How's your night vision?

Out of sheer desperation to get this site updated, I took pictures last night right at dusk. So sorry if some of these didn't turn out so great - I'll try to update again later when I have proper lighting. :)

Oh but before I show you the latest pics, I wanted to share that we finally have a move-in date! *gasp* We will be moving in September 27th - just 2 1/2 short weeks from now. I can't believe how time has flown!!

And no, I haven't started packing yet. Yiiiikes.

Okay, here are the latest pics:

Front Entrance:





Living Room:



Kitchen/Family Room Combo:




(The cabinets are getting delivered tomorrow so I will have more fun pictures shortly!)

Dining Room:



1st Floor Bath:




Mud Room:




Upstairs Bedrooms:




Guest Bath:



Hall Bath:





2nd Floor Laundry Room:



Master Bedroom:



Master Bath:





And last but not least, the balcony off the master:





That's it for now - I promise I will try to not be such a stranger!

**dodging tomatoes**

Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I am a very bad blogger.

And here's some more bad news - I'm still going to be a bad blogger. No time for a full update, but I will include a few teaser pics. :) More to come in the days ahead!!

Rough mechanicals - boring yet necessary. Very necessary.

Hi everyone!

Sorry again for the long absence! The past couple of weeks have been spent finishing up the rough mechanicals for the house (plumbing, HVAC, and electrical), so I haven't had many fun pictures to share. This is the best I can do:



Looks complex, no?

We passed rough inspection today so the next steps are insulation and drywall. The drywall was delivered yesterday in rather dramatic fashion:





They blew in a good portion of our insulation today as well - I will have to upload pictures of that later because it was pretty frickin cool! Imagine a huge hose that blows sticky fluff into the walls and that's a pretty accurate visualization.

Fascinating.

Oh, and did I mention we have garage doors? We do!



They still need to be painted (they will be gray & white to match the trim on the house) and add the decorative hardware (we ordered some wrought iron straps and knockers and such). It's a work in progress but at least we have the doors. :)

By the end of the week I should have lots of fun pictures of the house post-drywall, and then will come the big update - siding!!! The siding is scheduled to start either this Friday or next Monday - Jeff and I can't wait!! The color we ended up choosing was countrylane red (you can check out the color at www.jameshardie.com).

Alas, Hardie board didn't come in pepto pink, which was of course our first choice, so we had to settle for red.

*sigh*

My finial is crooked and other updates.

Is there anything worse than a crooked finial?? How embarrassing. I couldn't even take a picture of it - it looked too limp and sad. But my builder reassures me it will be re-installed properly. Excalibur deserves better.

In other news, Febel Bros. finished up the stonework this week! It turned out BEAUTIFULLY. Seriously, we couldn't be happier. Here are some pictures of their lovely work:





And here's my ultimate favorite - the fireplace!



We also poured the stamped concrete on the front porch. It looks a little purple-y right now but they still need to power wash and varish it - it should look a little more gray than in these pics:



And finally - here is what she looks like now! :)

No, I'm not dead.

Sorry for the long period of silence - I was on vacation for a couple of weeks and then work got busy, so I've fallen a little behind. But enough of the excuses - there are lots of cool updates to share!

First things first: the finial for our turret has been ordered. After much heckling from my builder, I decided to go with something a little more ornate. The new finial comes with the very modest, unassuming name of "Excalibur."

:snort:

Behold: Excalibur!!



Okay, enough of that.

So, lots of progress on which to report. The rough carpentry is finished, the roof is (mostly) on, the windows have been installed, and the masonry is in progress. Here is what she looks like currently:



:)

Febel Brothers had a large crew out on Saturday to knock out a good portion of the stonework. I caught a few of them sitting down on the job:



Ha ha - just kidding. Thanks for all the hard work guys. Much appreciated.

Also, Jeff gave me a quick lesson on masonry - I can honestly say it's a lot harder than it looks. Here is me looking confused and embarrassed:





They also put in all the rough masonry for our two-sided fireplace - very exciting! Here is the outside face:



Unfortunately, some hoodlums vandalized it with graffiti:



Here is the inside face of the fireplace. You can also see the rough carpentry in place for our coffered ceilings!



On Monday, they will be pouring the stamped concrete on our front porch. It's supposed to look like gray cobblestones when they're finished.



And finally, here are some interior pictures of the house.

Here is the dining room - you can see how they already framed out the tray ceiling:



Here is a picture of our kitchen/family room combo. The arch will give the two rooms a little separation:



Here is the bedroom in the turret:



It's difficult to capture the height of the ceiling in a picture, but here's my attempt:



The small cluster of wood at the very top of the turret is where the ceiling is going to be. I think it's something like 18 feet high. (!) You can thank my builder for that one too. Originally it was only supposed to be 10 feet high, but he just kept on raising the bar - literally. No complaints here though - it's turned out to be one of the neatest features of the house, I think. :)

Here is the master bedroom:



And finally, here is the bonus room in the attic. Sorry the picture is a little dark - there isn't much natural light in there thanks to our crazy roofline.



I think the ceilings are just high enough to play bags year round. I'll be setting up the bracket shortly - e-mail me if you want in.

Game on!

Getting a quote on a lightning rod system.

I think we're going to need it! Check out the peak on this bad boy!


I don't think headroom is going to be an issue on the third floor. Our ceilings will be something like 21 feet tall at the highest point. Yikes. :S

Here are some pictures from the past week - I can't tell you how cool it is to see the house emerging in front of our eyes!


Check out our neat-o curved wall - it will be in our entryway leading into the staircase. Love it! It was so interesting to see how they constructed it, too:



The turret emerges! *cue angelic voices*



Here is our kitchen/family room combination!


A view of the turret fromt he inside:


A view of the second floor before they put up the partition walls:


Some exterior shots:




And finally, here are some pictures of the balcony off the master bedroom!

Soooo....

...we had to redesign the roof a little. Turns out our house was going to be 47 feet high - so like, five stories. Whoopsie.

:hide:

The architect took down the roof peak by about 5 feet, but our builder is still nervous about the height. He's afraid the neighbors are going to attack us with pitchforks b/c we'll be blocking out the sun. *snort*

I'll post some more pictures tonight - they are starting to build the second story already! Oh, and I have to order a turret finial! Who knew there were places online to buy such things??

What do you think of this one? Too much?



Haha, just kidding. Here's what I was really thinking:



Thoughts?