climbing the walls

Here is the fireplace....where it will be forever.
This is the keystone above the family room window

On Friday they had finished this high and to just below the windows on the south side of the garage
After today...they were up to the window in the above picture....the made some serious ground today.

we have some visual progress

Friday was a BUSY day at 2204 Hampton Court.....the electricians were there, the plumber was there, the guys digging to hook us up to water were there, roofers and BRICKLAYERS!! Yes, the outside stuff has begun! As of this evening, the roof is 80% finished!! As soon as that is finished, the insulation will begin as long as the electrician is finished. They had to lay the brick around all the porches so they could "pour" the porches. They now will start on the south end of the house. As of today the plumber was installing the shower fixtures in the showers that are going to be tiled. They had installed the fiberglass shower in the bathroom above the garage along with 3....yes 3 water heaters (the bathroom above the garage is on a separate one). The heating/cooling crew was hooking the finishing things up on the furnaces and were disabling the temporary furnace. Supposedly they will start digging the "wells" for the geothermal next week....all 8 of them. We aren't, however, hooked up to water yet. Not sure what that hold up is. They are digging in the yard......Funny thing, they are using the water out of the sump pump hose and collecting it in a barrel for the bricklayers to make the mortar. Sometime this week Sean's new favorite person...the audio guy....is coming to check for the layout of the house (speakers, stereo, tv, security, etc). I met with one Landscaping company (yes, a little early) today and we will meet with another in a few weeks....Doug (builder) made up a sample of the beams that are going up in the great room......they look great!!

SOOOOOO that is the progress in a nutshell.

roof
roof....the un-roofed portion is actually roofed now

You can see the beams that will be the roof of the porch. That is the Autobaum crew...it was FREEZING friday morning....bless their hearts. I could watch them all day, it is a facinating skill. I dont, however, think they would appreciate me there with my zillion questions.....

check out his hardhat....nice porta potty in the background

that is a mudboard (mortarboard)....according to Sean.....i'm sure he is right

front northeast corner of the house in the sunshine. We love the bricks....happy with our choice (good thing) and the mortar is a great grey color.

By the end of the day....that is the same corner enclosing the front porch base

side porch

Weasel or Weasle

Finley has learned a new song.....you know how you have favorite words you kids say....

For instance Braden says "cheesburger"..."cheesbeeger" and "triangle"..."trirangle".

Finley ALWAYS makes us laugh when we say grace "God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our pood." For some reason, I just smile when she sings this because of how she says "weasel"

lookie lookie.....

Em!! Alyssa!! You are on the blog!!

Go Irish

I HAVE found my pot of gold!!

spooky weekend

I got a call from a fellow blogger and friend a few weeks back with a request. They live in S.C. and were travelling here this weekend to celebrate their daughters birthday. She was going to be at a conference all day today and knew she wouldn't have time to make them herself. So she called me to be the "baker". Alaina, the birthday girl, had requested a Halloween themed birthday party, so here is my intrepretation.....the party is tomorrow....maybe in a few days Nicole will update her blog with photos from the big event!!

moving right along

For the future washer/dryer. I had to decide in a day what w/d we were going to have. So i picked one....hopefully it is the one we end up buying (hahaha)
The soffit around where Sean's bar is. There will be some small can lights in it as well as the cabinets against the wall will be lit and a "parlor" type light back there too...

Electrical wires have been run....yellow wire, everywhere

Apparently, the brick is in and the bricklayers are ready to go. The house, however is not. 2 things....one, there is no water to the house yet. The plumber HAS to do that, otherwise there is no water to make the mortar....second, the porch has to be "tied" into the house so the bricklayer can lay bricks around it. It doesn't have to be finished completely....just "tied" in. Because of this, the guys moved outdoors in the nicer weather to get that finished. This picture is early Friday and by the end of the day they had posts up past the door.

Side view...and Doug, who hates pictures...calls me the paparrazi

showing the finally completed soffit and the extra thing (sorry, don't know the technical term) that is where the brick meets the roof. The brick will actually meet this and there will be a sort of "skirt" board trim that goes over that.

ANNNNNNDDDD.....the shingles were delivered on Friday...the roofer is going to do our roof first....and all 3 attic fans were installed.....COME ON GOOD WEATHER!!

Its the little things

So I am hosting a ladies luncheon in 3 weeks. Normally I wouldnt freak out. But for some reason, I am. So tonight since Sean was going to be exceptionally late (its 735 p.m. and he still has a hernia case to go) I decided to clean the little things. The things that get totally over looked. In the dining room...where they will spend some time....I have washed the drapes, dusted the crown moulding, base boards and ceiling for cobwebs. Washed the 3 windows, wiped down the sills and the french doors into the room. I even tackled the chandelier...it had dead bugs in it people...have you ever investigated your light fixtures....ick. So I took apart the light and washed all the crystal pieces. All the while drinking some wine...why not??

Can you tell the difference? the front on is clean.

This is what Finley did the entire time......I do have to admit she was fascinated with the cobweb duster thing...so she dusted the furniture....Thanks Fin!

Where do I start???????

These were delivered to the house today........oh good god...where to start

House Progress

So the weather has been great....here is the progress
1. ALL the soffit work is finished (which I didnt get a picture of). This is HUGE because that means the house is basically enclosed. It was a lot of work and the guys did a great job. Because we are bricking the ENTIRE joint, they had to add this additional structure where the brick would meet the soffit...so they touched every spot twice, plus had to install vents for the attic. Doug has assured me the house will be bat proof....wink, wink.
2. All the heating and cooling duct work is in place. Both furnaces are installed and the venting to the "chimney" is finished. The geo-thermal (hello tax credit) units are in place, however they are waiting for more stable weather to dig the geo-thermal "wells".
3. The gas lines are ran to the fireplace/dryers and stove.
4. 85% of the can lights and plates for light fixtures are installed.
5. Most of the outlet boxes and lightswitch boxes are installed. NO WIRING yet.
6. The bar, fireplace, my craft room (totally cool), sean's office and the kitchen cabinetry floor plan has been "drawn" on the floor to check placement.
7. The Bricklayer is READY!!! However, we aren't. Doug needs to get our front and back porch columns put in before they can start. He thinks that will take a couple weeks....Jake is doing a National Guard committment and Matt is in Hawaii (lame excuse....ha ha). So they are down to 2 guys.
8. The roofer will start in 2 weeks...whooo hooo....pray for no (or little) rain.
9. We have to pick out appliances....so they know where lines need to be ran for installation....YIKES!!


We are using PEX (i think that is how you spell it). It is flexible tubing for the water lines...here they are delivered (obviously uninstalled)
This is where the future TV will go...between our pair of french doors....

Can you see the layout on the floor in permanent marker? This is the mantle/built in bookshelves. The green board is covering a floor vent.

Laundry room...you can see gas line, sewer pipe, outlet boxes (brown), etc.

I've created a monster

Can't wait till she is older and we can have a "spa" day......

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Monday, the 2nd, the kids celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday. All grades had a "birthday party". The room moms were asked to bring in cupcakes....you should have seen all the cupcakes in the front office. Here is my rendition of Dr. Seuss themed birthday cupcakes......

Don't they look like his hat??!!