Best day yet!

I had been anxiously awaiting our visit to the house this weekend because big things were happening. We were waiting to go to the house until Sunday because we knew no one would be working and we would be able to walk through the house. It wasn't the safest, in fact I almost bit it coming out of the front door because all that was there was a piece of plywood on a very uneven surface but it was so worth it!

We spent about 45 minutes roaming the house for the first time, taking pictures and video.  In most of the videos we have I can be heard yelling at our daughter because I wanted to keep her close.  Too much danger in there for her (nails all over the floor, lots of spaces to fall, and the windows upstairs hadn't been installed yet and I had visions of her going over and out).  I was a little stressed out...might post those, haven't decided yet!

Onto pictures!

View from the main road.   It's so nice to see our little street almost complete.

Love this photo of her looking out our front door.  The view will be much better once that
dumpster is gone :)

Taken in the dining room, looking at the family room at the back left and kitchen on the right.

Kitchen and morning room.

Family room with fireplace in the back.
(Trying to figure out why those red x's are there next to the fireplace...hmm)

Love the duct work view!

Master bedroom, taken from the sitting area.  I still can't get over how big this room is.
I think it's at least twice the size of our old one!

Master bath.  I am so excited about this bathroom.  I love the tub, shower and that window!

View of the stairs, taken from where one of the closets will be in the Master.

We let our daughter pick her room.  This is the one she chose, and she was very happy about it.

I forgot to take pics in the basement (not sure how that happened!) so here's a screenshot of the steps from
a video my husband took.  So happy we only have those 4.  It allows so much light to come into the basement.

Daddy and daughter peeking through one of the family room windows.

It was such a fun day. I can't wait to re-create this shot once we move in!

progression

We have been taking a photo of the lot in the same spot since we put the sold sign up.   I will keep adding to this as the exterior changes but here's a taste of the progress so far in one handy animated gif!

This is 11 photos from April 16th to May 27th.  Quite impressive to see how much has been done in less than a month.

The roof!

My husband went out on Wednesday to see the house and we have a roof!  I love that we can really see our home now.  I know it's still going to be about 2 months more but I'm already mentally moving in :)

We have a second floor!

Thanks to our amazing new neighbor, we have pictures of the progress on the house today.  He was nice enough to snap a few for us since neither my husband nor I could make it out there.

In other news, one of the reasons we couldn't go out there is because our second car is out of commission...for good.  It needs so many repairs (brake line is leaking and the gas line is next) that it no longer makes sense to keep it. Quite sad actually, that car is near and dear to my husband's heart and it got me to and from work (70 miles a day) for 8 years.  Guess we are in the market for a new car.   Well, new to us.  Like we need another expense right now!

We may have to rely more on our neighbor or our PM for photos during the week now until we figure this whole car thing out.

I am loving the clouds in these photos today.  We had some strong storms come through the area.  I'm happy they were able to get so much done today despite the weather.

moving along

I haven't been to the house since last Saturday but my husband went out 3 times this past week because we knew that progress was going to speed up after the foundation was poured.  We didn't want to miss too much.  I'm still shocked at how fast it started looking like a house.

Pics from Wednesday, May 18th:
They started framing the house!

Pics from Thursday, May 19th:
One day later and we have a first floor!  You can see the front door, windows around the house, bump out for where the fireplace will be and the morning room!

Friday, May 20th:
A lot of the photos looked close to what they did the previous day so I will only share this one.  On the left you can see the office framed out and behind that will be the family room.

Friday was also the day that my husband met with the contractor that will be doing our patio for us.  He helped us in our old house by ripping down a terrible, not to code, unsafe deck and rebuilt the same one in about a week.  We loved his work so we will continue to use him for future projects.  We don't really know the grading of our backyard yet so we can't finalize anything but we wanted to get the ball rolling.  We know that we want to have room for a grill, patio set, hot tub and fire pit.  We are also trying to figure out if we want pavers or stamped concrete.  Anyone out there have input?  I'm worried that the stamped concrete might be too slippery when it's wet.  So much to think about.

These are our inspirations so far:

After seeing the photos of the house from Thursday though, I'm wondering if the drop off is larger than we thought and if it makes more sense to do a deck now.   The morning room exit seems awfully high, when we thought it would only be 2-3 steps down to the backyard.   We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose.

Wood!

It was a windy, cold day at the new house today.  I let out a huge gasp as we approached our street when I saw the lumber.  It's amazing what has excited me during this building process.   We walked around our lot again just for fun, it never gets old.  According to our PM, the basement will be poured tomorrow and then things will really start moving fast.  I've instructed my husband to drive out as often as he can this week for progress shots since it's so much easier for him to do it based on our jobs.   I can't wait to really start to see this house take shape!

Couldn't believe how much lumber was there.  Sorry neighbors!

Can't believe that just a week ago we were standing underneath that part where the garage will be.
The lot is backfilled! 

Under the garage has all been filled in. 

The basement is all ready for concrete to be poured tomorrow!

This is becoming my new favorite angle for progress photos.

Obligatory family photo.

Just having a little fun.

Our daughter, already making friends with the girl that will live next door to us.

Of course we went to the playground afterwards.
This time we found a new one (there are lots to choose from out there) and she loved it.

Text from our PM

We got an update from our PM today on the progress of the house this week.  I'm really happy with our PM so far.  He seems to be very responsive and in a timely manner when we have questions.  Fingers crossed that lasts throughout the whole process!

Good morning. Just wanted to update you on how things were going out here. 

This week we were able to install your water line and your draintile. We also 

had our plumbing groundworks inspected which lead us to be able to backfill 

the lot. Yesterday we prepped the basement & garage slabs and will hopefully 

be pouring them today. If weather doesn’t allow us to pour today, we will shoot 

for first thing next week. After the slab is poured, we will begin the framing 

phase. Your lumber was dropped yesterday so we are ready to go once the 

slab is poured. Please let me know if you have any questions on concerns and 

I hope that you have a great weekend!

So, of course we are driving out to see our lumber this weekend.  I'm also curious to see how the backfilling looks.  Looks like next week I might have to have my husband drive out every day or every other day so we can really see the progression.  We did get another update tonight that said they weren't able to pour the slab today (stupid rain!) but it will be done on Monday. I feel like once the slab is poured, things will move pretty quickly for the exterior.   Can't wait!

Concrete

This past Saturday we made another trip to the house.  I love that it's a weekly thing we can all do as a family.  Our daughter also loves it because after every trip to "new house" she gets to go on the playground.

This neighborhood is already starting to feel like home.  I feel happy when we drive around that area and it just feels like the place where we are meant to spend a very long time.  I am not getting a homey feeling from where we are staying now, which is good I guess considering we won't be there for very long.  But it's a little sad to feel so homeless right now.   Another reason why I love our weekly trips to the new house. Soon enough we really will be able to call it home and I can't wait.

Moving on to pictures...

Concrete!  We have concrete!

Our daughter, touching the foundation.

A fun photo for scale.  No one was there working so we ventured down into that hole.
The garage will be above that space.

Back of the house.  The bump out is where our basement stairs will be.  I tried to get closer but took one
step onto that huge pile on the right and it was like quicksand.  Nope, not worth it!

Some plumbing has started!