Friday, December 28, 2007

Foundation and waterfall

The foundation appears to be complete and the guys were working on the garage foundation today.
Most of our property is on a cliff above the river. There is one piece of the property that continues all the way down to the river. There are waterfalls on this section of land. A piece of our property (approximately 1 acre) down near the river was taken over by the township to put in a trail where there used to be a railroad track (this portion of land was taken by the township before we purchased the land). The section where the waterfalls are is very steep and we haven't yet found a way to get down to the river from our property.

DD and I decided to try to locate the trailhead and investigate our property from river level. I thought I saw a sign the other day which marked the beginning of the trail so we went to check it out.

The trail started out as a paved trail and led down to a road where the trail curved around by the river and became a dirt trail.Here is a shot of the river...

We saw a couple of waterfalls along the trail, but we think that this is the one on our property. A fence has been erected and there are 2 benches for people to sit on. We'll have to walk the trail again sometime when I have my GPSr with me so we'll know for sure that this is our waterfall.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Things are moving now!

DH and I headed out to the property yesterday to check on progress. The basement walls are almost done and they were starting work on the footers and foundation for the garage.


These odd-shaped blocks were used in our 45 degree angle corners...

Drainage pipes and retaining wall are going in...

Before heading out to the house, we went to look at flooring again. Here is the Brazilian teak (cumaru) flooring we will have in the first floor family room, great room, and office.

The builder told us he expects to have the foundation finished by the end of next week and framing will start the following week.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

We have foundation walls!

DD and I stopped by the property today to see what's been going on. They have started on the basement walls. It was exciting to see the house going up! The front right corner of the house will be the first floor guest room (basement will not be a finished basement, so by first floor I mean entrance level) behind it is the guest bath, and at the back right corner will be DH's office.

When we first got out there, no one was working. There were a couple of guys in their trucks and the rest were standing around a 55 gallon drum where they had a fire going, trying to get warm. It was fairly brisk out there today - about 36 degrees and a stiff breeze which chilled us to the bone. I don't know how these guys work in this weather! After we took a couple of photos, they decided to go back to work...

The far back left corner of the house on the 1st floor will be the family room (which is actually more of a dining room - we will have a large table in there and no formal dining room). There will be doors leading out to a patio area.
The odd corner to the left in this photo is the mudroom which will lead into the garage.


We are heading out on Friday, when DH has a day off, to look at plumbing fixtures.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Foundation started!

DD and I drove out today to see if any progress had been made on the foundation despite all the rain, and were pleasantly surprised to see that the footers had been poured and the cement block was being delivered. This is the outline of the guest bedroom corner of the house (the indented area to the top right is the front door and the indented area down from the bedroom corner is the guest bath):

This is the angle in the kitchen which will be all windows:

And we have lots and lots of MUD! I now keep a pair of boots in the trunk of my car and when I'm ready to leave I step into grocery bags and take my boots off inside the bag - plop the bags in the trunk and no need to find a place to wash the boots off! I'm not sure how some of these machines can still move with all the mud that is caught up in their tires/tracks.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Rain, rain, go away...

Well, the rain continues. I don't know what, if anything, has been done at the site because of all the rain we've had. DD comes home from college tomorrow so we'll probably drive out so she can see what's been done. The photos are nice, but it's still hard to tell what things really look like.

I think I've finalized the kitchen appliances. Most of them will be Jenn-air, with the exception of the cooktop and refrigerator. The handles on the refrigerator look very similar in style to the Jenn-air handles, so it shouldn't matter that they are different brands. The cooktop has no handles or knobs so it will go with anything.

Here is the refrigerator that I want (mine will never look this organized though):

It is an LG French door refrigerator. I love that it will be easy to get large trays of food in it for when we entertain.

The electric cooktop is a Bosch with a 12" triple element with extra high power to boil water and cook at high temps easier:


This is the Jenn-air wall oven. There will be two single ovens, one under the cooktop and a secondary one. The main one will have convection bake and other features; the secondary one will be a "normal" oven.

The dishwasher is also a Jenn-air, but I'd like to go look at the one I have in mind in person before I finalize the choice.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Digging ourselves in deeper!

I headed out to the house site today after doing some Christmas shopping. The road to our driveway was blocked by heavy machinery, which I took to be a good sign that work was in progress. It had been pouring earlier, so I wasn't sure if anyone would be out there working.

The excavation was much deeper than the last time we were out there. Ray said to pray for no rain the next day and a half or so, so that they can pour the concrete. (This is Ray, our builder, taking measurements for the foundation.) Drainage hose has been delivered and is waiting to be installed...

We've chosen our front door. It is a mahogany door - it will require more maintenance than a fiberglass or steel door, but we like the look a whole lot better. I think this is the right photo...

We plan to head out shopping again on Saturday - not sure what we're looking for this time, but the list of things we need to choose is certainly long, so we shouldn't have any trouble finding something to look for!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

More progress...

DH and I met the builder out at the property today to discuss some elevation issues. The driveway was covered in rocks 2/3 of the length and they had started digging out for the foundation since I was last out there 2 days ago. What a lot of MUD! I bought boots the other day after being out there and getting my shoes all mud, but today was worse. The ground was partially frozen the other day and now it's wet and gunky. I had brought a couple of grocery bags to put my boots in after I took them off, but DH had to try to get most of the mud off his boots before getting in his car.

Ray (the builder) wants to pour the foundation this week, as the temperatures are supposed to be in the mid-40s to low-50s. We discussed the elevation issues with him and they are easily resolved. He was just trying to follow the elevations listed on the blueprints by our architect and would have needed a lot of fill in order to make it work that way. He's going to adjust the position of the house by lowering it, and by rotating it slightly and that will give him enough fill to solve the problem.

Here are some more photos...

DH walking toward the cleared area where the house will be...

Hard to see from this angle, but there is about a 4' drop at the end of these tire tracks...

This angle shows the "pit" a bit better...

Here is a photo taken from the right end of the dug-out area. You can see the drop-off better from here...

Looking back toward the driveway from inside the foundation area. The pile of dirt is topsoil which will be used after the house is built to level out the landscape. The wooden stakes are marking the garage area...

This pile of brush is still smoldering...

We had a meeting with the Pella window saleman this morning to get some of our questions answered. We are going with the Pella windows and are waiting for a quote on a wooden front door which we should have by Monday. We will probably go with a putty color on the outside of the aluminum-clad windows.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Hallelujah! We've started!

DS and I drove out to the property today to see if anything had been done. We were very pleasantly surprised to see equipment there, the road in, trees down, and brush being burned. I didn't see anyone around, but because it was so muddy and I was unprepared for it, I didn't wander around much. Either the guys were on the far side of the property or taking a lunch break. I stayed long enough to take some photos and then left. (It is about a 30 minute drive from our current house to the property where we're building, so I don't know how often I'll get out there to take photos. I'd love to go every day, but that probably isn't feasible.)

Here are some of the photos I took:

This was taken from the private road that our property is located on, looking down toward where the house will be located.
Dirt was piled up alongside the driveway on each side.

Equipment at the turn in the driveway - the driveway will curve to the left before arriving at the location of the house.


Down around the curve, it looks like some of the brush is being burned off...


Big equipment!

Tree trunks from the trees that had to be cut down...
Looks like one of the trees with the funny trunks is safe!

Monday, December 3, 2007

Trees, trees, and more trees!

DH met the builder at the property on Saturday morning and they walked around marking which trees need to be taken down. Most of the trees that have to be removed are scrubby trees, so it will actually look better with them gone. We can see the river again now that the leaves are off the trees. The builder previously had been unable to see the river - I think he's now fallen in love with our property!

We are hoping for the driveway to go in today or tomorrow. I think the builder is still waiting on the bank for the go-ahead. The bank sends someone out to take photos of the property to make sure that the builder hasn't done any work yet - something to do with making sure no one can put a lien on it. Once the photos are taken, the builder can start the project. The photographer actually went out to take photos and couldn't locate our property, so instead of calling someone for directions, he just left -- so we wait some more...

We have a light snow falling here today and lots of wind. It wouldn't be very nice weather for anyone to be out working on our house anyway. :-)

I think I've found my kitchen sink. There are a couple of sinks by Blanco, made of Silgranit, that I like the size of. Here is the one on the top of my list:

Overall Dimensions Length 37"" Width 20" Bowl Depths 9-1/2"; each bowl is about 18" square.

We will need to change the currently planned cabinet to a wider one to accomodate this sink, but there is a smaller cabinet to the left of the sink that we can get rid of in order to make this one larger, so it shouldn't be a problem. I also need to decide on the color of Silgranit that I want to use.

We have an appointment to meet with the Pella window rep on Saturday to finalize the windows and doors and the colors.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Loan closing!

Success! We closed on our building loan yesterday and expect that our builder will begin next week. The plan is to put in the driveway, cut down any trees that are in the way of the house, and then break ground (finally - only 3 months after we wanted to break ground).

For the quilters out there, I started working on my Quilt Diva pattern. She will hang on the door of my sewing studio in our new house. My friend and I went on a Quilt Shop Hop last June and I took the pattern with me so I could purchase the fabrics for her. I even found zipper fabric that I can use for the zipper on the suitcase! I have all the pieces cut out and need to fuse the smaller parts together and then finish assembling her. Isn't she fun?

Back to the house...I'm having trouble locating the kitchen sink that I want. I would like a sink with 2 large square or rectangular bowls. I've found one, but it is an apron front sink and I'm not sure I like that look for this house. It is wide though - almost 40" and the 2 bowls are each about 18" square which would be great! My other option is to have 2 separate sinks near each other...

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Loan closing set

Our loan closing date is finally set for Wed. November 28th. I don't understand why it takes so long, but am thankful that we have a closing date. I guess we need to add another month on to our estimated finish date, since we won't be breaking ground in November...

We went to Home Depot on Saturday and spent about 2.5 hours looking at doors and toilets and flooring and appliances and lights and fans and all kinds of things. No major decisions made, but we have a better idea of what we like and don't like.

Time to get the house cleaned for our Thanksgiving company. I wish you all a very blessed Thanksgiving...

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Choices...

We accomplished some of our goals today. We chose our brick and our shingles and narrowed down our wood floor choices to just a couple.

The tile was tougher. We mainly wanted to get an idea of what was available and what we might be interested in. I think we've decided what type of flooring will go where in the house, but we weren't able to narrow it down any further than that. We may get our kitchen designer to help us with the tile choices.

I'll try to take a photo of the brick later and put up additional details about the brick and shingles that we'll be using.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Shopping tomorrow...

Our builder sent us a list of suppliers and an outline of the order that things will happen and when we need to have things picked out. We are headed out tomorrow to look at brick. Besides the windows that need to be decided on and ordered, the brick is one of the things we need to finalize already, even though we haven't even broken ground yet.

Most of the suppliers are about 45 minutes from here, in Westmoreland County. We can arrange to buy things anywhere, but this list includes places our builder frequents and we can probably get better prices if we shop there.

We're still waiting on the loan approval...

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Meeting with the builder...

We are off to meet with the builder today out at the property. We are finishing up the financial side with the building loan and were told we can't start anything (not even the driveway) until the approval is complete. We expect to get the loan approval in a couple of days and will be able to break ground after that.

It will be interesting to see whether the river is visible through the trees yet. When we first saw the property last December there was a great view of the river, but once the trees leaved out in the Spring we lost that view. We also need to look for koi in the ponds. We were told there were 1000 koi in them, but have yet to see any fish. I haven't been out to the property for a long time, as the last time I went out it was so overgrown that it was almost impossible to walk it.

We've been researching windows and fireplaces and all kinds of other things that we need to make decisions about. I love this fireplace glass from either http://fireonice.com/main.asp or http://moderustic.com/:

It is also an interesting idea for use in an outdoor fire pit:

So many decisions! We need to decide now what windows we want - color of the outside, whether we want them clear or with muntins between the glass. I thought it would be nice to not have muntins because the views are so nice, but I've had them in windows for so long it is hard to picture a plain glass window now.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Progress!

My apologies for not updating the blog for so long, but nothing much has been happening with the new house. We ended up having to get bids from other builders, as the builder we were planning to use did not work out. We have now chosen a builder and signed the contract. Groundbreaking should occur within 15 days of when we signed the contract, so we have PROGRESS!

Our kitchen design is finished and I really like it. I still haven't mapped out the planned kitchen island to see if it will work for me. I want to draw the actual island top to scale and put my cookie sheets on it to make sure the width of the 2 levels of the counter will be functional.

I am also still undecided about the Alkemi. As it turns out, it would cost more than granite, and we weren't sure what color of granite or quartz would coordinate with the Alkemi. I still really like the look of it though...perhaps we can use it in a bathroom instead.

Now we get to start making lots of decisions. We'd like to get things decided as early as possible so we don't end up having to settle for something that isn't just what we want because we don't have time to research our options.

Here we go!

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Things are moving a bit...

DH met the builder and the project manager out at the property on Monday. I guess the grass has gotten so tall they could barely walk through it and the builder said he'll be mowing it down first thing. We're hoping they get started with the excavation in the next couple of weeks. We HAVE to get the house under cover before bad weather sets in, and we're running out of time.

The meeting with the kitchen designer went well. He used some lower cupboards with pull-out shelves, instead of the deep drawers I wanted to use (I misunderstood what he was describing), but I emailed him and explained what I wanted and he said it was no problem and that the cost would be the same, even with the different cabinets.

I saw the actual alkemi counter sample and it was very cool. I'm not positive that's what we'll put on the island, but it's a good possibility.

The only thing from the kitchen design that I'm questioning right now is the center island. The designer made it a 2-level counter (with different counter materials on each section) and I've been envisioning a plain, flat island with no appliances of any kind so that I would have plenty of room to spread out cookie sheets and cooling racks, etc. all around me while I work. I really need to think about how this 2-level island would work for me. Other than that, the kitchen design looks like it will work great!

Excavate, excavate, excavate - maybe if I say it often enough, it will actually happen?? :-D

Monday, August 20, 2007

Kitchen Design is ready!

We have an appointment tomorrow to look at the kitchen design that our designer came up with. I can't wait to see it!

Our designer also has a sample of the Lapis Alkemi countertop for us to look at. Alkemi wouldn't send a sample to me, but they agreed to send one to our designer and it has arrived, so we'll be able to take a look at it tomorrow and see if Alkemi is really something we want to try to use on the island counter.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Kitchen countertops

We are looking for an unusual countertop for our island and have been finding quite a few interesting options online. The artistic concrete ones that I showed photos of in my last post (http://www.absoluteconcreteworks.com/) were possibilities, as well as these...



This glass countertop is from http://www.ultraglas.com/ - they have quite a few interesting glass countertops.














The picture above is from http://www.enviroglasproducts.com/ and is a recycled glass countertop. They come in many different colors of background and many choices for the glass color and size.

This blue countertop is made from recycled scrap aluminum. Very unusual...




It is called alkemi and can be found here:
http://www.renewedmaterials.com/

It comes in textured (left side of photo) and honed (right side of photo) and is available in several colors.


This product is made of recycled paper and is called Shetka Stone. The photo to the right is a counter from a bank and is make from recycled counterfeit money!

Here is the link to the Shetka site:
http://www.shetkastone.com/

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Interesting items...

Since I've been on the internet a lot to research appliances and sinks and all kinds of things, I've run across some really interesting items. I thought I'd share some of them with you...

Here is a fun aquarium sink:

When we found out it cost $6,000, we decided it wasn't for us!

How about this couch? I saw this on someone else's house blog:

You can find the directions for making this couch at:

How about red glass stairs?
A funky glass shower enclosure? Well, I guess it doesn't really enclose...


Concrete countertops?


What fun!