Thursday, March 24, 2016

Moving on Up...

 Lizzie wanted to pose with her bathtub :)
 Back porch with cedar posts
The stone w/ the painted siding 
 The front of the house w/ the painted siding

The ceiling of the front entry

Lights are in!

Everything is moving so fast!!! Everyone who is working on the house is working super hard and trying their best to get us in this thing as quickly as possible. Even though everyone is working fast, the work is good and is being done the right way. For those of you who know Travis, there is NO other way, which is good! There has only been one minor issue over the last week, and that has been with the fireplace. We are using an Isokern fireplace, which is made by Earthcore. Even though there is a distributor close by, we are not using them due to them having so many bad reviews and references. So, Travis is driving to Shreveport early Friday morning to go pick up the fireplace. Why? Because the mason has to put the fireplace in on Monday. The stone work on the fireplace and chimney have to be done before they can put the metal roof on, because after the roof is put on, you can't walk on it. The insulation is supposed to be put in soon, which means they can sheetrock soon, and there is only a few more small areas to be painted on the outside (thanks to Larry Leathers and Sherwin Williams for an AMAZING job!!), so that the stone can be put on the outside of the house. I know it sounds confusing, and that's because it is. There are times when I feel like my head is spinning in circles, but I know Travis feels it even more, because he has done a lot of the communication with the builder, Mike Terry, and the subs. I get to pick things out and say "that one" or "that's the one I like". I take my part of the job very seriously :)  :)  :), and I am an excellent picker outer and shopper!!! The HVAC and electric work are nearly complete!!! All of the plumbing and all of the tubs, except the tub in the master bath, have been installed. The showers are going to be all tile, so they won't do those until later. The only other concern I have is that there is this awesome guy who in Tyler that installs granite, and I have called and texted him several times, but I can't get a response back. So, tomorrow, after I go get my hair done ;), I'm heading to visit the granite place! I'm really bad at the waiting game.

 I'm so glad and thankful that we have friends who are experts at construction, electric, HVAC, painting, and masonry! If we didn't, we would be going insane!

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Raise the Roof!

It's been a while since my last post, and so many things have happened with the house. All but one window has been installed, and that is because there was one window that wasn't ordered. As you can see, I love, love, love windows!!!!! I love all of the natural light that this house is going to provide!!!The roof has been decked, the rest of the hardy board siding is being finished up, the plumbing is set (with bathtubs being installed), and the electric work and HVAC are being installed. There is still a lot more work to do on that end, but it's moving right along. To give you an idea on the fast pace this builder is going, Travis called me on Friday around 10:30 and said, "I need you to meet me at Colburn's to pick out fixtures for all of the bathrooms and the kitchen, along with bathtubs. It needs to be done in the next few minutes." Thankfully, it was my conference time at school, so I was able to get away for a few minutes to take care of this. I already had some things in mind, so I had it taken care of in about 20 minutes. There was a slight delay on installing the siding this week, because we had to wait for part of the roof to be installed before they could finish the siding. We are having a metal roof, so this is why we had to wait on that part to be finished. It is not the entire roof, just around where the siding a roof line meet. We are really enjoying watching all of this come together.

Next on the list, we have to pick out the paint color for the hardy board. It may sound silly, but this is probably one of the tougher parts. You want to make sure everything matches with the wood, stone, and the metal roof. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, the electric work and HVAC work will be getting close to being done so we can start with the spray-in insulation.

Everything is happening very quickly, and we are thankful for that! We cannot wait to be in our home!!!

Oh yeah, it rained again today :)
 Front of house with all but one window installed

 Front Entry
 Dining Room
 Living Room looking into the kitchen
 Back of House with Windows
 Side Porch
 The beginnings of HVAC
Kitchen Plumbing