Time stands still

Everything was moving along so nicely and then WHAM!!  Nothing is happening.  The sheet rock is totally done, the ceiling is texturized, everything is basically ready for paint except we are doing the floor first.  This stresses me out greatly since I don't want paint or anything else on my new sort of  expensive floors.  In fact I'm trying to figure out a way to just float over them once we move in so no one actually walks on any of the floors.

Mark put cement board down in the laundry room and bathrooms so we can put the tile down.  We are waiting on the builder to install the doors and trim first though so we just have to cut the edge pieces of tile rather than him trimming all of the trim pieces, does that make sense?  Either way the doors aren't in so we are at a standstill on the inside.  The tile pieces are 18x18 so they should go fairly quickly.

We had to go to the storage unit to find some tools and the tile saw and Mark said I was crazy when I asked if he could see my sewing machine in the back.  He was already back there, all he had to do was look for the box!  Seriously it was that ridiculous of a request.  Needless to say, he did not find me my sewing machine.

The stucco guy was oh so ambitious when he was putting up the chicken wire and then they just stopped!  We were there the Friday before Christmas and I think they tried to make an effort to do something when they seen the strange lady with the camera taking pictures, but by then it was too late they were busted.  They had the whole nice sunny week to stucco, but when they finally started it snowed for three days and they now have the whole house tarped.  They finally got the scratch coat on, this has to sit for about a week before they can put the color on.  They did get the address block stuck above the garage though.  Yes it looks perfect, not too big like I originally thought it was going to be.

We do have a small water issue in the office because all the snow that has been melting off of the roof.  It is soaking into the wood frame and staining the office floor.  They are going to cut back a section of the roof so a rain gutter can be added.  Apparently it is a design flaw in the house plans.  I can't blame this on Jason the crappy framer. 

I'm thinking we are looking at moving in closer to Valentines rather than the first of February.  Six weeks is turning in to another 12 weeks...  I guess I'm just getting antsy.

Hope everyone's holiday was great, ours was, considering it was all done in someone else's house.  I know father in law is anxious to get rid of us.  Believe me we are anxious to be in our own home again.

The front of our house, it's kinda like the big reveal.

 Our address block, hopefully it's stuck up there pretty well. 

I don't want it to fall.

 The leak in the office, right were Digger's window seat is.

Mark found a use for the cold storage room under the porch. 

It's a cute little work shop, don't tell him I called it cute. 

I don't think he would appreciate it.

Ummm... Bite Me!

So a funny thing happened today.  Mark got a call from our builder, who proceeds to tell him about a text that he received.  It seems that one of our new neighbors doesn't approve of our home.  I'm not sure if it's the size, if it's the fact that it only has a two car garage, or if it's because we only have rock on the bottom half of the house.  At any rate the text basically said that our builder was building a house that was not adhering to the covenants in the phase and that by building our house the property value of theirs would go down.  Well like I said, bite me!

I'm sorry that we don't have enough kids to fill each of the rooms to double their capacity or that I clean because I have to not because I want to, so why would I want to clean a bigger house?  There are only three full time occupants of the house, occasionally we have Bray for the weekend and both of our dogs together are smaller than the neighbors one dog so there really isn't a reason to build a bigger house. 

I would have liked to have a three car garage but it was either that or the shop in the back and for the price it was a better deal to build a shop than have a third bay in the garage.  The covenants clearly state that the house has to have a private garage for not less than two cars.  Hmmm...  That doesn't sound like three cars are required, does it?

The rock issue I only bring up because the text only happened after the rock was on the house.  The covenants say that the front of the house should have a combination of 100% rock, brick, or approved siding.  The bump out where the office is can't have rock on it because there isn't any foundation under it to support the rock and we didn't rock just one section because that would have sent the neurotic symmetrical girl inside of me right over the edge.

I have my suspicions about the culprit, namely the neighbor to the south.  His noisy dog is kenneled right outside our bedroom window...  He really doesn't want to start a fight with me.  Kandis thinks it's funny that there are "haters" in the neighborhood and Mark just can't wait to fire the truck up.  There is actually a nuisance section in the covenants, it doesn't say you can't be loud it just says that you basically can't annoy the neighbors...  This could pose a problem in the summer.

On an unrelated topic, the actual reason for this blog, all of the sheet rock is up and they should start mudding on Monday.  The very nice and apparently dedicated stucco guy was there today putting up the chicken wire around the house to start the stucco this week as well.  Once the mud is dried and sanded the floor can go in and the interior doors all need to be hung.  Then we are on to paint and I guess the cabinets will be installed.  I almost want to make a paper chain to count down the days but I'm not exactly sure how many days we have left, but I know it's getting close.

Happy Holidays to everyone and I hope that you all enjoy your holiday in your house with your own decorations and all of your own stuff.  I can't wait for 2013 when I can be part of that crowd again.  :)

 

Kan's bathroom, at least for the next few months.

The Great Room, imagine furniture

 

The Kitchen, imagine appliances.

 

 

The nice stucco guy

 

 

That's a lot of scaffolding!  Hope he doesn't fall.

Rock On

Finally!  It’s actually light enough for me to take pictures of the house.  The rock looks amazing.  I would guess they should be done on Monday.  There isn’t really a whole lot more to do.  It is going to look great with the stucco.  We picked two shades of grey for the stucco, the field will be Dorian Grey, which is a little lighter but still clearly grey.  The trim will be Gauntlet Grey which is darker.  I’m pretty sure our house is the only one on the street that isn’t going to be a shade of brown.  I ordered the address block for over the garage.  My neurosis came out in full force when I was on the Confab website and seen the measurements for the small address block, 15 ½” x 7 ½” x 2”.  I needed a visual so I whipped out the ruler and had to tape two pieces of paper together to get the length.  My boss, Annette, walks in as I am drawing this at my desk and just laughs at me.  I was convinced that it was going to be way too big.  Just so you have a visual, imagine this.  I’m in my office with this long sheet of paper with a huge rectangle on it.  I am holding it up on the wall trying to imagine that the wall is the space over my garage.  Annette reminded me that the block was really quite small in comparison to the rest of my house.  I took her word for it, even though I was still skeptical.  When I told Mark this story he laughed and agreed with Annette.  I had to see for myself so Wednesday afternoon I snuck across the street to our neighbors house and spied on his address block over the garage.  In my defense it looked pretty small from the street…  The closer I got to the garage and could see the block closer I realized that everyone was right, 15 ½” will be just fine.  Whewww!

 

This rock guy is amazing!!  Each piece is perfectly placed. 

This works great with my OCD issues.

They started sheet rocking today.  There is a little in the master bathroom and bedroom and the whole great room ceiling is done.  There are piles of sheet rock in each of the rooms.  Right now it's a one man show but this coming week there should be more guys there.  We are estimating the end of the week for it to be hung, mudded, and taped.  We will lay the floor after that and it will be time to paint.  I think this next month and a half is going to go fast, I'm sooo excited!!

 

 

I'm soooo glad we aren't sheet rocking this ourselves.  We finished our basement in the old house and I haven't forgotten how much I hate sanding plaster. 

 

Baby, it's cold outside

It might be cold outside but it is going to be nice and cozy in our house.  The insulator was there today, I never thought that insulation was very interesting, just a necessary part of building a home.  It actually was kinda cool.  The exterior walls have this blown insulation that is behind a plastic sheet, it is really soft.  They put the sheets up and then poke a hole in it and blow the insulation in.  I'm sure there is a technical term for this but I was absent when Mark got the History of Insulation lesson the other day.

See the little holes?

 

 

They put the wrap up for the rock and the glass for the door is finally in and it looks great.  Once the door is painted it is really going to pop.

 

 

 

It's getting close, they are going to start sheet rock on Friday, Saturday for sure.  I'm actually getting excited to paint.

 

 

 The front of the house.

The back of the house

 

The view from the office and my window seat.



Shingle all the way

Who would have thought that on December 4th we would still be having pretty good weather?  I was a little stressed that the weather was going to really put a damper on our building process.  So far it's been great (for November and December). 

We had the 4-way inspection on Monday, there were only a few minor issues that need to be fixed.  I guess you could consider them fix-it tickets.  They shingled the entire roof today (it's not a super big roof) so now we don't have to worry about water damage in the front room.  I was really bummed that I couldn't take pictures, since it's dark at 5:00 my picture taking opportunities are limited to weekends.  But then shingles aren't really exciting.  Just step out on your front porch, look across the street at your neighbors house and imagine their shingles are grey.  Voila!  Those are our shingles.

So Mark calls me this morning and asks for (I swear I'm not making this up) the fifth time what the type of rock we pick was called.  He keeps calling it St Charles, the real name is English Block.  Let me explain why St Charles is the name that sicks out in his mind.  Prince Charles is English!  That is what is stuck in his brain.  So this is what he tells the builder, who relays that information to the rock guy who goes into Harristone and proceeds to ask for the St Charles rock.  Imagine everyones confusion when the nice lady tells him they don't carry St Charles.  Well duh!  Hence the fifth call for the same information I have already given him and the builder.  Once they had the right rock, English Block Ledgestone, the rocky guy was on his way with 500 some odd square feet of rock.  Hopefully that's enough...  Apparently there was a break in the rock guys schedule so he was able to start today rather than in three weeks, which is Christmas.    Mark was in slight panic mode and we had to go pick out stucco colors at lunch, which is slightly annoying because I wanted to go to the mall with Shelly today at lunch.  We are now well on our way, the rock is picked and purchased and stucco is just like picking paint so in a couple of weeks they will be ready to stucco. 

On a personal note, I firmly believe my father-in-law is hiding from us.  I have been sick since the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  My voice is almost back to normal.  Kandis was sick the week after Thanksgiving and now the worst patient in the world is sick, Mark.  He is sooo whiny and hates to take medicine so it makes it even worse.  What do they say, "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger..."  We'll see about that.