Those sloooooow summer months

So I'm sorry if you've been checking in with the house updates on a regular basis because I've been a very bad blogger and have had no updates since March. Wow. I do have a pretty good excuse though. We found out in April that we are expecting our first child! Needless to say any extra time I used to have to blog was being spent alternating between being sick and sleeping. I finally feel better and have some energy so I will try to update you on the things that have happened since March. It is amazing how a lot of little things can add up to a big chunk of time. We are hopefully just a couple of weeks away from moving in, though!

 The rest of the floors were finally installed

 Garage door was installed

 Kitchen Cabinets

 Appliances were installed

 I love love love our countertops!

 We installed closet shelving ourselves! I am so proud of it.

 

Kitchen lights were hung

 Bathroom countertops and Bathtub surround was installed

 Mirrors in the hall bath went up

Now that the last few things are getting done, we are packing and getting ready to move. We have to deep clean everything since construction is so messy but hopefully once that is finished we can move in and actually start living here. We have learned so much through this whole process. More than I ever wanted to know, probably. Once we get moved in maybe I'll write about all the things we learned in case any of you ever embark on this journey.

March updates!

Wow! March has come and gone so quickly! Hard to believe that Easter is this weekend! Here are some updates from this month in no particular order. Again, posting from my phone so I can't change the order of the pictures.

Our tiles have gone down and painting is getting finished up. You can see we painted our porch ceiling blue. Such a little change but it looks so neat. They say it will keep bugs away from our porch but that remains to be seen.

Our finish carpenter has also started on our pantry shelves and the fireplace surround. Our bricks will also start going up tomorrow.

We finally picked out lights for over our island and I couldn't be happier with them! I think they will really look great in the kitchen.

We really don't have much left now!!

Paint and trim!

Last time I checked in, Sheetrock was going up and they were getting ready to mud it. People weren't lying when they said it would slow down at this point. Feels like the finishing things are taking the longest, even though I know that isn't the case.

Here has what has happened recently. The sheetrock was finished and the walls have been primed. The trim went up as well as the interior doors.

Here are some recent pictures in no particular order.

Sheet rock!

Sheet rock went up this week and is in the process of getting mudded. Here are some pictures of the progress. It's so different not being able to see through the walls. It shouldn't be long to move in day now.

BIG updates!

Hi readers! Thanks for sticking with us even with the lack of posting. We have some big updates! The plumber finally finished all his work so we were able to schedule the inspection with the city. With the way everything else in this process has gone, I expected to fail this go round but I was wrong...we passed!! This meant that we could move forward with insulation which went in yesterday. Below are some pictures of the insulation being installed. Before the insulation went in some sweet friends of ours met at the house to write scripture on the framing. It is our heart that our home would be a safe place for people to gather and that it would be a sanctuary to anyone who needed it. What better way to start that off than covering the house in God's Word. There are some more pictures of just a few of the verses that our friends helped us write. The next few things on the list are to finish up the columns on the front, start sheet rock, and start painting! Hard to believe we are already at this step!

Stay tuned!

I'm also posting this from my phone so if the layout is all wonky, I'm sorry!

Snowy Rainy Update

Well...we're at a standstill again. We've had what seems like non-stop rain for a couple of weeks which has made getting trucks and equipment up to the house very difficult. We are just waiting on the plumber to finish a few little things before we can get the inspection done but if it doesn't stop raining, that could be a while.

In the meantime, my dad came over and helped us install audio speakers for the whole house so we can listen to music all over the house. Our doors are all in so we are close to being able to lock everything up. We've also been trying to decide on paint colors and some other finishing things that won't go in until the end. Feels like we have a while before all of that is necessary but maybe it will come faster than we think.

Sorry for the small little update. It's all we've got going on right now. On another note though, look at what came to town today! Snow!! It doesn't happen often so we love it when it does!

Hoping we have our inspection soon so that sheet rock can start going up! Then it will really feel like a house!

Windows, siding, and doors....Oh My!

While all the guys were busy on the inside of the house, there was also work going on outside the house. All the windows and almost all the doors were hung, and the siding was even started. 

Windows on the front porch.

Windows with siding started.

Door from garage to the backyard.

Bonus room window.

 House with windows and siding started. 

We still don't have a back door or the front door but those are supposed to be coming in this week. Siding is also supposed to be finished this week so maybe we'll have another post soon.

If the blog is quiet for a while, don't worry! It probably just means that everything is going too fast to keep up!

House guts...what's in those walls?

So after framing is finished, the roof guys come and put the roof boards and the shingles on the roof. The framers also wrap the house in the white house wrap that you see below. When this step is finished, the house is considered "dried in". This means that the inside of the house is protected from the elements, but not sealed. We still don't have windows or doors, but the roof is covered. 

This is the roof with shingles and the outside of the house covered in house wrap.

Now that the house is dried in, the electrician, plumber, and HVAC guys can come in and get started on their parts. Here are pictures of the various things that are going on during this step.

Heating and air conditioning guys are mostly up in the attic

Electrician is busy running wires and installing electrical outlets.

You can see all the little blue boxes where outlets or switches will be. In our kitchen island you can see a little pipe sticking up that will be for the sink/dishwasher.

This is our pantry in our kitchen. You can see more little blue boxes and to the right you can see our main water supply to the whole house. Of course that will be hidden in the wall but it is pretty neat to see it here.

Switch at the front door. This will control the porch and entryway lights.

Plumber was busy installing showers and bathtubs.

This is the bathtub in the hallway bath.

This is the bathtub for the master bath currently sitting in the middle of the master bedroom. We were waiting on the tub frame to be built before they could put it in place. So for now, this is where it lives.

So that is what all makes up the "guts" of the house. It is crazy to think about all the things that have to go in the walls to make a house run. These things also all happen at the same time so there has been a flurry of activity and lots of people at the house this week.

Next up....windows, doors, and siding!

Framing

I am apparently really bad at posting updates. Not having internet at the house coupled with how fast everything is progressing has made posting one set of updates at a time really difficult. Everyone said that once concrete was down, things would go quickly. I really had no idea how quickly it would come together. There will be several posts over the next few days so that everything stays in the same order as it happened. So now you have posts to look forward to over the next few days :-)

First up...framing!

This is what went up on the very first day that framing started. this is when it started to seem real that we were actually building a house. Pretty crazy!

 This is a wide shot of our house sitting on our lot. Our driveway will be on the right side.

 Standing in the driveway looking at the corner of the house. This was at the end of day 1. Amazing how fast it all went up!

There is the second story(bonus room) starting to take shape

 Standing in the kitchen looking towards the living room.

Really starting to look like a house now!

 Close up of the upstairs window

 Looking at the back of the house. Now the roof boards are on!

 There is lots of floored attic space!

More attic space. It is a little unnerving to be able to see straight down into the room below but that will change once the framers get done.

So that is what our framed house looks like. It was absolutely the craziest and best feeling to see something we had been looking at, analyzing, and discussing at great lengths finally become something tangible and real. It was so neat to be able to walk through and see where all the decisions we had made along the way were finally becoming a reality. 

Even though this part has moved really quickly and has been a bit overwhelming at times, I absolutely would not trade it for the slow going we had at the beginning. 

Next up....electrical, plumbing, and air conditioning!