More on the Trim and Doors

Here are some pictures of the trim and doors. They, along with the toe kicks, cabinets and wood floors downstairs will be stained. We're really excited about how all of these finishes will come together, especially with the windows we've put in the house.

Here are some images.

Granite Countertops

Today, the most forwarded article from the NY Times was What's Lurking In Your Countertop? about granite countertops which we are supposed to pick in the next two weeks. NICE. So where did this Radon thing come from and what the heck is it? It was out of nowhere and all of the sudden there are detectors and inspectors. I hear commercials about little children getting sick in PSAs from the government.

Doesn't the microwave emit too many weird things? We were worried about putting our daughters plastic bottles in the microwave until we found out exactly what type of plastic it was. We're still scared to do it now. Either way, at the end of the day, it's another thing to think about in the process.

Like we needed that!

The Window Trim

No pictures today but man am I excited about the window trim in the house. It is really very cool and fits the craftsman detail. I will definitely take pictures of it and post them. The garage door will be in next week along with the crown molding which is also very cool. We are having to scramble around a bit for tile. NOTE: Make sure that if you are ordering slate tile, there is a tolerance on the varying color. The tile we picked ranges from grey to light brown, it was pretty unsettling when they pulled out the samples.

BTW, did I make a comment about the porch?! Sweet.

Patience, Patience

A number of things have happened in the month since I've last posted. We are cranking away to make decisions but man the house looks good.

• There's texture on the walls
• 6" makes all the difference in the world
  
• The doors are in (mostly)
• We have gotten into one fight over silly things
• The stone broke the seal on the front windows so they had to redo it
• We can't get our contractor to write anything down (he's doing a great job)
• The house is painted outside
• The porch looks really cool, we just need the deck
• We have lost all of our cushion and we're about a week late now
• We are aiming at the end of September
• We are thinking October now
• We can't wait to get in there!

We are ready to move in. Renting pretty much stinks but we're dealing with it. I am ready to unload all my boxes and get into this deal. They should be putting up toekicks and getting into the tile very soon. The neighbors are ready for this deal to be done, whew! I sure am ready to have an office at home too! The littlest one is having a hard time sleeping in her "scary" room so we're ready for her to have her own room. Elmo and Darth Vader have that effect on people.



On another random note, there is another house going up on our street, stucco and brick. I wish stucco would go out of style. These builders don't give a crap about the aesthetic of the neighborhood. We are supposed to get signatures to have a two story house and they didn't do it. The funny thing is, as a branding guy, it seems like if the guy walked around one night, introduced himself and got some signatures we would welcome him, speak our mind but respect him. Basically, the guy has lost a lot of goodwill and we are thinking of suing him just to be a pain. We are also thinking of starting a HOA for Spring Oaks.

I think we should. We're vested in this neighborhood.

The stone goes up!

No pun intended, but our stone ROCKS!!!! I love, love, love it. The stone on the fireplace will have to be cleaned up a bit because when they were taping and floating they got a little "goo" on my cool stone, but other than that it looks awesome.

Every day I get a little more excited about moving into our NEW house with all the neat features like a fireplace, a laundry room, storage space, a big master closet and bathroom. I'm not sure if I will miss the whole family being in our old 4' x 6' bathroom - even the dog used to try to get in while everyone was in there. Yeah - I'm pretty sure that will be one thing I do not miss!

The Walls Go Up – Happy Father's Day!

Last week was a big week. We finished MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) and have started a number of things. The house now has the following:

• All power and electrical
• All Plumbing
• Gas (don't laugh)
• Low power for AV and Alarm
• Sprinkler system (the neighborhood requires it)
• Sheetrock is up and the first pass of tape and float is done!

We've picked paint colors, tile and most of the finishes. I think I'm picking the pavers tonight.

So the newest additions to the house are the stone around the chimney (they will do the outside of the house next week) and the cover on the roof of our cool front porch, we get a lot of compliments on the porch. BTW, we put a TV outlet on the front and back porch! We'll be in during college football season, man I can't wait. We are still on schedule for September, if the rain will hold for three more days the house will be water tight... we hope!


Front of the house so far


Here's the front porch!


Front porch ceiling, if you look close you can see where my speakers will go!


Hank, the neighbor, from our front porch. Fellow Red Raider!


My daughter and her friend in her bedroom


View of the living room from the entry


View for the living room from the landing


Stone on the chimney from the back door


The kitchen from the playroom


Beams and sheetrock in progress


What's under all the sheetrock, we're going for efficiency.

It's summer - already!

Whew, we've finally made it to SUMMER - yippee! I haven't posted in a while because of all the normal things the happen in May - birthdays, end of school parties, programs, awards ceremonies, recitals, Mother's Day, and on and on and on.

Anyway, things have been moving fast, as far as I can tell.
*Fireplace has been installed
*Low voltage wiring (alarm, sound system, etc)
*Shingles on the roof

We got red-tagged again for electrical. The city inspector thinks we need ONE more outlet in the house. The electrical outlets are supposed to be every 6 feet. As far as I'm concerned we've got about 112 more than we did in the old house so I'm thinking that one more is not really going to make much difference but whatever the city wants - the city gets, like a fire sprinkler system and one more electrical outlet! Wahoo!

Sheetrocking (or as my oldest calls it Shamrocking) is supposed to start late this week. And, we need to go pick out our ceramic tile for the laundry room, bathrooms and the kitchen backsplash. It's so exciting.