November 28th...Trees, Bricks, Electricity, and Concrete Stain

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Let me start off by saying how thankful I am for everything that God has blessed me with...my family, friends, health, and my home. We had a relaxing Thanksgiving and I had a great Black Friday shopping with family and friends. We found some great deals and had a lot of fun.

Now for house updates. The day before Thanksgiving we went out to the house and cut trees. We have lots that were bulldozed and needed cut up and stacked for firewood. We also piled up the brush so that we can burn it. We went back out to the house today and cut some more and burned some brush. I think we'll be doing this for years. The area that we worked on looks so much better than it did before, though. Here's some pictures that I took today to show what we are working on.
Wood we cut and piled up.At the end of the day today! There's still some brush to burn and a lot more to do, but this area is really looking good!
While we were there on Wednesday, one of the brick trucks showed up! Yeah!!!!!Forklift unloading the bricks. The forklift driver had a little trouble getting stuck in the mud, but they eventually got the brick close to where it needed to be. Here's a closer look at the brick. We chose "St. Augustine" as our brick. This is a queen size brick as opposed to a king size brick. Before we started building the house, I had no idea they came in different sizes, but apparently they do. Queen bricks are a little smaller than king bricks, so it takes a few more bricks to cover the same area.There should be about 2 more trucks coming. 15,000 bricks total!

Our electrician was at the house working on the upstairs wiring on Wednesday and Friday. After the wiring is done, a little bit of framing needs to be done and then the drywall can be delivered, hung, and mudded. We didn't do this initially because we weren't planning on finishing it until Ty is older. But...things change. Many times. Plan on it. But it will be worth it. Right? Ask me in 60 days. That's our goal. 60 days. Can't come quick enough. The rent house is getting mighty tiny. By the way of comparison, our rent house is around 900 sq. ft total. In comparison, the upstairs that we are now finishing is 800 sq. ft. Hmmm.....

Our contractor taped off an area where the cabinets will be so that he could try the concrete stain to see what the color will look like. This is what it looks like after the first application. There's still some other steps, but I think it will look great once we spray it on instead of wiping it on.

November 23rd...Today's post is brought to you by the letter "S"

Since "S"tephanie is the only one who regularly leaves comments on my blog, I'm dedicating today's work picture totally to her....this one's for you Stephanie!Yep...that's what we got accomplished at the house today. A stake was driven in the ground so that the sand-man would know where to deliver the sand. Sorry Stephanie. I wish it could have been a better post for you.

November 22nd....mud

Not much more here. We've been working on budget stuff (yuk....I don't think I'll get my fireplaces or rock) and waiting, waiting, and a little more waiting. Oh...we did finally get the outside corners of the drywall mudded (we, as in the guys we hired to do it). They still have to do more coats of mud and sand. Plus, we I think we decided to go ahead and finish the upstairs so that we can remain under 80% of our loan. Huh? Yeah, apparently we can finish the upstairs for around $18,000, but it will add a LOT to the appraisal of the house because we'll be adding like 800 sq. ft. (which keeps the loan to appraisal value below 80%). So now, we'll have a 3000+ sq. ft. house, but it won't have rock on the front or fireplaces. The good news is that we can add the fireplaces at a later date. The bad news is we can't go back and add the rock to the front of our house without shelling out major cash, which we won't do.
I hate to end with a bad vibe, so I'm going to brag on my husband for a bit. Our 10 year anniversary is coming up December 28th. Yeah! Saturday, he took me to a bunch of jewelry stores and let me pick out exactly what I wanted. Not only did I get to pick it out, but he went ahead and bought it for me and I get to keep my diamond out of my original set so that we can have it made into something else later. Here's a picture!

November 16th...drywall mud

No pictures today...but I thought I'd write a sentence or two to keep up with what is going on and when. The drywall guys mudded the inside corners today. All that is left is to do the outside corners and start putting layers of mud over the first layers.

November 7th & 10th....drywall, bridge, and covering the floor

Hangin' a little drywall here boss! And boy does it change the look of things.

The kitchen looks much brighter and bigger.

The great room looks bigger than I thought it would!(Yeah! I was secretly worried about that...)
And for now...that's all I'm writing. I posted the pics (which takes a long time on here...) and I'll come back and (maybe) write more later.
Off for some family time!

Garage
Laundry
More laundry
Garage is straight ahead with 1/2 bath on my immediate left (can't see it in the picture). The doorway on the left is a closet and the open space to the left is for cubbies. The wall on my right is the laundry.
Living room view from kitchen. The kitchen ceiling is flat, no the living room. (Bad angle from the camera...)
Better picture of the living room ceiling.
Standing in the dining room looking at the front door.
Dining room that leads out to the covered porch and deck.
Standing in the dining room looking at the kitchen. The doorway to the left leads to the garage. If you go to the right, you go to Ty's bedroom, playroom, bath, and the stairs.
Stairs to the future game-room, bath, and bedroom.
One of Ty's rooms.
Our new bridge.
Taping the floors off so the drywall mud won't get on them.

November 4th...Septic and a little drywall! (and a late Happy Halloween)

HAPPY LATE HALLOWEEN!

Boo! Happy late Halloween. I know this is a house blog, but I can't keep from bragging on our teachers for a minute. For the past 5 weeks, we have been learning the Michael Jackson "Thriller" dance so that we could surprise the kids with it at the talent show on the Friday before Halloween. It was soooo great! Here's the link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvEtfGKyuJQ
As you can see, we went all out on our makeup and costume. The picture above is of me (zombie bride) and Stephanie (zombie football player).
Here's one of Ms. Baskin (Michael Jackson), Mrs. Gould (aka rock star zombie) and Mrs. Wyatt (zombie nurse)A group pic: Starting on the back row from left to right: Mrs. Houston, Mrs. Sosebee, Mrs. Phillips, Mrs. Wyatt, Mrs. Newman, Mrs. Gould, Ms. Terrill, Mrs. Watkins, Mrs. Koch. Bottom row: Mrs. Lynch, Ms Baskin and Mrs. Mori. Shelly (track zombie) and StephanieMe and my "groom" Anna JoTonya was trying to avoid having her picture made (she's a cowgirl zombie)And the best makeup award goes to Mrs. Lynch! Wow....
Now to house stuff...
I'll just tell ya right now....it is a pretty good feeling to know that you will have a place for your sewer to go! I'm pretty sure that we have a septic tank installed and the lateral line ditches are dug with pipes by them. I didn't know that they were going to be working on this today, but the big mounds of dirt on the north side of the yard kinda gave it away...along with the big backhoe sitting there. They must have been testing the drainage in the ditches because there sure was a lot of water soaked into the ground. I wonder what my water bill will be...Since the bridge has been under construction, I wasn't sure that any work could be done, but apparently that didn't matter because we walked into the house and...(imagine the bright lights of heaven shining down on us and the heavenly choir singing here...) we had some drywall up! I know, it seems silly to put the whole heaven scene with this, but it just seems like that has been my goal since May. Drywall. It really makes it feel like a house. And it makes it shrink. In a hurry. I'm sure it didn't shrink...but not being able to see the garage from our bedroom anymore makes it feel so enclosed. (Yeah, I'm stating the obvious here, but give me a break! It is 5 am on Saturday morning and I can't sleep.) Anyway, here's some pics of the drywall up so far:

Our bedroomOur bath (The two door openings are actually entrances to the shower. The tub will be placed kinda in the middle of the room, but attached to the small wall between the shower entrances. Since this is a little difficult to picture, here's a picture of the inspiration bath taken from garrellassociates.com (just to give credit where credit is due.) There will be a few differences like the ceiling shape and the window, but the rest is pretty close to this.One of the vanity areas is to the left, and our toilet is to the right.ClosetWorkout roomCeiling in Ty's roomCeiling with the air intakeTy loved playing on this pile of gravel. I don't know what the plan is for the gravel, but I'm sure it involves the driveway.

November 2nd..the doors are in

Well, the bridge breaking kinda did a number on our work schedule this week. On Wednesday, the new concrete form will be built and the concrete will be poured on Thursday, so no one can really cross to go to work. Our insulation has been blown in and the drywall guys were supposed to be there today to start hanging drywall...but they weren't. So, they said they could come on Wednesday, but the bridge may not be passable...and Thursday is more of the same with wet concrete. So, our blown in insulation has an increased chance of falling out of the walls because it will be totally dry by then. So....who knows what will happen. Hopefully they will find a way to park a vehicle on both sides of the bridge and walk across to the other vehicle and drive up to our house. I know...wishful thinking, but maybe it will happen!
So, for the good news...
The front doors are in and they are exactly what I wanted!
Here's an inside shot:
Here's a couple of outside pics before the siding was completed:Here's an outside shot after the siding was completed:The back door is also in.The guys started the railing for the back porch and I really like the fact that they used the large 6x6 posts that match the 6x6 support posts.In between these posts will be a bench with a back that will act as a railing on the deck. Here's my guys just hanging out.