I Can Has a House?: October 2008

Week 4 - Step Right Up, Come On In...

If you'd like to take the grand tour...

I snapped a few pics of the house today, but the videos will be what you really want to watch.

- This window has been moved from the rear bedroom, Billy mentioned that we didn't have a window overlooking the driveway. So, for security's sake, we made the decision Monday to move it.

- Doorway from the garage to the hallway/kitchen area.

- The main hallway on the first floor. The opening is the front door. Obviously, you can see the stairs going to the second floor and the steps to the basement.

- The steps down to the basement (where Joey will hide when Stephanie mentions laundry) :)

- Picture from the back wall of the living room. Notice the window that'll overlook the front yard and the front door.

- Yay! We're going to live in a house that smells like coffee! Oh wait...

- The master bedroom.

- View from the master bedroom window overlooking the driveway.

- Second floor hallway; we expanded the hallway from 3 feet to 3 1/2 feet in width, so that the hallway doesn't feel so tight and claustrophobic.

- Master bathroom. The square here will be where the window over the jacuzzi tub will be.

- Oh Boy! Doors!

- House, as of 10/30/2008

And now the videos..
NOTE: Just turn the volume down or off. The roofers were adding the shingles to the roof, so the bang-bang-bang are the nailguns. Luckily, I can provide the play-by-play to the videos.

Entire first floor:

0:00 to 0:24 - The garage
0:24 to 0:42 - First floor hallway to the foyer
0:43 to 1:07 - Walking through the living room
1:08 to 1:26 - Walking through the dining room
1:27 to end - Walking through the kitchen

Entire second floor:

Beginning to 1:10 - Front door, up the steps into the master bedroom/master closet. Love that view!
1:10 to 1:47 - Master bathroom. See the below notes, since Billy and us worked on a new idea layout Monday.

1:12 - The wall here is the separation wall between Steph's vanity and the stand-up shower.
1:18 - Toilet room!
1:36 - This opening is where the shower will be.

1:48 to end- Second floor hallway and rooms

1:55 - Washer/dryer 'room'. This was supposed to be the second bathroom, but Billy and us thought about the fact that we will be wasting a lot of space where the washer/dryer room was. This way, we have the hallway space plus the standing space to work with.
2:21 to 2:45 - "The Office" per Joey, "The Nursery" per Stephanie

2:26 - Little closet
2:38 - Clothes closet

2:52 to 3:40 - "Spare Bedroom" per Joey, "Lauren's Bedroom" per Stephanie

3:18 - Window view of the backyard/woods

3:43 to 3:50 - Upstairs bathroom

The shower will be along the back wall, vanity and shower on the right hand side.

3:52 to 3:59 - Linen closet for the bedrooms and the shower.

This was another idea from Billy that we liked. This way, the linens are close to the bathroom for convenience.

4:05 to end - "Workout Room"

4:07 - Workout room closet
4:16 - Workout room window view of the front yard

We'll need to figure out exactly where the spare bedroom's closet is. From Steph and I's memory, the closet will be in this general area:

That's all for now! I'll make another walk through when the drywall is put up, and again after some appliances are put in.

- J

Week 3- Movin' On Up

Thursday and Friday of this week have been really busy on the house.

Thursday:

- The garage was getting all framed up....

- Can't wait to wash our vehicles outside and bring them in and wax mine. :)

- The bay window and the kitchen walk-out area is coming together nice.

- From the main road. Think this is impressive? Take a look below!

Friday:

- We went up overnight! The second floor and our master bedroom (over the garage) are now a reality instead of on paper!

- Back of the house, looking good!

- Preview of what the final outcome will look like! Yay!

Talked to Billy Friday, here's what is planned for this week:

HVAC gets started
The 'trades' coming in to work

That reminds me, I need to shop for a generator for a 'just-in-case' scenario.
Sears | Home Depot | Lowes

- Joey

Week 3 - Top, Bottom, Left and Right

After snapping the pictures that were in the previous blog post, Steph and I visited Barbara's house to figure the colors of the siding, colors and type of the shutters, and the color and the type of roof.

Fifteen minutes later, we decided on these colors:

- The siding will be the color of Savannah Wicker, and the raised panel shutters will be black. The shutters will look something like this:

Next, we needed to figure out the color of the shingles on the roof. If you remember the model house, it had a "Weathered Wood" (see the picture below) look that contrasted against the bright color of the house. Barbara and her husband mentioned that a black roof would NOT, contrary to popular belief, create a lot of heat in the house and would provide nice contour and "show better lines" on the house. So, we chose Shadow Black. It will mix with a lighter, greyer shingle for a nice blend of dark color.

Barbara mentioned to us about a different type of siding called beaded siding. I personally wasn't aware that there were multiple types of siding. Apparently, there are a few:

There's a "Matte" style...

A "Dutch Lap" style...

and a "Beaded" style (designed for a 'wooden' look)

Barbara will call Billy and figure out how much extra beaded siding will be. If it's too much, we'll have to figure out what kind of siding we want. If it's affordable, we'll probably go with beaded siding.

More fun tomorrow!

- Joey

Week 3 - Joey Has Some Serious Wood

Show up to the site today, see this on the ground:

Turned my head slightly, and saw this:

Needless to say, I was very very surprised!! In that second, I snapped a camera phone picture and sent it to Stephanie.

- First hole on the left is the doorway, right hole is the window from the living room.

- Originally, the bay window was to go on the front porch. Luckily, Billy mentioned that we'd lose porch space, so we moved it to the dining room, which will give us a great view of the backyard (and maybe some deer).
**Note to hunter family members: you are not going to be shooting from this bay window. :-p

- Picture from the main road, and it gives an idea of our house compared to our farm house.

- Joey

Week 2 - Concrete Details

Just a nice reminder, our house is brought to you by:

Stopped by our house yesterday to take some pictures and video, and saw Billy come to pick-up a mini backhoe. I talked to him about some of the questions I had about the house, I'll share what I found:

Yesterday, snapped this pic:

- Does that mean we're getting concrete laid!? The answer is yes. Billy said that today (tuesday) the basement would be concreted, and tomorrow (wednesday) the garage floor would be done.

- This hole in the basement is a flow pipe for sewage that'll go out to the septic tank and the septic field.

- The septic tank according to Billy is 20 feet from the corner of the basement. It'll curve out over the front of the front lawn.

- This is the rough-in for the bath, toilet, and the vanity & sink will sit. They were able to pour the concrete in the basement today and plan on pouring the concrete in the garage tomorrow as mentioned above. The pre-concrete garage video is below:

- This really bad drawing is where the steps are going to be formed. The 'projections', according to Billy, are designed to prevent the steps from possibly leaning and breaking away from the house.

- Remember the holes in the garage? Those are actually supports for the second floor.

- The yellow outline will be where Billy will lay concrete for a small walk-out porch.

Here's a video as of yesterday. They were working when I showed up today, so I didn't want to take a video and get in the way.

I'd asked Billy what's coming next for Week 3:

Today, the concrete for the basement was poured.
Tomorrow (wednesday), the concrete for the garage will be poured.
Also tomorrow, Steph and I will be picking our siding, shutter, and roof colors verified.
By Sunday (pending the weather), the framing will be finished.

More fun to come!

Week 2 - Fill In The Blanks

It's Friday, and I've taken a few more pictures and videos for the weekend.

- These holes seem to be for some sort of draining, especially in the middle of the garage, since a trench is there. I wonder if I can wash our cars inside the garage and let it drain. :)

- Much better picture of the driveway and the layout of it from the previous stakeout pictures/movies.

Videos:

- From front yard

I can't wait until the next step (whatever that is). :)

- We're still legit!

Week 2 - The Foundation

Seems like the guys have been busy this week. The foundation for the basement and the house is in. The basement has taken shape and the 4 to 6 foot porch is easy to see now.

- The basement walkout, with the barrier wall for a nice opening. This is where the kitchen, living room and dining room will be on the first floor.

- The front of the house. The grooves in the concrete are where the front door is going to me. I'll have to ask Billy what the drain hole is. The dark black area is the porch. You'll be able to see it better in the picture below.: