New Home Presentation

Finally! We got a sneak peek of the inside of the house. :) Wel, it's not like we haven't already been in it, but the last time it was just freshly drywalled. Every step of the way it's been so exciting to see what it's going to look like next. Today we got a glimpse of it almost in it's finished state.

It would seem as if all that's left is really the spit and polish. ;) The front porch and front door still need to be painted, the screen porch still needs to be enclosed and painted, there is some trim that needs to be placed in the kitchen, the garage door needs to be installed and the bathroom mirrors and accessories still need to be installed. There's probably more, but those are the things that stand out. Today the painter was there doing some touch-ups.

We came up with a short list of things that still need to be addressed and we'll return on Sunday to make sure everything gets done before we close on Monday.

It's actually coming to a point where I can start to imagine our furniture and decorating in it.

The front and exterior with landscaping.

Kitchen and dining room and family room.

Kitchen and front entry way.

Master bedroom and loft area.

Almost Finished

Things are happening so quickly now.  In just a few short weeks we'll be living here!

We weren't really planning to stop by the house this weekend, but we had a baptism to attend and we were counting on Megan falling asleep in the car.  So we drove the extra 20 minutes to the house instead of driving straight home to the apartment.  You can imagine our surprise when we pulled up and saw it almost completely painted and landscaped. We knew that they would sod the front and seed the back, but we thought we were only getting one tree. I guess one perk of the corner lot is a lot more landscaping. While it may not be what we would have chosen, it's included and something that we won't have to worry about right away.

There are still a few things missing from the exterior, but boy has it taken shape over the past two weeks.  The to do list is definitely getting shorter.

The house was locked up tight so we didn't get any inside pictures this time.  Turns out we could have just gone to the sales office and they would have given us a key.  Oh well, we'll be seeing it for our Home Presentation walk through very soon anyways.

Builder Upgrades (?)

So through this adventure there have been several updates to the plan that we may not have been made aware of ahead of time.

We lucked out and got those two windows in the living room. They came about because the wrong plan was ordered for us. So, that was a win for us.

The layout of the kitchen has been updated. Instead of the window facing out the side, it now goes out the back. This is a plus because the venting for the stove/OTR now goes out the side and not into the screen porch. Yeah, that would be kind of dumb. And now the window over looks the screen porch instead of looking at the neighbor's house. So that was totally a win.

Due to some plumbing issues, the layout of the half-bath has also been changed. Instead of walking into the room with the sink and toilet facing you, the door opens to the pedestal sink with the toilet beyond that. Guests will appreciate that if the door accidentally gets opened up on them. ;)

Upstairs, the second bath has also been altered. Instead of having the tub fill opposite the toilet and cabinet wall, everything is on the same side. I was actually looking forward to having more room on the free-side when it comes to Megan's bath time. Oh well.

And one of the biggest changes, I didn't even notice until I was creating the last post. The master bedroom windows. In the model we looked at there were two narrow windows in the bedroom. In our house, there is a nice wide triple window instead of the two separate windows. The amount of light coming into that room is amazing.

Because the houses are opposite, these photos were basically taken from the same spot. Look at how much brighter our house is with that new window layout!

Drywall, Doors, Cabinets and Millwork

Wow!  Lots of changes in the last two weeks.  We figured there would be, but seeing it really is impressive.

After talking with the builder representative, we thought there might even be some paint going up, but that wasn't the case.  Won't be long though, I'm sure of that.

When we were upstairs looking around we heard footsteps downstairs.  It was our realtor.  He had a showing in the area and decided to stop in to check on our progress.  It was nice to see him and talk a bit.  We haven't seen him since October.  The day that we were looking at lots he was influential in our decision  of choosing this lot.  When he stood on that front porch, he emphasized what a great lot it was and that he was happy that we chose the one we did.  Honestly, I hadn't really looked at the overall lot and view that we have from the front porch.  Being a corner lot, we really do have a lot more grass area than most of the neighbors.  It's going to be so nice.

Here's the way things are looking now.  No big changes to the exterior.  They had been out and done a little more grading near the house and prepping for the sidewalk and back porch foundation to be poured.

Living room and kitchen. Those little south facing windows sure do let a lot of light in.

Shane's office

Stairway. That window at the top is going to let a lot of light into the loft area.

Melissa's office

Master bedroom. Again, I'm so happy how bright it is in here.

Master bath

Loft area

Megan's room

Megan's Bathroom. This is where that cute clearance stuff from the previous post is going to go.

Spare bedroom

Decorating

Who doesn't love a good deal?   We found these bath rugs and shower curtain for Megan's bathroom on clearance at Target.  Such fun colors for a little girl's bathroom.  The decorating possibilities are almost endless with this variety of colors.  Can't wait to see it all come together!

And then there is this adorable print that I found for Megan's room. The silhouette of the little girl playing with the balloon was so cute. It just felt so innocent and reminded me of the little Hope and Miss You Willow Tree figurines that we have. The strawberry background of the print should match pretty well with the dark pink in Megan's bedding. I'm so excited to get to start decorating again!

We met with the project manager of our build on Feb 26th. There weren't many changes from the week before. The insulation was in and they were ready to start drywalling. We just had to complete a walk-through before they starting closing it all up.

We didn't make it to the house over the weekend of March 5th, so there should be some major changes when we get there next. Our closing is just over five weeks away.

Progress!

Disclaimer: The colors you are about to see are not the final colors. Things have not yet been painted.

Okay, now that we have that covered. It was a little alarming to pull up to the house today to see it yellow. The same horrible yellow as every single wall of the apartment we are staying at. Nope, just the Hardie Board siding as it comes and the shakes in their original state. The roof is complete. We didn't get to pick the shingle color. They must have taken our color choices and picked what would go best. It looks nice. Now of course I'm that much more anxious to see the actual paint colors go up!

Today was the first time at we looked in the house. We got to walk around IN our new house! We got to see what our view out the patio door will be. What it will look like standing at the front door. Things that just seeing the house from the curb can't tell you. Oh, and the window mistake has been fixed. The glass block is back where it belongs in the Master bath.

Front of house with shake detail.  Craftsman style is starting to show.

Living room with our "free" south-facing windows due to an error in our plan.  Patio door to screen porch.

Kitchen window looking to dining area.  Living room looking back to kitchen.

Triple window in Master bedroom.  Double window to the left is guest room or office.  Glass block window in M/Bath with tub and shower area.

Megan's room and spare room. Not sure we've decided which will be hers just yet.

Back of the house/porch (west) and side of house (south).  Screen porch off dining area/kitchen.

These week to week changes are incredible. It's just amazing how much they get done in a week. Other big elements for the exterior still to come include enclosing the screen porch, installing gutters, stone work on the column of the front porch and of course the real color scheme. Exciting stuff!

More Big Changes

We went from having the start of the framing to actually having solid walls, windows, a front door and a roof. The roofers were even there when we stopped by on a Saturday.

The framing for the screen porch has also been started. It's so nice to see it all come together. Pretty soon the weekly changes won't be as obvious from the outside. In just two-months, this will be our new home!

There was a mistake that we noticed this week. (You can see it in the last photo). The glass-block style window that is supposed to be in the master bathroom was installed in the kitchen. Oops. We contacted our project manager and the architect was going to check it out first thing Monday morning. Luckily the siding hadn't been started, so it shouldn't be too bad to fix this mixup.