Catching up, Finally

Let's play catch up. Because most of the progress at the house site has been on plumbing, heating, electrical over the last couple of months, the exterior of the house has not changed that drastically. 

What have I learned this time around? That you need to keep an open mind, have patience, because delays will happen. It's all good. 

The rear yard construction has been completed. 

The rear yard has been leveled out, and  the scrappy trees and shrubs are gone in order

for new trees and shrubbery to be planted. We will be planting trees that will provide a great screen from prying eyes, like giant arborvitae. 

Wanna visit? Come on over! This is the guest suite! I'm standing in the ensuite bathroom to get the photo.

DRUMROLL……..

The shingles are finally being installed and we could not be happier! The custom color is named Chocolate, but it appears either grey or chocolate brown depending on the light. See for yourself in the next few photos. 

Here, the shingles look brown. 

Hmmmm. Brown/grey? This is one of two stone choices we had narrowed it down to. I prefer this stone because of its more grey and white undertones. However, due to a time constraint and needing to get stone on the chimneys before winter (aka Hiccup #1), we were kinda forced to put a different but similar stone on the chimneys, and went with it for the rest of the house. See the photo below.

No sun; a grey, rainy day… and the color is totally different. Note the stone on the chimney. Come back in the Spring and that will be up on the house.

So this takes us to present day exterior work. However, there is some exciting stuff taking place inside the house! Last week, I finalized my tile choices and placed the order! Yay!! Big weight lifted off my shoulders. Stay tuned to my next blog post for photos of our choices! 

Entry Doors

Yay! Our doors came in and are installed!

Front Door, without it's glass side lights. 

We don't want those smashed by the construction process, now do we?!

Mudroom door leading to backyard.

Here is the exterior view of same mudroom door.

Side Entry door prior to installation. We chose Mahogany doors, 1/3 panel, 2/3 glass.  

Here's the exterior view of the side entry door (covered to protect it from the elements) and my beautifully stained garage doors.

Jumping In With Both Feet

Geez, another post today?! What's gotten in to me?? It's all good. I'm on a roll and not stopping!

At this point I've learned that I like the sight of big heavy equipment. Especially if it's removing dirt from my rear yard so we can install a pool! Believe it or not, this wasn't my idea - it was my husband's. But the idea grew on me, and who was I to say No to a backyard oasis?

 Bumps and lumps soon to be gone...

The rear yard getting evened-out.

Here it is! If we were going to have a pool, then it needed a sun deck, right?!

Lofty Expectations

Let's begin with What I've Learned through this stage. 

Architects are never not creating.

Or, envisioning What Could Be. Take my son's bedroom as an example. One afternoon, I got a call to come over to the site to meet with my architect and my husband. So over I went and met them, along with the contractor, upstairs in my son's room. The conversation begins with "I have this crazy idea…" and ended with a few two-by-fours being removed to create what will be my son's loft. "Look!", they say, "Free Space!" "But he's five!", I say, "And we don't need any more space!" But I lost the argument, and because of that, my son is going to have the coolest room ever. That works for me. 

Loft space. That's his closet on the bottom left and his bathroom on the right. 

He even has a window! The best part? He has no idea that this is going to be a part of his room! 

To Mullion or Not to Mullion

What happened to me? I distinctly remember being organized and on top of my To-Do List in my younger years. Now, not so much; this blog has been one of the casualties of my lack of organization. Let's see if we can change that going forward.

Speaking of going forward, I'm going to include a "What I've learned" quotation at the beginning of all future blog posts. Because let's face it; this building-a-home-process is nothing short of an education in patience, resolve and perseverance!

So what have we learned through this point in our build? We've learned that having an on-the-job contractor who has our best interest in mind is key to the build process going smoothly. And, that having a behind the scenes contractor - in our case, our architect, who's also our friend, who's worked closely with the contractor for years - overseeing the build has proven INVALUABLE to us and the house getting built without much issue. For us, it's a family affair, our "labour of love", and together decisions get made, fires get put out without much hoopla, and COMMUNICATION rules. Because at the end of the day, my husband and I have to live in the house we built determined by the decisions and choices we ultimately made. So let's see how far we've come to date!

One of the big decisions we made was style of the windows. Our vision for this house is a modern take on the traditional Hamptons-Style Shingle. Note, the modern part wasn't always our vision, at least not at the beginning, to the dismay of our architect. But that's a story for another day…let's just say it added a few minor design complications - one being style of window.

To mullion or not to mullion? See for yourself below. We looked at two window manufacturers, Lincoln Windows and Marvin Windows. Different price points, different quality, both high-end; but knowing we wanted a more modern look to our otherwise traditional house, we settled on custom designed Marvin Windows: double hung, single mullion in upper half. And it was the right decision. We love them.

Rear of our Home. We chose French Swinging Doors without grilles to not obstruct the view. 

 Here's the front view. Love the wait looks! Super happy we splurged on the custom windows. It makes a huge difference aesthetically. 

A few of the windows are casement style; for instance, in my kitchen and breakfast room. 

This is looking into my kitchen from the breakfast room. Note the casement windows above what will be my main sink/fridge/freezer wall. The French Doors lead out to the back yard. 

 Breakfast Room and it's casement windows. The morning light shines in both rooms which is precisely why we put the kitchen in this rear corner of the house! How many more months until it's ready??!

Taking Shape

It's now the end of October and two BUSY months have ticked by. The flatbeds carrying the lumber have rolled in, dropped off the two-by-sixes, and moved on. The framing began in July and was completed the middle of August. Here are a few photographs of the framing. 

Front of house.

Rear of house. Thankfully, we were lucky to have beautiful weather for the framing. 

This is my breakfast room with a view into the family room.  Gorgeous, morning sunlight! 

Those of you that know me won't be surprised by this. The footprint of the house was carefully designed around sunrise and sunset. The house sits north-to-south, from side-to-side. Therefore, the rear of the house gets the morning sunlight, and the front gets the afternoon sunlight. Notice how the rear of the house is "stepped"to maximize its sunlight potential during the day. 

Front view, in the afternoon. 

My husband's office over the 1-1/2 car garage.

A view up the soon-to-be-staircase to the second floor.

Front.

The sweeps are being added! 

Oh, how I love detail! Each sweep is cut by hand and really gives the house dimension! 

Rear view of the sweeps. 

Forming our Family's Foundation

Every day, after my workout, I hop in my car and head straight to the job site. I get so friggin' excited pulling onto the street! 

Even the littlest amount of progress is still progress to me. I'm trying to take it all in, day by day, and not miss a moment of this very special project. My family and I are truly blessed to have this opportunity to build our forever home. Pouring the foundation for this house takes on an extra-special meaning for us. At the same time we are laying the foundation for the rest of our lives, as corny as that sounds. My son, who is five years old, will grow up in this house, while my husband and I will grow older (and I'm okay with that). We are building a foundation for our present and future selves and you best believe that not one day will go by that we aren't extremely grateful for the opportunity. Truly blessed on so many levels.

These early days of construction, you can't really see anything from the street because of the HUGE dirt piles blocking the view of the hole. But change is happening!

Today, they placed the forms into which they will pour the cement foundation. 

My husband and Cooper a/k/a The Coop

Forms are in...

Some Iris growing next to the job site...

Let's pour!

Be careful! 

My Little Man overseeing the progress...

Wait. Is that a truck in my basement?! :)