15 March 2004 "Shelving and counters"
Our front door is red. Our driveway is partly poured. Most of our lights are up. The shelving is coming along nicely. The question of the hour is, will it be done by the end of the month?
28 February 2004 "Tile"
We have entered the home stretch of the home building. They have installed most of the floor tile, started painting, installed cabinetry, and the shelving will be started soon as well. We are moving out of the apartment on March 27th hopefully, into a finished house.
31 January 2004 "Garage Doors"
Chris and I finished picking-out all of our floor coverings this weekend. We took another look at the house and they have primed all the walls. Woo-hoo! Real live paint will be next! They also put-up our garage doors.
25 January 2004 "Drywall and spackle"
Wow, it's been awhile since I have had any interesting pics to share with everyone regarding the house! From a drought of not much, they have done a lot recently. The drywall is now all up in the house and the heat is actually working. They have spackled everything and are ready to sand, I think that would be next. Joey told us that there would be a lot going on in the next couple of weeks
30 December 2003 "Misc. House Pics"
They finished up the brick this week on the house and they will be cutting the driveway back to the barn tomorrow. Good thing, since Chris and I are moving all of our stuff from the Spurr Road house into the barn this coming Saturday. I think we will move the horses, cats, and goat this coming Sunday. We are all finished with the wiring and ready for insulation and drywall.
December 16, 2003 "Utilities"
It is a Christmas miracle! We finally have electric and water at our property. The road has been long and difficult but good finally triumphed over evil. Just so that Chris would believe me, I took pictures of our utilities.
I haven't really had any pictures of the house to put on the site because they have been working on all of the wiring. Pictures of lots and lots of wires are not very interesting. However, drywalling is next after Chris and I approve the wiring on Thursday afternoon.
November 10, 2003 "Patio Room and Deck"
They started the patio room and deck on Friday and they almost have the framing complete. I went by today to decide how the stairs should come down. I went with them coming down the left side of the deck (looking at the house from behind) and ending so that you will walk directly onto the patio below.
November 2, 2003 "Almost complete brick"
The bricking is almost complete and the roof is finished. We are thrilled with how the outside of the house is looking. We noticed a fairly large hole in the brick on the front of the house and we were curious as to why it was there. Then, being the smart Tabitha that I am, I realized that that was for our house number. The concrete house number block was sitting right inside the front door -- very pretty. Chris and my Dad marked the roofline yesterday where we wanted electrical outlets. We need to make sure and tell Joey that we want them on a switch or else they will be useless. Oh, we are putting them there for Christmas lights.
October 19, 2003 "Brick and the beginnings of a Front Door"
Chris and I went to visit the house this evening and were pleasantly surprised to find brick on the house instead of in the yard. I am so amazed at how much prettier it looks up on the house rather than stacked up in big piles. Also looks like they are getting ready to put the shingles on as well. However, my happiest moment came when I saw the front door! The sidelights aren't in yet but I love the front door. Chris and I spent a lot of time picking it out so if anyone hates it, just don't tell me. Feel free to say bad things about anything else but PLEASE, do NOT pick on my front door.
October 19, 2003 "Duct Work and all that Jazz"
It's been awhile since I've updated the site with any pictures. The changes to the house aren't quite so noticeable. Chris and I have been hard at work picking out doors, cabinetry, sinks, plumbing fixtures, flooring, lighting....the list goes on and on as do the dollar amounts. Chris keeps telling me that a budget is NOT a starting point! Anyway, we think we now have a handle on all of the choices or at least more of a grasp on things. As far as the house goes, they have been working on the duct work and plumbing, not very interesting to photograph but I did take a few. They are supposed to start bricking soon so I will be excited to share those pictures with you. They also started work on the barn, they dug the foundation. Please visit the Barn Construction page frequently over the next month to view the progress. Should go up rather quickly!
September 19, 2003 "Framing Complete"
The framing is now complete on the house. There are bricks in the yard ready to be applied and Chris and I picked-out the shingles for the roof. We also picked-out a front door. It is a little non-traditional, pictures will follow, but it is definitely us. Some of the windows are already in place. There will be a large arch window installed over the window directly to the left of the front door entrance as well as the front door.
September 5, 2003 "Remaining Framing"
Seems that the remaining bit of framing is almost complete. One of my and Chris's favorite activities on a Friday night is visiting our house. This time, we met some of our future neighbors. Dr. Maier (who happens to work with my Mom), his wife, and three very charming little girls were at the other end of the development laying out plans for roads at their place. Apparently, they are building their barn and fence first for the horses and the house will come later. They seemed really nice and the girls were quick to volunteer to help me with my horses. I will take them up on that offer!
August 27, 2003 "The Upstairs Framing"
Those framing guys move fast. Went out to say hello to the house before leaving for Vegas and was very excited to be walking around the upstairs! I was slightly startled and confused when I thought the master bedroom was the kitchen and the master bedroom was therefore nowhere to be found. Anyway, I am just a little spastic and anxiety-stricken so I am prone to being startled easily. Never fear, they just haven't framed the kitchen yet. I believe Joey would laugh at me if he knew how worried I was about the whole process. Have faith and confidence in your builder and life will be a lot more pleasant. Those are my sage words of advice for today.
August 20, 2003 "We are being framed!"
Well, they caught me without my camera ready. They quickly went from pouring the basement floor to framing the house. Everyone will be very shocked and disappointed in me that I failed to have my camera at the ready when the floor pouring was complete and before the framing had begun. I will try to be more on the ball in the future. It's a lot easier now to visualize that yes, the furniture will fit in the rec room without much difficulty and Chris was happy that his office will be sufficiently big enough to hold his antique computer collection.
August 6, 2003 -- "A Front Yard"
Last night, Chris marked where he wanted outlets in the floor of the family room and his office. It is important not to be too far from a power source when one has a laptop. Anyway, they will be pouring the basement floor soon and then, we will be framed! It is all so exciting! We have the beginnings of a front yard. They moved a lot of dirt around today and created a nice, flat yard.
July 25, 2003 -- "Basement Walls"
It became a little more real to us Friday night when we saw that they had poured the concrete basement walls. It was really odd to think that we will be living in this hole some day. We already had our first visitor, Ed, the neighbor. I invited him in for a drink and he looked at me strangely and said maybe later would be better. Hey, at least I am trying to be neighborly.
June 29, 2003 -- "The Hole"
We finally broke ground after months and months of waiting on the right to purchase the land and the weather. The rainiest spring since Noah prevented Joey from starting the house and it was very frustrating for all of us. After all the waiting we did to actually be able to buy the land, we were impatient to get started! People kept telling me, "Just wait, things will only get worse!" Wow, thanks everyone for the encouraging words. We immediately ran into more problems as soon as we started digging, however, when Brenda called to tell us that there wasn't any electricity or water to the property. Chris and I were under the mistaken impression that this land was ready to be developed. After getting upset with the developer's realtor, we finally had some assurance that both electric and water were on their way. I will believe it when I see it! We are hoping Joey won't have to build by torch light and hamster-generated electricity.
April 2003 -- The Stakes
It is really sad when you can get this excited over some pieces of wood in the ground. But yet, here I was, snapping away pictures at some little sticks. Looks like the surveyor got the angle correct on the house, though. We wanted the back of the house to be angled to look directly into the corner of the property. I can't wait to wake-up to this view everyday!
