Tile and Brick

I had to run out to the house site today to drop off some bull-nose tile for the master bathroom. While I was there, I had the opportunity to snap a few photos of the tile and the brick!

Here is a shot of the tile that will go on the floors and in the master shower.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but here is how it will look when we put decorative, smaller tile in the shower. We will do two sets of rows.

This is looking into the house past the laundry room and then kitchen. Again, the photo does not do the tile justice!

And now, the brick!  This is the walk-out basement. I love how old the brick looks...as though it's been there for years. 

This is the back corner of the house looking along the back.

Can't wait to update again with more pictures!  Hopefully the master shower will be finished and the paint as well.  Also, I believe once this brick is finished, they will begin working on the deck. That's super exciting - it wraps around three sides of the house!

A lot of catching up

This one might be long! It's been about two weeks since I've posted and a LOT has gone on! It's hard to know where to begin!

First off, we FINALLY have water!! That's probably the single most exciting thing to date. We have been waiting for a significant amount of time for our pump. We dug the well almost a year ago and we just now got our pump. The pump is outside the house because we want to run water to the barn as well. Of course that means the job isn't actually FINISHED yet...but we can turn the spigot and FRESH water runs out a hose.  That's huge.  

Eventually, a pump house (with a heater) will be built, but for now, we have a small blue pump out front!

There has also been a great deal of progress INSIDE the house. The drywall is complete and our doors are in.  This is a picture of the front hall closet (french doors). We will also have french doors (matching these) on our office. We had thought they'd be glass doors, but knowing how our office often looks, Tim and I are happy to know they will be solid!

I'm not really sure which door this is, but it shows what a single door looks like!

Here is a pic of the front door.

We recently had to choose tile for our house. We went to a tile outlet center and lucked out on a pallet sale.  We needed about 620 sq ft and we found 672 sq ft on sale for $550! We bought it. Then we chose some floor tile for the shower.  I thought I had a photo of what we chose for flooring in the kitchen and baths, but I don't really.  This is going on the floor of our shower.  We will also use some as a decorative border to break up the solid tile we have for the walls.

The only flooring/shower wall tile I have is this sliver to show against the shower floor. It is grey. The tiles are 12"x 24" and i think they'll be really neat.

We also chose some brick for the outside.  We are using Hardie Siding on the house, but we also need brick for the walk-out basement. This is the brick we chose (ignore my lovely foot there)!

Inside the house, Tim had a lovely surprise for me. We have spindles on our stairs and, despite the fact that I loved these little wrought iron basket spindles, I thought we were going with wood, When I went out the other day, Tim had surprised me by having the contractor get the iron ones!

In other news, we did have a great googly-moogly moment on Friday.  We were to meet our contractor at the site so we could discuss paint and tile. The tile subcontractor was there as well; in fact, the tile guys were there before anyone else was.  Because they're efficient guys, they got started on their work.  As you may recall, we are having radiant floor heat in the bathrooms, laundry room, basement, garage, and kitchen.  Instead of traditional electric radiant floor heat like this

we have hydronic radiant floor heat, which looks more like this.

So...when the contractor came and we started chatting, he heard a screw gun and went running up the stairs only to see the tile guys had already installed the cement backer board flooring in both upstairs bathrooms. They used standard 1.5" screws...and a lot of them.  We could not even begin to estimate the number of times our pex (that orange tubing) had been punctured.

While both the contractor and I were willing to allow for the miracle that not one screw had punctured the pex, Tim was not so willing to accept that!  Saturday afternoon, our contractor did a pressure test with air. He removed each screw one at a time (and then replaced it) to find any and all punctures/leaks. Much to our relief, there were only four punctures in the pex.  They have since been repaired, and we hope all is well. I will be beyond upset if there is a massive water leak in my house when we get the system up and running!  As of today, the contractor put 65psi of air through the system and it held pressure for well over an hour, so we think it is good.

This week, the paint, tile, and brick is getting done. Looking forward to posting more updates!

More progress

I know - another 'double post' day...but that last post needed to be on its own!

This post is about progress and stuff from today.  We begin with a new photo. I shot this to show the metal roof and the front door. The lighting is a bit off because I had to overexpose the photo in order to see our front door. We love it! Admittedly, it would have looked even better had we put a transom window above it, but since we did not do that throughout the rest of the house, it would have been odd.

This is just a photo that shows the roof a little better in terms of color. You can also almost see the results of the dirt work and tiling we did on Friday.  

This is the view out our front door! Of course, that post won't be there, nor will the pile of gravel, but you get the idea.  There will be a well-house, but we will decorate around it with shrubbery, so it won't be an eyesore.

This is the view out our back door. Again, the sawmill does not live there! There will be a garden and maybe chickens over there!

So...the sawmill was out because we had some work to do.  A friend of Tim's gave him some cedar. We milled it today. It is absolutely beautiful. The fun thing about milling cedar is how pretty it is. The weird thing is how much you feel like a gerbil because of the smell!  We have decided we are most likely going to use this cedar in our kitchen/great-room. We will nail it up diagonally on a half-wall under the bar.  I have a feeling it's going to look amazing!

We are hoping the well people come out Tuesday like they said they would so we finally have running water. We dug the well some time ago but never put the pump on it, so we cannot access the water. Huge pain when you're out there and need to go potty and you have to carry rainwater in buckets to flush!  It will also be nice to have really clean water to wash hands, instead of using rain water, baby wipes and germ-x!

Dig deep!

Despite the fact that we have a great contractor, we don't necessarily have great sub-contractors. One such not-so-great subcontractors is the dirt guy.  One funny thing about the dirt guy is that the contractor's wife calls him a landscaper.  I think of him more as an excavator guy.  To me, landscaping and excavating are two very different things; this is the guy who dug the footers for our house and was supposed to lay tile around the foundation and back-fill the dirt.  Again, this would be an excavator.

Enough about semantics.  

A problem with the dirt guy is that, despite the fact that he's good at what he does and he's reasonable with his prices, he is unreliable as in he does not return calls, nor does he necessarily show up when he says he will. To me, this is a huge problem. To the contractor, it's a hiccup he's willing to tolerate. (We are quite different in that regard.)

We had been waiting for the dirt guy to come lay the tile, gravel, and back-fill the dirt around the house so we can move on. We could not start the porch without the dirt work being completed.  It seems the dirt guy had said (multiple times) that he'd be there to finish the work.

He neither appeared nor returned phone calls.  Tim was getting aggravated and texted the contractor that "[he'd] do it [himself]. LOL." The contractor replied something along the lines of "I know you said 'LOL,' but you do have the equipment, right?!" The answer was 'not exactly' but, ultimately, a plan was hatched wherein Tim was going to do the drainage, gravel and back-fill.

Much to his chagrin, our son was recruited to assist with this endeavor. It had rained multiple times while we were waiting for the dirt guy, so what should have been a quick easy job was now significantly more difficult. There was a good amount of digging and cleaning to be done...all by hand...before laying the perforated pipe and gravel. My job was to pick up garbage. As anyone who has ever had a house built knows, subcontractors throw their garbage EVERYWHERE...even when there is a perfectly good dumpster right nearby. I've never seen so many dip cans in my life! I picked up bottles, wrappers, lids, and even a sock (??!!).

After cleaning, Tim and Connor dug out the trenches and put down the tile. While we were working, our contractor had two loads of gravel delivered. We dumped and spread the gravel two-feet deep all along the front and back of the house.

I should mention here that it was amazingly HOT last Friday. I believe the temperature got up to 97 and the heat index was well above 100. Tim and Connor got out to the job site at 6:30 am to beat the heat. I joined them around 8:30.

Finally, around 12:30, the job was finished. Connor was exhausted, as was I. We left. Tim continued to work. He met up with the central vacuum installer as well as the contractor, who came out to check on how well we did the job.

Crisis Averted!

Today was an exciting day at Happily Ever After.  Today WINDOWS were installed!  I'm telling you...this house is SO stinking cute, I can't stand it.  Seriously - I love it.  And it's a good thing, since we plan to spend forever here!

That being said, we had a minor crisis of sorts arise yesterday.  While we were meeting with our contractor to sort out some stuff, the roof guy came to look over everything.  He then gave our contractor his price for our roof.  We decided long ago that we wanted a metal roof.  There is something about a farm house that screams "METAL ROOF BELONGS HERE!" so that was our plan.  We (and our contractor) were shocked to learn the labor for the metal roof was going to be a good $200/square more than a traditional roof.  

(Please note that I know I did not write "square foot" or whatever because it's not a square foot...it's called a "square" and I think it's 10x10, but I'm not even sure of that.  My OCD is in overdrive that it simply says "$200/square" without a unit, but apparently, that's the way it works!)

Anyway, at that price, our roof was going to run us a good $8000 - $10,000 over what was budgeted for a roof.  Now some of you may say that's not too bad, and in the general scheme of things, that may be true, but all I could think of is other things to spend that money on.  And, truth be told, if I'm going to go $10,000 OVER budget, it is NOT going to be on the roof.  I just can't justify that.  Besides, we have a metal barn. If we want to hear the rain on a metal roof that badly, we can go stand in the barn!

Tim and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that this was just a huge compromise we were going to have to make.  No metal roof.  We had come to terms with it.

Then, today, Tim received a text from our contractor that a second bid came in at only $1000 over our roof budget.  We can swing the $1000, especially since the framing labor came in $922 under budget!  Woohoo!  Metal roof it is!

Walls!

Things are really moving along at Happily Ever After.  It's kind of crazy - and super exciting.  The crew delivered our lumber on Monday and began framing the house on Tuesday.  They have gotten so much done this week; I expect framing to be completed by the end of next week.  Again - CRAZY!

Here are some pix of the progress.

Looking into garage

Looking into basement

 Front corner will be our office

Front of garage

Looking straight at house

Back of house (bay window in kitchen) 

Garage again

Back of house - second story

 Front of house - second story

Looking at garage from barn

Can't wait to go back out there this weekend and walk THROUGH the house! 

More choices and decisions!

My friend Nichole warned me about choices coming at us quickly, and we are, for the most part, prepared for that.  What she did NOT prepare me for was how *many* choices there are, and how much I might not like any of the choices with which we're presented!

Monday afternoon we met with our builder again.  Have I mentioned how much we like our builder?!  Anyway, we went to discuss some changes we'd made (that we decided to 'unchange') and check on some things.  All went well, but we were told it was time to pick out our bathroom fixtures. So...off we went, yesterday afternoon, to Ferguson to make some decisions.

As we waited for our sales associate, Tim and I wandered around the showroom.  We learned two things: (1) everything is overpriced and (2) there wasn't much we liked.  When our saleswoman (who was extraordinarily nice) came to us, she was able to dismiss our apprehension.  She showed us some "normal" tub surrounds that we chose for the kids' bathroom and the other full bath. We discussed our master shower and she had some great advice for us on that.  Then, she pulled some faucets out that weren't on the showroom floor. We decided to go with this for our bathroom faucets. 

The only thing we knew walking into the appointment was that we wanted the oil-rub finish on everything. Our saleswoman was great and pointed out some neat stuff.

For the kitchen, though, I was being a pain.  There was literally nothing in the store I liked.  I knew what I didn't want, but that seemed to be all they had.  Finally, we decided on something much like this photo (except this isn't quite the right finish).  

I couldn't find pix of the shower head we chose, but we went with an H20Kinetic system.  We also chose the more efficient toilets.  We are on a well, so we want to be as conservative as possible with our water usage. A friend of Tim's has an H20Kinetic shower in his house and loves it.

Next up will be appliances and lighting fixtures.  

Heat!

There's really nothing new to post right now. The block for the basement and foundation is finished. Next up is pouring cement for basement floor and then garage. Before any of that can be done, the PEX has to be installed. This is so we can have radiant heat. We will have this done in the garage as well! 

It is a process, but it will be worth it!

Until next time......

Progress...and Choices!

My dear friend Nichole warned me that when it was time to make choices, they'd come fast.  She was not kidding!  I received an email the other day from my builder saying I had to choose my roof color and my exterior doors. The roof color was due last week; exterior doors are due today.  Guess who's behind schedule?!

The build is actually moving right along.  Sometime last week, they delivered a whole lot of blocks. Saturday they began laying said block. They moved pretty quickly, too!  I stopped by on Saturday afternoon and here is what they'd done.

It was fascinating to see the men work. Actually, it was mesmerizing. Tim and I watched for long stretches at a time. They worked so quickly and meticulously. Very impressive.

As you can see, they were able to finish quite a lot in one day.  They worked significantly later than I had expected and said they'd be back Monday and should have it completed by Tuesday.  Then, the framing will begin.  HOLY COW!!

So...back to the choices that need to be made.  We chose a roof color but I hadn't seen the siding colors in person, so I was sort of winging it.  Today I had to go look at doors, and while I was there, I was able to see the siding colors in person.  That really makes a difference.  The guys at the lumber store had a siding sample sheet there as well, so through our conversation, I ended up changing the color of our roof!

We are using Hardie Siding on our house.  It is cement siding, so carries a brick rating.  It's also super durable and relatively no maintenance. We thought we knew what colors to go with, but seeing the choices in person really changed my mind.  I'm leaning toward Khaki Brown. 

We will have a metal roof, and it will be "antique bronze," which looks really good with the brown. I had originally chosen a brown roof, but this will be much better.

Now it's time to choose exterior doors, which is no easy task, so I am off to look over the large book the guys at the lumber store gave me!

Footers!

And we're making progress! Yay!

Apparently, they were able to dig the footers yesterday or this morning, and they poured the footers today!  Again, thanks to my wonderful builder, I have pix to show.

Not much of a post, but it's progress, so we're happy!

The Waiting Game

I suppose this is the worst part about building.  We're in a holding pattern.  The weather has been absolutely beautiful this whole week, and yet, nothing has happened in terms of our new house.  We are waiting for the subcontractor to come pour the footings. Our contractor said the guy is sometimes difficult to pin down and when they finally did get in touch with him, he said he was a little behind...so that means now WE are behind.  Generally speaking, this would be okay, but the weather has been so perfect lately, and we know that won't last. It's sad to waste these beautiful days without making progress.  We also fear the four or five days missed this week will end up costing us another week or two later on.

Minor progress

At this point, I almost expect daily progress, but alas, that's not the case. In fact, nothing is happening right now; we are waiting for the guy to come dig and pour the footers.  In the meantime, Tim was out all day working because we had another guy come out and do some wiring on our barn.  While he was there, the porta-potty showed up!  Not sure that's exciting per se (remember...we have real indoor plumbing - for the most part), but the workers won't be using that, so it's the porta-pot for them!

The job Tim was working on was leveling a space for the central boiler.  We dropped three trees yesterday afternoon to make room (and boy are my allergies kicking today...ugh).  Today, Tim cleaned up, ground the stumps, and made an attempt to level out the ground.

If you look in the background, you'll see our lovely fence.  Tim worked on that too.  We are pretty excited about that because aside from the actual posts, we made that fence!  The railings are milled from trees we dropped and milled with our own sawmill.  

We've had to cut down well over 50 trees (and, truth be known, it may be closer to 100) and we didn't want the wood to go to waste, so we purchased a sawmill and a stump grinder. Both are really cool!  Anyway, here is the mill...

...and here are some boards!

And here is the fence. It is not finished. We are putting boards on both sides and blocking the middle. We also have to treat the boards, a job we intend to tackle soon.

Well, that's the progress for now...Hope to have more soon!

The House

HOLY COW...TWO posts in ONE day.

Don't get used to it! ;)

I realized I never posted a picture of the house. Granted, this is an artist's rendition...we don't have mountains behind our house, nor do we have snow. In fact, I'll be surprised if we ever have as much snow as in this drawing (or that we got this year)!

We are still working on the colors...we will have a metal roof and we are thinking brownish/tan house with a greenish roof...or maybe gray house with a green roof...or something along those lines. Hard to say. I know it's a farm house but we don't want it to be white.  Besides, there is a red barn not far from the house.

We won't have a chimney either. We went back and forth on this one. We will have a gas fireplace, so there is no need for a chimney...but then we thought it would look so much better with one. We decided to have the builder frame one and put stone on it. Then, the more we looked at it, the more we realized that the way the house will be oriented, no one will see the chimney anyway, (unless they walk around the house to look for it) so why bother with the added expense?!

A 'HOLE' lot going on

Get it? HOLE lot?  Cause there's a hole...in the ground...on the lot...never mind!

We have been so busy with the land and I have thought of a zillion posts to write, and yet, I've not written a single one.  That's not very good!  I want to try to be better about this.

We began the paperwork to build this house back in November. After five long months, we finally closed and were ready to begin. Luckily for us, the weather was not particularly cooperative during that five months and our builder was ready for us when we were ready to begin!

We met with the builder at the site to stake out the house. 

Luckily, the builder sees things my way, so we were able to angle the house a little more in the direction I had wanted to begin with! :)

The following day, we broke ground!  So exciting! Both Tim and I had to work that day, but our wonderful builder took a moment to snap a few photos and texted them to me!

I managed to run out to the property Friday after work (Tim had been out there most of the day) and got to see our basement...sort of! I hadn't anticipated it to be so much of a walk-out. I had thought we'd just have a door (dug out with steps) but our land is so hilly that we ended up with a regular walk-out. 

Today we spent a good amount of time researching our primary heating option. We have decided to go with a Central Boiler heating system.  

We will still have a regular furnace, but we will use this as our primary heat source. We will be able to have radiant heat in the floors of the basement and it will run through our furnace on the main floor. Not sure we're going to bother adding another line to the upstairs, as we prefer it cooler upstairs anyway. This system will also heat the water for our home, which is neat.  We have so much firewood already, and with all the trees we have on our property, keeping enough firewood will not be an issue! We always 'lose' some to the storms and/or ice in the winter, and there is also general maintenance of the wooded areas on the place.  Essentially, the system works somewhat like a geothermal unit, but for a fraction of the cost (and does not do any cooling).

There is, of course, a whole lot more to write, but I'm pretty tired and have quite a number of things to finish!