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.

Electrical and Plumbing

It's been a while since our last post. There has been a ton of progress and the house is looking great. We cannot wait to get on the front porch and hang out. Our neighbors are more excited about the porch than we are! Here is what has gone on...

• The siding is almost complete
• Roofing will happen this week
• They have roughed in all the plumbing
• The electrical is roughed in
• The A/C system is in
  
• All the windows are in
• The Tyvek and home shield is done

Now we're working to make sure the plugs are in the right place and that all the little details are right. The craziest thing is trying to figure out where everything should be and it can drive you nuts! We're really excited.



The front of the house from the East



View from the office



View from the backyard



The living room ceiling



Hadlea's room from the front



Side of the house

We Have a House!

Man this is cool but we have a house. A lot has happened since last we posted but all the windows are up and they should finish the rough in for the A/C duct work this week. They start plumbing and electrical next week. Holy cow! We've learned a number of things in the past week, not all bad!

• Our loan misfortunes continue. While not horrible we found out that the Fed cutting the rate is not always good. Mortgage companies loan with bonds, bonds go up when the interest rate goes down this much. Thus, we are currently paying a bit higher rate than anticipated
• Making changes after the fact is bad news. Check every detail. Nothing major but when you see a new house you think of all the things you forgot to discuss, everything, right there in front of you. Ugh.
• The Government Stimulus Package has a provision for increasing the amounts of conventional loans so less people have to take out a second loan for purchases over $400K. The bummer for us is that it doesn't apply in Harris County! I'm calling my congressmen.
• The back of my house is killer! Can't wait to see what the front looks like with the porch on it.
  

I'm pumped about our windows in the back. I'll add pictures later, for some reason it won't let me post them.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

I haven't posted in awhile but things are going really well. We have just been super busy with the end of the school year and choosing all of the things that need to be chosen like tile, shingles, shakes, siding, paint colors, cabinet knobs and drawer pulls, and on and on and on. It seems like everyday another decision has to be made. It's fun but also nerve wracking at the same time considering once I pick it I probably won't ever change it (kind of like the old HORRIBLE 70's tile I had in 2 rooms of the old house - which was the first thing I was going to change when we bought it 10 years ago and we NEVER did!

Wind Storm Inspection – Check!

So things are still moving along. There was an inspection today and they have been approved to put up the weatherproofing and start to close the house in. Very, very cool. Not really a whole lot to say, more wood, more nails and the house just keeps getting bigger than we thought it would be. Pretty crazy.