Clearing the Bank

Poor Uncle Matthew. He came to visit for Christmas and Daddy put him to work at the new house. Richard wanted to see if it was possible to clear the bank without hiring someone to do it. They did a great job, but they called me a few short hours after beginning their work to say they needed gatorade and water quickly! The bank looks much better. I wonder what Richard has up his sleeve next? If I were you, Uncle Matthew, I would stay in Atlanta until the house is completely ready!

That's Uncle Matthew waving from the river bank!

It Finally Looks Like a House!

I've been waiting patiently for the past couple of weeks for things to speed up at the house. With the holidays approaching, I really didn't have time to focus on the house anyway. That being said, we went to the house yesterday and got a huge SURPRISE! The sheet rock is up in the entire house! That back deck is assembled minus the railings. The screened porch is assembed minus the screens. And, the front porch is floored minus the railings and front stairs. I was so excited! I am ready to move in now that we have walls. Well, not really......I still need heat! They also have the hardiplank up on the dormers, porches, etc. It truly looks great now and there is something to actually take pictures of! Now we have to choose colors: wall color, hardiplank color, shutter color, etc.

Front of house with hardiplank on dormers and porch.


They leveled off the garage. Now there isn't the steep
hill anymore. It's all flat!


View to the left of our house.


House on the right of us.


River view from the deck.


Back of house with porches, no railings.


Foyer


Great Room from kitchen.


Great Room from balcony.


Bonus Room view.


Bonus Room looking at dormers. Forgot
to take pic of Bonus Bathroom.


Downstairs looking at front door on right.


Office/Playroom


Master Bedroom


Master Bath (not good pic). Toilet/Shower
in offset to the right.


Kamdyn's Room


Hall Bath


Guest Bedroom

BRICK

The brick is complete on our house. Here are the lastest pictures from today. We are very pleased with it. It still looks kind of bare without the back porches, front porch, and front stairs; however, I will stay patient as I know that they will be added soon enough

More Appointments and Choices

Since I was off of work today due to Veteran's Day, Richard and I scheduled our last two appointments. We had to choose shower doors, closet organizers, bathroom hardware (towel racks, toilet paper holders, etc.), carpet and tile. While it is fun, in theory, to get to choose all of these things for your own house, it's also some of the hardest decisions to make. Do you know how many different kinds of carpet there are? Do you know how many styles, colors, designs, and sizes of tile there are? The only thing that helps narrow our searches down, even if only a little, is the fact that we are trying desperately to stay within our budget. Even so, we had a very full and busy day. I can't wait until everything is installed so we can see the results of our hard work!

Update on the house - We now have brick on two complete sides of the house. We were waiting on the keystones (decorative "triangles" over the windows and garages) to arrive so they could finish bricking around the front windows and over the garages. We saw them yesterday which means the brick should definitely be completed by the end of this week. Insulation should go in within the next week or two. Then, they will be ready for sheet rock! WOW!!! This is really going by fast!

Brick and Vents

They have started bricking our house! They started on the front left corner. This is all that they had done at 3:30 yesterday. They have also cut out the holes for the vents which are required since we are in the flood plain. Now, we have to decide what kind of designs we want in the brick around the windows, vents, etc. Oh my! What hard decisions we have to make. It still looks so bare. I can't wait until the porches are added after the brick!

Doors, Windows, Shingles, Electrical, Plumbing

It's been quite a while since I've been able to get out to the house. Richard has been several times to meet with the builder, electrician, etc. I was quite amazed at how it is coming along! The windows and doors look great. I can't wait until the front porch and back deck are on. The shingles are also on the house. You can hardly see them because they are so high up. However, they look great! They have started putting the plumbing in and the electrical is almost completely finished. Richard and I had to sit down and figure out where we wanted all of the switches, cable outlets, recepticles, phone jacks, etc. That's kind of hard to do. After seeing it today, I'd say we did a pretty good job!

We have a Roof

We now have a roof on our house! YIPPEE! Here is a picture of the back of the house that shows the roof and the screened in porch. A deck will be added to the left of the screened porch. The windows to the left are to the Master. The middle will be 8 foot doors and are obviously to the great room. The right side will be 2 french doors in to the guest bedroom off of the screened porch. The dormer at the top is the top window of the great room and you can see out of it from the bonus room, which overlooks the great room.

3rd Floor

We now have a third floor on our house!




Here is the start of our screened in porch on back.
They haven't started the deck across the back yet.

What a Difference a Week Makes

I go away for a week to be with my Mom as she is having surgery and I come back to find two stories of our house already framed in! Only one story left to go! WOW! I must say that I was surprised. Here are some pictures that I took to document the stages of our house. Richard calls it a "treehouse" because it is so high off the ground. We won't have to worry about flooding, that's for sure! It looks like a HUGE box to me. I can't wait until the details are added!

The front view of our house so far.


The view from the great room to the River.
There will be 8 foot French doors here.


Our River View. We are going to trim the trees
up quite a bit so our view isn't obstructed so much.


Looking from the great room to the front door and
into Kamdyn's room (front right corner).


Looking down one hall in to the Office/Playroom.


View from our front door. I am sure there will
be a house here someday soon!



Downstairs to the garage/basement/storage.


Garage/Basement/Lots of Needed Storage (YIPPEE!)


View of back of the house so far.


I didn't take any pics of the Master, Guest Bedroom,
or bathrooms. The Great Room, Kitchen, and Dining Room
are all open to each other. So, it's basically one big room. It
won't take shape until there are kitchen cabinets and walls.