Progress?????

Oh my!  I haven't written a post since the beginning of October!  You must think that we have had a lot of progress by now.  Nope.  We lost most of the month of October.  It was so sad.  And frustrating!  Between weather (rain), framers saying they would be there and then not showing up, and a lot of mud which kept the crane away, not much was done in the last 4 weeks!

What HAS happened has been exciting though.  We did get the trusses on the garage and it has been roofed.  That should have taken a few days...... it took 3 weeks.  Here are some photos!

The garage does have shingles on it now, but I haven't gotten any pictures of it yet.  One of my favorite new things is our fireplace.  We struggled with what material to put on the exterior of the fireplace.  Stone was our first choice, but it was much more expensive.  Brick was the other option.  One day while Michael was roaming around the brick yard, he came across some old pavers and asked inside what they were from.  We found out that they had been taken out of a building in Evansville and that they were pavers from one of the streets there.  They were a little beaten up and had some great color to them.  We decided they might be perfect!  After having one of the masons do a little "mock" wall for us out of 8 or so of them, we choose to use them!  So, we are not only being "green" but are saving money- the best of both worlds.  We told the masons that we want the stone and brick pavers that we use on the house to look a little "messy"- not so perfectly flush.  What they gave us was even better than we could have imagined!  We are loving the finished product!  We also love our masons, they are such hard workers and always show up when they say they will be there!  They are doing an amazing job.  I will say no more and let you see for yourself!

MORE WALLS?????!!!!!!

This just keeps getting better and better!  We were amazed as we walked through part of the house with  some of the interior walls up.  You spend so much time designing and redesigning the floor plans before you get to this point.  I can close my eyes and "walk" through my whole house in my head, seeing every detail.  How many times have I done that, just imagining what it will be like when it's done.  So to actually start to walk through it, from room to room, through the doorways and down the hall...... amazing.  To see how big the rooms are in real life, and to start placing cabinetry and furniture in my mind, it is becoming reality.

Eat-in area and Hearth room

taken from bedroom area

Dining room

Here is Molly Claire "eating" at the "table" in the kitchen!

Ethan has been busy making a fort in the back of the house.

Since I took these pictures, the rain has held things off for about 4 days, so now with some beautiful fall weather this week, we are looking for some great progress!  The rest of the house should be framed and the garage started by the end of the week.  Trusses are coming next week, so we could have a roof on in the next few weeks!  Can't wait until it is enclosed so we don't have to worry about the weather!

The Day has Come!

Oh my.................walls!!!!!  Friday morning (9/27) they started putting them up.  Michael and Ethan went out before lunch time, and texted me some of the pictures.  I think that I gasped as I saw them!   We went out as a family that night to take a look around.  It was so exciting to drive up our road and finally "see" our house!  I started snapping as soon as a got out of the truck:

Welcome...........come on in!  Here is our front door, well, our front opening anyway!

It's all coming together now.  For a couple weeks anyway, things should be happening around here.  The weather forecast looks good, so let's keep building!

This is the only exposed part of the house.

The kids were having fun as the sun was setting.  Isaac had brought out his scooter and was zooming all over the house.  Kind of nerve wracking, because we had to keep him away from the opening for the stairs.

My soaking tub will sit right under that transom window.

My hubby is good to me........The End.

Walls......almost

 Wasn't I just talking about walls?  It has been what I have been patiently (not really) waiting for.  Tonight, we quickly ate dinner and went out so we would have enough light to see the progress.  It ended up being the most fun time yet!  They have been building walls all week, and they might not be up, but they are close! The floor in half of the garage was also poured today and we were able to walk on it already.  This is what we found out there:

It was really fun to see how big some of the windows will be and where they are placed.

My husband said that they will most likely finish building all the walls around the whole house before they start putting them up. With the rate they are going, I could actually have some walls up by the weekend!  That is exciting!

Down in the basement, they had lights strung up on the whole side of the basement where the concrete had been poured.  It was amazing to walk around down there with lights and a floor.  It's really becoming a house!

Unfinished side and concrete side in the background.

My Basement!  This is taken from where the boys' bedroom suite will be looking into the

 utility room,  and the end, the music room.

These are the three windows in the boys' room.

Only these 3 kiddos came with us tonight.  Perfect for this shot.

Mr. Contractor

And a little family fun!

This was one of the most exciting and fun times that we have visited our home.  I  can imagine that it just keeps getting better and better as our vision for this home becomes reality!

The Floor

Exciting stuff, I was able to walk on my floor for the first time this week!  Michael and I were off to Madison for the day and stopped by so he could talk to our concrete guy, Chuck.  As they were talking, I walked all the way up to the house looking at this huge expanse of wood spanning our whole first floor.  Looking around for someone to ask, my thought was, "Can I go up there and walk on it?"  Before that thought left my head, I hoisted myself up there maxi dress and all.  Nothing was going to stop me!  It was then that I realized how big this house was going to be.  Instead of fretting how I was going to keep such a big house clean, or how would we furnish it,  I snap chatted a few friends a picture.  My friend, Roxy, texted back, "We are going to need a map so we don't get lost!"

The opening will be where the stairs go down from the mudroom.

This is the footing for the front porch- more progress!!

Sure we could have made it smaller.  We actually did, after using a tape measure in the living room to map out how large certain rooms were.  Some interior rooms just ended up the size they are because it worked with the layout of the other rooms.  It's not some mansion, but it's bigger than what we have now by about 2,000 square feet and that's a house in itself.  I would feel strange about it if we didn't have 8 people that were going to live in it!!  One trip to Lake Geneva later, and it didn't seem so big!

The Garage and Porches

The last 6 weeks have seemed very slow.  Not much is happening, contractors are busy and I am frustrated!  I knew going into this that everything takes longer than expected, but it is hard being patient!  You just want the exciting stuff to happen!  I just want walls!  All I am getting is alot of concrete.  I guess you have to start somewhere, and I can't have walls until I have lots of concrete.

Here we are..........and we have a garage!  Well, it's not walls, but it is still kind of fun.  It was nice to see how big it will be and how the "courtyard" area will play out as it is on a 90 degree angle to the house.  I think that we will love it and it won't make the house look so long and "ranchy" as our first plan was drawn up.  I like my new made up word- ranchy.  Hey- it's getting late, and I am catching up on my blogging!

The closest concrete walls to the road are for the garage.  It will be a deep 3 car garage with room for the fishing boat.

There is Michael, Kate and Ethan on the side of the house.  You can see where the hearthroom fireplace will be near where they are standing.  In the foreground, is the screen porch.

 There has been a lot of talk about the joists coming and being installed.  I don't know much about how that works, but I do know that is the next step before walls!  I keep having this thought about driving down our new road and finally seeing walls standing tall over that foundation.  Some day soon......

The "Dirt"

 
This post is just one where I want to save some pictures that I have taken when we go "visit" our new homesite.  The kids all love to go out, run around, climb up the hills of dirt and play on the equipment.  Kate (3) started calling it "the dirt".  So, that is what we call it, for now.  It doesn't seem like much of a house yet!  She is so cute when she asks to go out to "the dirt"!  Enjoy!

My sweeties in their boots

The Dad and his Doll

"Mom, take my picture way up here!"

Lots of dirt

How cute are these two??

Molly Claire (9) and Daddy

Baby Kate

I think he found his new profession

Sisters

My fashion bug in her pink Hunters!

Me and my girl (yes, I had dirt in my boots from climbing up here!)

Aaron and Jakob

Me and my honey/General Contractor

Weeds growing on the dirt piles

You would think that he was 6!

Steve washing off Molly Claire's feet after she stepped in the mud with her sandals on- ICK!!!!!!!! 

Showing our good friends Nicki and Steve the progress.  They will be frequent guests at the new house!