Snap Happy....

Today was filled with basketball and baseball but of course I managed to squeeze in a few minutes to run by the house and get some shots!  Most were taken with my cellphone, so hopefully they turn out okay.

First floor.....

This is a shot sitting in the family room, looking at the front door.  And that's the dining room on the other side of the stairs.

This is standing at the stairs looking down the hall.  The family room is on the right, and down the hall the kitchen is on the right and the mudroom is on the left.

 

Continuing down the hall, turning left - there is the view of the powder room in the mudroom.

 

Going towards the powder room, around the corner is the mudroom...

  

Inside the mudroom...

 

Back in the hall (opposite of mudroom bath), is a view into the kitchen....

Walking into the kitchen....back left windows will be where the banquette is, and the door/windows on the right are the kitchen sitting area where a gas stove will be on the far right.

 

Walking to the back of the kitchen sitting area, and turning around to see the kitchen range wall and the kitchen sink wall to the right (window isn't cut out just yet).

Range wall is the back wall and sink window on right...

 

View from the banquette area far left wall is refrigerator wall, then range wall at the back, and kitchen wall on the very right...

Standing in the family room looking through the wall is our master bedroom...

 Not sure if any of that made any sense...in case it did, let's go upstairs to the 2nd floor

Second Floor

After coming up the stairs, looking down the hall are 2 linen closets in the back...

At the top of the main stairs are doors on opposite sides where the boys' rooms are.

Here's Joe's room....

 

Standing in his room, here's the closet...

 

And here's Joe's bathroom. 

 

Nick's room is the mirror image on the opposite side of the stairs...

 

Nick's closet.....

I have no  idea what happened to the pic of Nick's bath, but it's the same as Joe's, so you get the idea!

Then, walking down to the other end of the hall (standing at linen closets above), the light in the back is actually going to be the hallway to my office (above garage). There is also a second side stair case down there as well...but that's not in yet, so just use your imagination!

Then to the right of this spot is the boys little study area.  It's a loft/study area/tv room/whatever you want to call it.....they'll have a built in desk across the entire back wall and then space for tv/chairs or small sofa. (behind this wall is Nick's bathroom)

And, then across from the study area, is the main laundry room....(joe's bath behind it)

And, then down the hall towards my office is the guest bedroom. This will have a full bath that also opens to the hallway to my office. 

And, here are some more exterior shots....the "chimney" is in....and they started the dormer above the mudroom...

Here is the back of the house....it was hard to get the entire house in one shot from where I was standing...

 

 

I think that's about it for now...more to come next week....

Cruising along....

The boys school bus route takes them by the house on the way to and from school everyday.  Going to school, they can't really see the house because it's tucked behind a hill (the same one I stand on with my photo buddy to get the full house shot).  But, on the way home, in a blink of an eye, if they sit on the left side of the bus, they can see the progress that day. 

At first, they could take or leave moving to the new house.  While they were intrigued by the change, because it was just on paper, it wasn't "exciting enough" for them.  But, now that they can see it going up and the changes each day, they rush in the door off the bus, break down my office door and give me an update on what happened that day - "the walls are up", "the windows are cut out", "the second floor is up"..and so on. Well, today (about 2 weeks after framing started), I received a "they are  putting  the roof on".  Really?  Already?  Seriously...that's about one week ahead of schedule.  I guess this beautiful weather has them working all day and as nice as it is, probably enjoying it!  I know I'd rather be outside then sitting behind the computer all day!

So, I ran up there today with my friend Eve.  I couldn't believe the progress in just this past week...so exciting to walk through just about every room.  They are still finishing up the second floor (my office and guest bath), but it's looking pretty good.  The real roof, windows and doors should go up next week (I think). 

I only took a couple shots bc the guys were still working, and I didn't think they wanted to be on my blog.  At least not yet anyway.  Once I become a famous blogger and actually have a business title of "blogger", then maybe they'll regret the opportunity. 

My builder has a stone wall sample for me to check out tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about that.  We are doing a lighter mortar - to reflect the old stone homes. Although he said he thought it might be a tad too light.  If I think it is, he said he'll make it darker anyway.  They also did the mortar 2 different styles for me to check out.  Apparently, one shows the shape of the stone and just has the mortar around it. But the other is an attempt at the historical look - where the mortar was smothered all over the stone and you couldn't really see the full shape of the stone. I'm trying to manage my expectations on that bc I have in my mind what that looks like (not to mention it's all around me in the real stone homes/buildings down town that I drive by every day!).   I'm really hoping it looks like what I want it to!

More pics to come this weekend....

Finally, something is going our way....

I knew it would only be a matter of time.  I mean, you can't have all crappy luck, and never any good luck, right? Plus, Mark has claimed on more than one occasion to have a horseshoe up his @&& with life, so I knew any minute now things would perk up from the excavation disaster.   And, yippee...it has.  The weather has been absolutely perfect for building!!! 

We've had such a crazy mild winter!  I mean really crazy....the boys haven't had a snow day or even a delay in school this winter. I think it's actually only snowed once...maybe twice since December.  And, I don't know that I'd even call it snow..it was more like flurries that melted before they hit the ground. 

So with this beautiful weather comes framing, lots of framing...and no lost time on the house.  Woohoo!!!!


Here's the start of the floor deck....

 

 

And initial framing this past week....

 

Master bath on the far right, front entrance and dining room in the middle, and mudroom on the left:

The boys knocking at the front door....

Here's the back family room wall.  As you walk into the house from the main foyer, you pass the dining room on the left, the stairs, and then enter straight into the family room.  Here you can see the fireplace with windows on either side. There will be wainscoting all around the room and wood beams on the ceiling.  And, the fireplace will have a stone surround with a big thick wood mantel I have yet to pick out. What I love about the fireplace is that it's actually a see thru indoor/outdoor fireplace that will be shared with the screened porch.  I can't wait for a beautiful summer night to have a drink and just relax on the screen porch with the fireplace burning. Okay, so maybe that won't actually happen until the boys are out of the house, but at least it gives me something to look forward to.  (just ignore the wood post running diagonal on the right!)

Here's a shot of the back kitchen wall.  At the very back of the kitchen, there's a little sitting area with a gas stove fireplace right next to this door and window....

The next few pics are especially for my college roommate, Beth.  Also know that my camera was completely jacked today for some unknown reason, so I didn't get the greatest shots. Oh, it's always the camera, never the photographer.....

Our neighbor was actually built in 1780 (the house is to-die-for) and there are several older buildings on the property including the ones below.  I don't know what it is about these little buildings, but I just love them.  And, my goal was to get this view.....

 

Out of this set of windows....(kitchen banquette area)....

 

So, I went in this morning and took a shot of what my view will actually be from the kitchen banquette area windows.  Because of all the construction, I couldn't stand at the correct angle to get the real view....

But, I think it turned out pretty darn good....no idea how I pulled that one off....but I did...and, I'm so happy about it!

So, here's where we are at my "same spot"...or at least close to my same spot, they moved some dirt around and I think my photo buddy either got moved or covered up....

Same spot, different day...

We definitely made significant progress the past 2 weeks. We have footers, foundation walls, a few updated designs and I'm finally having to commit to selections! 

Excavation was completed and unfortunately, we had a a couple huge 10-12 ft sink holes that we basically had to fill with gravel.  It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't cheap, but we're past the "unknowns" and are finally moving on to the fun stuff.  So, while most of you see just dirt and gravel in the few pics below, I actually see hundred dollar bills....shredded....to pieces.....no way to be taped back together....and about to be buried under concrete....forever.  And, I decided since we had to spend thousands (and I mean thousands) of dollars on gravel, it was all getting a picture or two on here! I mean, there has to be some evidence that it's at least there, right? Because in a couple more weeks, the gravel will never be seen again...ever.  (deep breath...deep breath...I'm trying to let it go, really I am!) 

Here is Mark standing in the basement, under the master bedroom....

Footers are down and walls soon to go up....

Mark again, in the basement, looking thrilled to be back after just a couple days...

So, here's one of my "same spot, different day" photos I'll be taking.  I thought it would be a good idea to try and stand in the same spot and take a pic of the front of the house every time we go back. 

And we finally have foundation walls...and our very first window!  Woohoo!!!!

Perhaps I've just pushed Mark to the edge with all the house decisions, and now, when we are so close to progress, he can't take anymore and is ready to just throw in the towel and jump!

 Down in the basement....

 Same spot on the hill....

So, are you wondering how, on an open field of 5 acres, I am able to return to the exact same spot every time?  Well, turns out Bambi's cousin didn't quite make it across Evergreen Mills safely.  We are guessing he got jacked by a vehicle trying to cross the road, somehow made it over our fence, but that's when he must have tripped, fallen and couldn't get up.  And, the buzzards took care of the rest.  So, here is my landmark that I search for to know I'm always in the same spot. 

  

Lovely, isn't it?  Okay, enough of that....ugh!



Here are some updated final designs for the house....

Workspace between the kitchen and family room (the one that will have this really cool barn door to it)

Pantry built-in design...

Updated mudroom bench.  I decided it would be better for Nick to have a shelf/cubby above his coat to put his hats, gloves and any other misc items, otherwise they'll just be on the floor.

This is the master bath design, also showing the zero-clearance shower floor which I absolutely love!

And, finally, the update to the basement bar!  This will be covered in old barn board with rustic gas piping as the foot rail.

On my finish selections, I had to finalize my stone, exterior doors, and plumbing last week.  I should be able to finish up the roof color, fireplaces and cabinets this week.  Whew...that's about it for now.  We are scheduled to start framing this week, so I'll update once that is moving along.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.....

This just may be the most beautiful sight I've ever seen.....

While it's really not that pretty on the outside right now, I keep telling myself "it will be soon...it will be soon...it will be soon".  

So, "yes"...to those just dying to know (I'm sure the suspense has been killing you over the past few months)....we FINALLY broke ground last week!  And, from the beautiful landscape above, you can see we have some work to do!  Since our property is old farm land (with about 18" of pure muck on the top followed by that thick Virginia red clay), we need to have some work done to make sure we don't end up with a wet basement the first day we move in....because I may just have a mental breakdown if the kick @$$ rustic bar we designed gets jacked!

Here area a few other shots of the driveway before we officially broke ground:

From the road....the driveway path has been dug...

Another shot of the driveway as you get closer to the house....it has since been filled with gravel/crushed concrete....

And, who doesn't want to see more of the muck that we are scooping out of the ground?!?!  It's just fantastic, isn't it?  I know I was excited when I first saw it.

Here we are today...finally no more muck!  A little more digging to do, and we should be able to get the foundation in soon.