And the changes just keep on a-coming!

There were quite a few changes at the house when we drove out there tonight.
The garage doors have arrived...
and the stone (El Dorado Meseta Fieldledge) is going up on the chimney...
and on the fireplace...(there will be verde butterfly granite over the black fireplace box that is still showing)
The tile has been laid in the guest bathroom (still needs to be grouted)...
The wiring is on our master bathroom floor, which will heat the tile...

The tile is also down in the kids' bathroom (also yet to be grouted)...
Stone is going up on the pillars that will support the covered patio area off the back of the garage. There will be wood pillars on top of these stone bases...
Here is a photo of the brick on the back of the house that is now finished (I remembered to take my boots with me tonight!)...
And DH used the tractor to pick up some broken concrete blocks to use to keep the tractor attachments off the ground to help prevent rust. I didn't get to drive the tractor because I injured my back at Boot Camp yesterday morning. I figured there isn't any hurry - I'll probably be driving it more than I want to once we get ready to attack the brush on the property!
The painting never got finished before the tile was started. It seems like it would have been a lot easier to paint without the need to provide protection for the floors.

Thursday doesn't look good for the kitchen cabinets to go in. The kitchen tile is there, but there were only 4 tiles laying on the kitchen floor. Even if they get the kitchen tile down tomorrow, they have to let the tiles set and then grout them. My guess is the kitchen won't be installed until next week.

The Brazilian teak for the family room, great room, and office is in the house so it can acclimate to the temperature and humidity conditions in the house. No sign of the bamboo flooring for my sewing studio, 2nd floor hall, and laundry room though.

I think we'll need to start going out to the house more often now, as the projects being done now make a really big difference in how the house looks. It's really amazing how fast everything is coming together now!

Let's go Pens!!!

Stuff and things...

DH was busy while I was down in TX. He took Friday off from work and went to buy our tractor. It should be delivered in a couple of weeks. He also cleaned out the garage and the large unfinished part of the basement. We need to clean out a couple of more closets, make a couple of minor repairs, and this house should be ready to list.

We went out to the house as soon as my mom and I got home from the airport last night. It's the first time she's seen it in person. It didn't look like anything new has been done on the inside since I was out there last Wednesday, but the brick and the siding had been worked on. The newest estimate of when the house will be finished is the end of June - the estimate up to this point had been "sometime in July", so that is good news.

The last section of brick that needs to be done is the angled wall area in the back of the house. They are just starting on the first floor level of the brick there. (I forgot my boots so I took a photo leaning out of the basement!)

The painters are supposed to arrive this week to begin painting the inside of the house. We spent some time last week trying to figure out what colors to put on the walls from those little tiny samples. We really need to get the colors correct for the rooms where there are vaulted ceilings so that we won't have to paint those ourselves. The great room will have the same color we currently have in our family room, so we feel fairly confident about that color (Sherwin Williams Vesper Violet). We'll use a color 2 shades lighter than that for the walls above the light valance that runs around the room about 10 feet up from the floor. After the painters are done, the hard floors will be installed.

We had to decide whether to put windows in the garage doors, or not. We only have 1 window in the garage so I think we are planning to put windows in 2 of the garage doors, and leave them out of the shorter bay, which is closest to the window.

Most of my sewing studio cabinet hardware arrived today. I was able to order most of the knobs and pulls from Sears (good price), but they didn't have all the left hand pulls that I needed. I had to order those from another place online.

I need to find time to go look at the bamboo for my sewing studio floor. Our salesperson emailed to say that the finish on the bamboo that arrived at the store for our house is not the same as what it was on the sample in the store. The store sample had a satin finish and our order came in with more of a slight semi-gloss.

We're still waiting to hear from the landscape designer. I'm anxious to see what kind of a plan he has come up with for the patio area.

And, I'll leave you with a photo of my niece's cats - Black Cat and White Cat - that I spent some time with this weekend at my sister's house in TX.

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.

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.