We’ve finally gotten past our latest delay and we have walls!!!
I don’t talk about the house with friends because it’s pretty much all I think about already. I could tell you 50 facts about windows and their materials and structures, but I’d rather hear what’s new with you.
I recently ran into a neighbor who used to live across the street from us. She said they had such trouble deciding if they would put their house back, elevate it, tear it down, or just sell and move on. Ultimately, they decided to sell it and move to a new home and someone else has since bought the lot and demoed the house.
She said she just wants to go “home,” meaning she wants to feel settled. She wants mental peace. She wants to be done with this whole darn thing. She wants her street and her neighbors back.
I understand all of that! Of course every situation is different, but she said she was happy for us that we are building and if they were younger, they would do the same. She was most impressed that at how quickly we made a decision and put it into action. I thanked her but also told her that speed doesn’t necessarily mean anything anymore (hello delays!), but that just making a decision was the important part to me. I reassured her that until we finally tore the house down 6 months after the storm, I went back-and-forth about it every single day, even though we were already working with the builder and architect. Everyone needs peace of mind.
Looking at the structure that sits on our lot today, it looks like a home. It’s going to be amazing. I’m told that now that the sheetrock is up, the pace will speed up and we hope to be HOME in September.
Monday, 3/4: Framing the breezeway begins!
Tuesday, 3/5: Breezeway dried in and garage steps and landing framed.
Meanwhile, the person making our Master Bath barn door sent me this image after he’d finished sanding both sides. I love it already.
Wednesday, 3/6: Meeting to go over some framing details for new door and ceiling height.
Right image: standing in that room, we had to decide what to do with that hole in the floor.
I opted to add a raised platform there so we wouldn’t lose square footage up there. We were thinking this would be a cool Media Room. I drew it to describe it to Mr. B, who was out of town.
Friday, 3/8: Project meeting. We returned to see what the raised platform looked like, and I wish I’d thought to take a picture. It was HUGE! It was so tall it would have needed a few steps to get up there! Made change to lower that platform to top of garage entry door.
Monday, 3/11: Electricians running all the wire to the panel in the garage.
Thursday, 3/14: Polyseal completed.
Saturday, 3/16: Electricians installed SER cable.
Monday, 3/18: Passed electrical inspection today. Frame inspection tomorrow.
Tuesday, 3/19: Minor repairs needed before frame inspection.
Wednesday, 3/20: Met A/C, electrician, and plumbing to go over a few punch items to complete by Friday.
The carpenter sent some pictures of how our powder room wood counter is coming along. It’s pretty cool.
We also discussed the kitchen table he is making. It can either be extendable to 8′ and a complete oval when closed or 9′ but not a true oval. I choose 8′ because most of the time it will be closed. The final closed dimensions will be 46″x54.”
Thursday, 3/21: Walk kitchen and bath cabinets with installer to review blocking, plumbing/electrical and low voltage. Discussion about master bathtub installation with new counter dimensions.
Friday, 3/22: Agreed to install tub at 45° angle in front of the window. Frame inspection failed due to just-released flood regulations from the City. Sheetrock delivered.
Tuesday, 3/26: Electricians making a few changes. Below is the stairway wall from the master bedroom to the electric closet below.
This is the electric closet where all the low voltage equipment will be housed. I sure can’t make sense of any of it!
Thursday, 3/28: Plumbing for master bath tub being moved. Other small corrections.
Friday, 4/5: Electric still not right. I had told them we do not have ceiling fans in certain rooms, but it turns out they deleted everything that was there too. Now we are missing wiring where key fixtures will go.
All the switch locations are hanging in their spots.
Wednesday, 4/10: Stopped by for final walk through before insulation tomorrow. The breezeway has windows now!
Thursday, 4/11: Foam insulation begins!
Wednesday, 4/17: Sheetrock hanging begins!
Tuesday, 4/23: Taping and floating begins.
Thursday, 4/25: Met with tile guy (whose name is Harvey – can’t get away from it) to measure for ordering.
Friday, 4/26: Met with PM to discuss exterior finishes.
This house is going to look so awesome. I know it’s not my house but I’m pretty excited on how it’s going to look when it’s done. All the best!
Lol. I’ll keep you updated. Thanks for following along!
Your house is coming together so nicely! It’s a strength that you were able to make so many important decisions. Your former neighbor sounds very much like my husband. When we picked out our current home 15 years ago, I made essentially all the decisions. It was vastly easier than your situation, because we bought from a mobile home dealer in Pueblo. Our house was built in a factory and trucked in. Even then, there was a delay of a few months because a big order got in front of us. We had to change the design and have custom plans because we deleted the front door and that was a violation of code. We had to add a door to the master bedroom. The former front entryway is where I am now sitting at my desk, and it’s on the second floor, over our solar basement. The big exciting new thing with me is gardening, difficult in our climate, but I have produced large amounts of lettuce and other greens and perhaps a dozen tomatoes in our south facing windows, starting in late December. Our windows are special high solar gain, but not argon filled because that tends to leak out when trucked in. The basement is all sliding glass door units, 7 of them, plus one regular sliding glass door. We optimized them for high solar heat gain coefficient, the opposite of what most people who need air conditioning shop for. Our solar electricity isn’t adequate for air conditioning, and we mostly don’t need it, at 8300 feet above sea level. But we did run the furnace this year. It was a cold winter, so much more snow than last year. It’s been a tough spring emotionally, because my mother-in-law died on April 16 and my Mom almost went on hospice the same time.
Congratulations, Naomi!!! It looks wonderful.
cynthia newberry martin recently posted…the next writer in the series: may 1, 2019
How exciting! I’m happy to hear things are coming together so nicely. I’m not sure I’d be up for all the work involved, but the idea of creating a home from the ground up is appealing! Imagine! Everything just the way you want it! Yay!