Finishing Details and Natural Disasters

We are on the home stretch. We are so close and I am so excited. I don't know who was the first one to tell me that the finishing details take the longest, but to all of you that have told me that....YOU WERE RIGHT! I keep feeling like any day now we could move in and then I realize how many details still have to be finished. It gets frustrating, but we see these guys working hard every day and we know progress is being made.
A lot has been accomplished...Painting, Front door, Cabinets, Lighting, and many other things have been carefully put in. We are waiting on countertops (should be this week!) and carpet (should be early next week) and those million other little things that need just a little more work! We've even been battling natural disasters! We had picked out backsplash tile for the kitchen, only to find out that a hurricane in Mexico had wiped out the entire supply of that brand of tile. As a result, the company decided to discontinue it and we had to start again from scratch!! As if that wasn't enough, we also found out that an earthquake in Chile destroyed the kitchen sink we had picked out! That one was a little easier to deal with, as we found out later that we could not have used that particular sink with the granite countertops because it would cause the granite to crack. So couple that with the crazy winter we had, and we have battled mother nature in many ways to get this house built :) It has all turned out ok though, and these have just been little hurdles to overcome!
Here are some of my favorite pics of what has been accomplished in July and just some of the dear friends who came to see it!

Tile was laid in the bathrooms

Chad, Amy, Hannah, and Haley Wright came for a visit!

The front door has been stained and now the trim is painted

Tom and Pilar came by one weekend to check things out!

Cabinets went in!

Ceiling fans went up in the bedrooms!

We got to see the Dancy's when they came up to visit!

Lights went up in the Breakfast Nook and Dining Room

My parents came up to see the house and to celebrate my birthday!

They finished the paint, chair rail, and lighting in the Dining Room.

They put up the exterior light fixtures

Lights went up in the bathrooms as well!

Some of the Tub and shower faucets are in in!

Pendant lights are up in the kitchen and the ceiling fan is up in the great room.

The warming drawer and dishwasher have been installed!

Cabinets have been finished and the bar paneling is done.

So you can see, it has been a very busy month!!! Hopefully the great progress will continue and the finish will happen in August!!

Long Time, No Blog

Between the end of the school year and vacations, we got a little behind on blogging! Thankfully, progress on the house continued!!
We've had lots of visitors to the house. Some we got pics of, some we didn't but here are a few of the fine folks we managed to get pictures of when they came to visit!

Among others we had Bobby's cousins Ken and Anita Johnson from Michigan (in the first 3 pics above), my parents (also in those pics) and our friends, Heather and Keith Pack come up to visit. It was a lot of fun showing them the progress that has been made.

So what has been done? A LOT!!!

First coats of paint are on, the lot has been leveled quite a bit, the front porch has stairs (no more climbing a ladder!), the real front door is in, and that's just in the front of the house. Here are some pictures of those things:

On the floors, all of the hardwood has been laid in the hallways, breakfast nook, kitchen, dining room, and entryway. The tile has been done in the guest bathrooms and in the mudroom. The wiring for in-floor heating has been laid in the master bath and then they will lay tile over it. Here are some pics of the floors:

Doors are up all over the house. In addition to the front door, most of the rooms and closets now have doors and even some of the storage areas in the stairway and going up to the bonus room have doors. These doors also have the handles we piced out on them!! Also, closets have been decked out. There are shelves in the linen closets, rods in the guest room closets, and awesome organizer systems in our master closets!!

Master closet:

Storage areas:

I can't forget, the "Double Decker Mantle" that Bobby designed! They have custom built this so that we can fit our boxes for the tv in the mantle! Who knows what he will come up with next!

So you can see we are coming along quite nicely! Hopefully 4-6 weeks and we are in. We will try to do a better job blogging in July and August as we get closer to FINISHING!!!

Insulation and Walls

This may be a very simple blog entry for me! The past two weeks of housebuilding can be summed up in 3 words: Insulation and Walls. Here are some pics from the process!

Pre-insulation:

During Insulation:

And finally, with walls added to it:

I should also throw in that they have built the frame for the kitchen island. Here are a few pictures of that:

We also got the new tub in that replaces the one that was too small for me. This one was big enough but as we looked at it, we realized they did not install the proper number of jets on it. So it is currently on its way back to Atlanta to have two more jets added to it! Here are a few pictures of it before it got sent back:

Overall, things are going well! Here is one final picture of the exterior!