We signed the contract to have the house built at the end of April.
The first week of June, my mom and Bill came up for Etta's birthday party and so that they could help with the selections process (remember- Bill is an architect and my mom has a great eye for design). We spent a whirlwind few days rushing around choosing tile for the bathrooms (floors & showers) and tile for the kitchen backsplash and carpet and granite (for kitchen and bathrooms) and cabinet colors and exterior brick colors and interior paint colors and the color of the garage doors and gutters. We made MANY choices and made them quickly and with confidence!
We visited the house along the way as it was being built, but enjoyed sitting back knowing that most of the major decisions had been made (many smaller decisions came up along the way, but were pretty easy.)
JUNE 2014
JULY 2014
We have shakes!
and insulation!
Bricks!
AUGUST 2014
Bricks going up on the house!
We have drywall!
All done with the bricking!
The shakes and trim have been painted brown!
Woah! The wood floors are in!
SEPTEMBER 2014
Brick columns are in!
Master shower has been tiled!
Paint is on the walls!
Our drop zone has been built!
Cabinets are in!
The driveway has been formed!
Sunset from our back porch! (That pile of white sand is what was left over after they finished bricking the house. It was used in the brick mortar mixture. We will need the sand to build the brick columns required at the four corners of our fence. It cost us an extra $2400 to go with white sand- over traditional yellowish sand. So, yeah... we told them to move it to the back of the lot so we could use it later... Hell, if there is any left over after we have the fence columns built, I may build a sandbox for the kids!)
Choosing a floor stain (we went with the one in the middle)
an awful lot of thought and discussion (and money) went into figuring out the doors for the play room. Whew!
Partial driveway has been poured.
OCTOBER 2014
We have our GRANITE!!
and our sink and faucet have been installed!
A lot of dirt was brought in to level the front yard.
Our sand pile, :)
Stone around fireplace!
Wow! They cleaned up the back yard! AND our fireplace has stone now!
Backsplash is in!
Tub in master bath is in!
Pot filler has been installed!
In September, Mom and Bill came back up so we could start making decisions and large purchases concerning the interior design of the house. I chose the appliances and we had them ordered and we found several pieces of furniture for the new house and we stored them in our garage at the apartment.
Rug for bedroom
Rug for living room
Rug for Keith's study
The week or so before we closed on the house was a very busy time. We wondered if we would actually close on time, but we told the builder that as long as there wasn't anything major keeping us from getting our Certificate of Occupancy, we would be okay with small things needing to be completed after close. We really just COULD NOT move on any other weekend than the weekend after we closed. Our October was just too full and we HAD to be out of the apartment by the end of October. We really HAD to close on the 17th. So, on October 17th, we closed on the new house and moved in with just enough stuff to camp out for the night. We still didn't have the shutters on the front of the house and there were a few other little things that they came to install/repair in the coming weeks (toe sweeps for the central vacuum system, cabinet trim in a few places, a brick needed to be repaired on a front column, and I can't remember the other things.). We spent the next several days moving from the apartment to the new house.
This is literally two days before we closed on the house.
So, yeah two days before closing and we had a leak in the dining room ceiling. They found the source (rain blew under some of the flashing on the roof) and they repaired the ceiling.
Landscaping!
Took this one the morning of closing (we didn't get shutters for another month).
We were finally completely out of the apartment on October 25th (our lease expired on the 31st).
My parents came back up again the last week of September so we could finish buying furniture and get settled into the new house. I am so happy with the way it all turned out!
I absolutely love this field behind our house. Makes me sad that it will be developed soon. So, I went out last weekend and clipped some of the grass so I could bring the field inside.
Also? The sunsets here!!! Somehow, we have the MOST AMAZING sunsets!! The view from our kitchen in the evening is something I look forward to each day. (The following photos were all taken on different days!)
Last night:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand..... I JUST took this one tonight!
We are so happy to be out of the apartment in FINALLY into our new house. It was worth the wait to get the house we really wanted! Looking forward to the rest of our lives here- because I am NEVER moving again!
(and we're still missing one set of shutters...)
