Driveway has been poured

Friday the concrete crew poured the driveway, front walk and stairs. We are super happy with the way the driveway turned out. We pulled the plug and made the driveway as wide as we could. This should make the 3rd stall much more accessible. The sidewalk was left out to keep people off our driveway. It will be poured closer to our closing date. Once again Beran Concrete and Lafarge Ready Mix did a great job on the concrete work for our house.

Front steps with sidewalk.
Driveway.

Been awhile

Since my last post we have been on vacation so we haven't been able to post anything on the house. When we left the hardwood installers had just started. We took a picture of them laying down the first few boards. When we came back the hardwood was all down and it looked good. They also delivered all the cabinets for the home. We thought the trim carpenters were going to start on Monday but as of yesterday they hadn't even moved their tools in. Sometime this week the doors, trim and wood to build onsite items were delivered. We met with our superintendent and concrete sub to discuss driveway and front stair details. They planned on pouring next week but I got them to move the pour up to today. Thanks to Mike with Lafarge he was able to add 4 trucks for us today. Lisa is thankful for having a husband like me since our builder tried to charge us $1,805 for our larger driveway. I got them to adjust it down to $590. We both wonder how many times and how much do people who build get taken advantage of if they don't have the back ground or knowledge of what true construction costs are.

First few boards down.
Hardwood floors installed.
Weston checking out the cabinets.
Cabinets.
Misc wood.
Trim.
Driveway supplies.

Brick

The masons are done for now. They still need to install brick for the window well and front porch. At this time the front porch isn't even there. The concrete sub will pour the driveway, sidewalk,patio and front porch all at one time. That might happen soon if we get some nice dry weather for a few days. Right now the ground is still wet and the forecast shows more cold and wet weather coming. The electricians started the trim stage by installing the recessed can lights, outlets and switches. On Friday the hardwood was delivered and set inside the house so that it can acclimate.

Just showing off the brick on the front of the house. The guys did a great job.
Laundry room.
Recessed cans installed.
Random picture of some light switches.

Drywall Complete

The drywall is finally complete. They did a final sand this morning and sprayed the ceiling just before lunch time. We are also met with our superintendent today to go over all the final trim details. From this point forward it will be super exciting to see all the small stuff come together. We might have some hardwood floors by the end of next week. Since it is the holiday season it puts some trades off until after Christmas.

Garage is complete and ready for paint.
Just a weird shot of the ceiling texture.
Another living room picture to show the finished drywall.

We've got gas

They finally installed the gas meter on Thursday. It's amazing how these gas companies work. They have two separate crews to install one gas line to a house. Now that we have heat the mudders came back and started finishing up the drywall. Masons worked for a few hours since it finally was above freezing.

Gas meter installed.
The little bit of brick work that got done.
Lisa didn't realize the mud was still wet.
Had them move the attic access lid over to make room for the shop lights that will be in the garage.

1/2 way there

The gas company came out and ran the line to the house but never installed the meter. The masons haven't worked on the house since it has been to cold. We hope to have the meter on this morning so we can get some heat on in the house.

Corner Bead

Friday they patched in the last few pieces of drywall and installed some of the corner bead. As of tonight we still don't have any gas running to the house. Hard to believe that it takes this long to get a meter installed. The superintendent told us he ordered the meter when he pulled the permit to start building our house. Lisa and I are going to try and finish up a few more selections this week. Wish I could post more pictures or at least more interesting ones but this is all I got for today.

Kitchen with some corner bead up. The hutch area got re-framed to have a level ceiling line. Still needs some mud but looks a ton better.
Just showing off the corner bead.

Nothing

Nothing new to report today. Lisa said the drywall guy came over and rehung some of the drywall where they had some framing fixes. Masons didn't show up and I am not sure what that is all about. Rain is in the forecast for tonight and through the weekend. No gas yet so still at a stand still on moving forward inside the home. We will have to wait and see if anyone shows up tomorrow to work on the home.

Worn out

Lisa and I spent 3 hours today with the interior designer at Star Lumber. We are close to getting everything picked out for our interior selections. We ran out of time today but both of us were ready to call it a day. The only thing left to pick out is what tile we want for the fireplace. Once that is picked out we should be done. I just hope that when they send us the quote we are within budget. Some of the tiles we loved ended up being way over our price. It is amazing how much a 12" x 12" tile can cost when you start looking at glass and metal tiles. Lisa seems to be very happy with what she got to pick out. I am just glad that I get to sleep in the bed and not on the couch. Nothing happened on the inside of the home today because we still don't have any gas to turn on the heat. The masons continued on with the brick install.

Finished up above Winter's bedroom window.

First Coat of Mud

Today the house was cleaned out and the first coat of mud was applied to the drywall. Not much more can be done until they get some heat on inside the house. Masons were plugging away on the front of the house. Going to the lighting supplier was a big waste of time. They didn't have any of the lighst that we had picked out online to see in person. Lisa didn't find anything there that she wanted so back to searching until we get all the lights picked out.

Getting closer.
Picture of the kitchen. You can see one of the fixes in this picture.
Living Room.
Garage.

Thanksgiving Update

Thanksgiving put me behind on posting anything about the house since I took a nice trip back home for a few days. Since I left last Tuesday afternoon I am not sure if anyone has worked on the house since then. The brick on the front of the house is getting there but I hope that this will be their last week. The drywall should be all hung in the next few days and maybe by then we will have gas ran to the house. After walking the house today we spotted a few things that need to be fixed. Nothing that can't be done in a days time. Lisa and I have a very busy week this week since we are going to need to play catch up on finalizing some selections. We plan on meeting real quick with the lighting supplier to order lights for the house. Then on Wednesday, we have our big meeting to pick out tile, carpet, and hardwood. Now onto the pictures.

Daytime picture of the brick.
Walked into a garage that is completely drywalled. Not going to complain about this just yet.Looking at the main floor living room. Built in bookshelves are going in the nooks on both sides of the fireplace.

Looking at the kitchen. Master shower is still missing some water resistant drywall.

Day 2 of drywall

Today they got a lot of the drywall up on the ceilings along with a few walls. Still need a gas meter so we can have some heat in the house. It is getting to cold at night to have drywall mud on the walls and have to worry about it freezing.
The masons got one wall finished up and it looks good. I didn't get to see it up close since it was dark outside when I got over to the house. It started to rain this evening so we will see if this slows them down tomorrow. It would be nice to have it finished up and then the house would be pretty much sealed off.

Pantry.
Master Ceiling.
Front entry.
Kitchen ceiling.
Brick on the north side of the garage.

Drywall has started

Friday afternoon the drywall company delivered all the drywall material for the house. Saturday afternoon we stopped by the house to find some of the drywall had made it up onto the ceiling and walls. I had some free time today so I went over to the house to see if anyone was working, low and behold there were 2 guys working on the front bedroom. Not sure how much they got down today but I am guessing they will have a majority of the house done by Thanksgiving.

Stocked drywall for the main floor living room.
Back bedroom finished.

Insulation

The brick is going up so slow that I am glad something else is being done on the inside of the house. Today they did a ton of insulating work. To me it looks like the first floor and basement walls are completely insulated. If that is the case then all they lack is the ceiling insulation and that won't happen until drywall is complete.

Front bedroom.
Part of the basement.Garage wall.
Brick installed on the garage wall.

Slow going

The masons got a few more bricks laid today but nothing to get excited about. The second shutter was built and there was some pre-insulation work done on the house. Off site, Lisa and I picked out our granite today. After much debate we decided on 2 slabs of Santa Cecilia granite for our home. I will post a picture below to show you a close up of what we picked. In two weeks we have our big interior meeting to pick out carpet, tile and hard wood flooring. Once that meeting is finished we should be done with all of our selections. Heck the granite is scheduled to be installed on December 30th. Right now it feels like we are going to be moving in earlier then expected.

Not much to see today.
Close up of what our granite will look like.

Bricks and more

Yesterday, the masons laid out everything so that today they could begin laying the brick. You can see in the picture that they didn't get much brick laid today but at least it is progress. We also got one of the shutters built and is in the garage waiting to be installed. The low voltage guys came back today and moved the cable/comm lines to the correct locations. The electric meter was installed on Monday so now we have permanent power to the house. We are still waiting on water and gas to be installed.

Siding is complete

Friday a few trades came by and got some work done on the house. The biggest thing was the siders finished up back side of the house which completed the siding. The low voltage guys decided to install cable, cat5 and phone even though we hadn't even told them where to install them. So once again they get to come back and reinstall the cables to our liking. The plumbers installed the 2 showers and even put in the valves for our master shower. Not sure we like it at this time.
This week it should be clear and dry which means the masons will start on the brick work. I can't wait to see the brick up on the front of the house. The material has been sitting in the front yard for a week now. Lisa and I still have interior items to decide on. Mainly the flooring and tile needs to be roughly picked out by the end of the week.

Back side of the house finished.
Jack n Jill bath shower installed.
Master shower with the two valves installed. Main shower head is directly in the center of the shower with an additional hand held shower to the right. Not what we envisioned but I think it will work out well.