Sunday, February 20, 2011

Sunday Updates

After Mass on Sunday, it has become our weekly tradition to go out and visit the house. We drove out today even though it has only been a couple of days since we were there last. As we drove up, we noticed the shingles are on the roof - no, they aren't laid, but they are in their packages on the roof. They are supposed to knock that out on Monday. The HVAC guys worked on Friday and will resume Monday. This week we may see visits from the plumber and electrician, too. Another busy week and we will hopefully be able to see lots of progress. Unfortunately, most of it is hard to show here, so we'll try to keep up to date with what they are working on until the drywall comes in and changes how everything looks. Until then, here are some pictures to enjoy!
Our front door - We may paint this once everything is up and we see how it looks.

Our front porch is poured now... soon enough we can sit out
and watch the sunset.

Our ventilation system is being run up the chase.

The HVAC isn't all installed yet. We hope that they aren't
expecting us to install this stuff.

We might need to contact Chris -
the bathtub doesn't belong in the bedroom :)

The sliding doors in the walkout basement.

More HVAC stuff. It is amazing how much it takes to heat
and cool a house.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Windows and doors


School Room windows


Bernadette in the kitchen standing by the framework for the counter.

Clare standing in the kitchen.

Southwest bedroom

West bedroom

Southeast bedroom


Bonus Room

West bedroom


Bernadette took this picture looking out the office window.

The floor of the upstairs from underneath

Living room



The doors going out from the dinette to where we will have our deck.

The house from behind (the east side of the house.



Clare thinks the house is GINORMOUS!

Bernadette took a picture of her shadow.
Clare playing with the dirt out back.

Front view of the house.

As you approach...
Hope you enjoy the pictures! We will be posting more next week. As we were leaving, the HVAC guys were showing up, so they will be getting that installed soon.

One side note - this was the first time the girls have been upstairs - normally Jeremy just went up because it wasn't finished yet and has been rather cold. They played for a long time outside after we walked through the house. This is also the first time Felicity has been in the house as it was always too cold and so she would nap in the van.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The white house

After a long week for our family fighting the stomach flu, we finally were able to get back out to see the progress. We were very excited by all the progress made. The outside is completely covered with both the plywood and the white wrap.

The front of the house.

Clare was a little concerned by the leak in our living room.
We told her that it wouldn't be there when the house was
finished, but she has her doubts.

Our school room - we discovered one potential problem here:
there is a nice view of the creek here and it may cause little
eyes to be distracted. Oh well, at least they will have an
appreciation for nature. 

Jeremy explains the layout of the main floor bathroom.

The kitchen still looks the same.

The dining room.
 
The steps going upstairs.

This is the southeast bedroom.

The master bedroom. Note the trusses for a cathedral style ceiling.

Master closet.

Bonus room facing the west.

The steps going downstairs.

From the driveway. Bernadette things our white house looks pretty.

North side.

East side.

South side.

West side (from the front).

Chris told us that we should be getting the roof put on this week and then come the windows and doors. By this next weekend (or possibly the one after that) we might have a sealed up house!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Thursday Update (And Our Lunchtime Adventure)

Thursday, Feb 3rd we took a trip out to see the house over Jeremy's lunch break. The weather has been horrible the last 3 days and after being out of town for the weekend, we were anxious to see the progress that had been made. We found the house surrounded by snow (and partially filled). We took a quick walk-around and then we had an adventure which we will share at the end of this post.
Enjoy!
This was the top flight of stairs going up to the second floor.

This will be the bedroom in the southwest corner of the house.

Here are the two walk in closets between the two bedrooms on the west side.

This is the other west side bedroom.

This is the bedroom on the southeast corner

This will be where the main upstairs bathroom will be.
In the background is the master bathroom.


This is where our laundry room will be.

Here is where our master bedroom will be.

This is where our master walk in closet will be.

This is the bonus room.



This is from outside looking at our front porch.

This is a shot of the current progress.

A shot from behind - our house is looking very tall.

Our house towers over our own personal mountain range.

 
This is a shot from the south side.
So we are still making progress despite mother-nature's best efforts. Now for that story we promised:

As we were getting ready to leave, we decided to drive behind the house. Jeremy was cautious because of the snow but it didn't appear to be more than a couple of inches at any point, in fact you can see grass through most of the snow.

We drove back and took the picture of the back of the house. Jeremy decided to turn back though as there was a big drift that he didn't want to chance. However, when we started to try to drive backward, we realized that we had no traction. We were also facing downhill. It wasn't an extremely steep slope, but it was steep enough.

Jeremy tried to wiggle the car out, but it was to no avail - we were getting no traction. At this point he got out to push and Kati took over driving. After pushing for 5 minutes or more, Jeremy was worn out and we had only moved about 4 feet (turning the van half way around). Jeremy took over driving and Kati tried pushing. We moved the van a couple of more feet and got most of the way turned around, but soon Kati was spent.

At this point, Kati hopped behind the wheel while Jeremy took a turn. The snow was ice encrusted, so the surface was slick, but if you punched through you could get decent footholds. Using this technique Jeremy finally got us turned around. All the time we were doing this Bernadette was giving us advice "You should try to get back on the tracks" or "Maybe you should just make it go that way" or "If Papa pushes it really hard then Mama drives it really hard, maybe that will work."

Finally, Jeremy got behind and pushed as hard as he could. We made about 15 feet, but then spun out after Jeremy fell down. Then Jeremy caught up and we got going again - this time making it back to the driveway up the hill.

Almost half an hour after heading back there, we were finally on the way out. We hadn't ever been in any snow deeper than 4 inches, but the combination of the ice, snow, and slope was just the perfect storm. We'll know better next time.