with our window choice. We are going with Andersen windows. Since we saw that house with our brick several months back, I knew that a regular white window would stand out, unless we did white trim around the house (and we are not). I told J that I wanted a dark window on the outside and white on the inside. He kind of looked at me strange, like that was impossible. I told him to talk to David, our contractor, about it and he did. David found this Andersen window and we love it. It is going to match the brick so much better than a white or almond colored window. We priced windows similar to these at Lowes, but they were more expensive than this particular window. This is going to be a splurge for us, but since we have been under budget on the front door/sidelights, brick, and trusses we think it is a good decision.
J and I have been so busy this week preparing our classrooms for kids. He has been in his room until midnight a couple times this week. He taught a technology workshop for his co-workers on Friday. And I have been bringing baskets full of things to work on for school. Ready or not, the kids will be coming! ;) J has open house Tuesday evening and I have open house Wednesday afternoon. We are hoping for a fun and stress-free (ha!) school year.
