Front of the House "Landscaping"

Wow- it's been nearly a month since anything was done to the house! But this past week was spent making the front of the house more visually appealing. We started on Memorial Day by simply taking some of the 4x4 posts we had (literally) lying around and fashioning them to be the border for our front flower beds. We even bought some dwarf English Boxwood bushes to plant under Megan's bedroom window, too. Then on Tuesday I took the kids and went to a local nursery and bought some day lillies for either side of the front steps and put those in. Wednesday was another trip back to the nursery to purchase the remaining plants to put out front and planting them, and Thursday was spent putting stepping stones and mulch in the flower beds to finish them off. We ended up buying a half yard of crushed limestone to fill in some gaps in the drive as well. Here are the pictures I got as we went along each step of this week:

A before picture of the front before we did anything. Jeremy was getting his miter saw out so he can cut the 4x4's to put them down.

Another view of the front before anything was done. Pretty plain, huh?

Voila!! There is a border there now! Just need to get some flowers in there...

And there is a border here now, too! If you look really close at the left side of the picture you can see the SMALL boxwood bushes we bought to plant- we just hadn't planted them when I took the picture.

Ah- flowers! I picked out a variety of day lily flowers for the front. We had them out front at our previous house and I liked them, so I figured I'd plant some again here.

A picture of my son "posing" in front of the planted day lillies... He's such a ham! At least his poison ivy rash can't be seen... (poor guy!)

The other side of the steps with more day lily flowers...and Michael getting in there again! LOL!

I tried to get a complete view of the flowers by stepping back, but they're hard to see. Michael thought he wasn't going to be in the picture, so he laid down on the porch just to make sure he was in it!

We have mulch! And yes, the gravel is different colored in the picture- you aren't seeing things. There are two reasons for this. One- it rained and some of it got wet, and two- some of it IS actually lighter than the rest. What we bought to fill in gaps is lighter than what the builder brought in to finish the drive with.

Another view- the opposite side of the steps. You can even see the stepping stones we put in the flower bed in this picture, too! They lead up to the water spigot that is on that side of the house.

A closer view of the side of the porch and in front of Megan's window. The three hosta plants I planted are bigger than the boxwood bushes! I also planted some petunia's (Jeremy's favorite) right along the front... not something I would normally do, but they were so pretty and I thought he would like them there... in the future all our annual plants will be in hanging pots along the front porch.

Here is the final picture- complete with garden hose. I know it seems kind of plain, but I figure the plants will get bigger, so the space will be filled in more in the future. But we like it. After all, that's what matters, right? LOL!

So, that's it for now. Our next "big" project is finishing the garden. Jeremy put up the posts to make the fence, but we've been waiting for it to rain so that the posts will set. Since it rained last night and it looks like rain today, we think we'll be good this weekend to start getting the fencing up on the posts! We also plan on putting out the seeds in the garden this weekend, too! Woohoo!! Let the growing begin!

The Final Grade is FINALLY done!

First off, can I just say how thankful I am that I am no longer looking at piles of dirt surrounding our house??? LOL- seriously! Last Tuesday (4/28/09) the builder sent out the company they use to finish our final grade. We literally had NO idea when they would arrive to do this job because it depending on the weather, and since it had been so wet, we figured it may not get done until May sometime. And the day they showed up it was SUPPOSED to rain- thank goodness it didn't! The one gentleman who was here with the bulldozer arrived around 8:00 in the morning on Tuesday and worked until 6:00! I only saw him take a break for lunch and a couple of phone calls through the whole day- he got a lot done! On Wednesday he returned to finish a few spots that he didn't get to on Tuesday and then his brother was hauling in a couple loads of gravel for the drive up to the garage. We weren't home most of the day on Wednesday, so when we got back and saw the yard and the driveway, we were thrilled to see the final results of all that work! We can actually drive our vehicles into the garage now, and stepping outside the basement doors allows us to step right out into the yard without stepping down anymore. The same can be said for going out the side door from the garage. It's a beautiful thing to NOT see piles of dirt surrounding the house. Now to get grass seed down and get the yard established... But for now- here are a few pictures of the final grade that is DONE:

This is looking to the right of the garage... notice the big piles are gone! Also notice that we have tree limbs to cut down at the edge of our property, too...

This is looking directly at the house from the "established" part of the yard. Directly in front of me is dirt that was pushed around from a pile that was on the left of the picture- now it just makes the (dirt) yard more even!

This view is to the left of the house. There were at least two huge piles of dirt on this side- now if you look close enough, you can actually see the sand mound- it's that strip of green along the left side at the base of the trees. I just noticed that these pictures don't have the finished gravel in the drive going up to the garage... Guess I forgot to take those pictures off my camera. Either way, this is pretty much DONE here!

This poor little toad happens to be a "casualty of war" from the grade being finished. I went out to move my car so some dirt could be pushed up near the garage and I saw something move out of the corner of my eye... turned out to be this toad. Yes, he is alive in this picture- but I'm certain he didn't last for much longer that day. You see, he wasn't moving very fast, nor would he ever hop again- he lost his left rear leg during the bull-dozing, and his right leg was pretty scratched up as well. Not to mention he could barely move his left front leg, either. I felt so bad for this little guy, but what can you do?? It's not like you can give warning to all the little creatures that are in a yard when it come time to move dirt... So- RIP, little toad... sorry you had to endure that trauma!!

Hopefully the next time I post the yard will be GREEN! As it is now, we still have to buy some grass seed! The good thing is, though, it goes on sale on Wednesday, so we should be able to get enough to seed the yard by this weekend! And then we'll have to start mowing... ah- the joys of "country" living! 'Til next time... take care! Oh- and watch out for them toads...

The Curtain Project

Well, we're all moved in, settled, and enjoying the house. Now to start "The Curtain Project!" The front three rooms in the house face the front yard, and Megan's room especially can be seen from the road (if you know where to look from the road, that is!). Megan's room also gets the most sunlight when the sun shines in the house, so I figured it's about time to put up some curtains. That and she REALLY still NEEDS to nap!! So, a couple of weeks ago I set out to start making curtains. I bought the fabric to make them for her room; Megan even picked it out! She chose pink fabric with darker pink hearts throughout- it really is cute, and it looks nice against her Lovely Lilac painted walls. I started the curtains earlier this week but became very upset with myself when I realized that I had cut them too short. My only option at that point was to make tabs to hang the curtains from instead of the casing I had originally planned. Well, I finished those yesterday and literally hung the finished curtains up right before putting Megan to bed last night. She was just giddy to see her curtains hanging there and kept saying how pretty they are! I'm just glad they're done! Here's a picture:


Now to make curtains for the guest/craft room and then Michael's room. In a way I'm sort of hoping to actually find something at a store that would work since making the curtains is so time consuming, but if I have to buy the fabric and make them, that's okay, too. We'll see how it goes. But for now "deer" friends, The Curtain Project, Part I is DONE!

Check back in a few weeks to see if the next part is complete... Until then- Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome to Our Home!!

Well, we've moved in now and had a little over one week to get a bit settled in our new home. As I had mentioned to a few people I know, I'm sharing a bit of our house with you. Please join me as I guide you on a quick tour through our home. (just a note... there are a series of videos as the original video I took was much too large to upload and share)

Now for the "final" room to tour... the craft room. It is by no means ready to use, but I added it since it's part of the house- LOL! Anyway, this room is really right across the hallway from Megan's bedroom, but I put it in the tour last simply because of it's current state of disarray.



Well, there you have it! Our new home. I hope you enjoyed the tour and I'd love for you to stop back by sometime soon! Our next updates won't be until the Spring when the builder comes back out to finish the final grade around the house (basically pushing dirt around so we can get the landscaping done) and brings more gravel in to finish off the driveway up to the garage. For now everything outside is covered in the white stuff- and while it's certainly a beautiful sight, it will be nice to get the outside of the house completed, too! So check back in a couple of months and see where we are... 'til then- have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by and visiting!!

This week has proved to be a busy one at the homesite! Monday Jeremy went up to do the walk-thru and then he was back up a few days later to drop off a few more items that we needed in the bathrooms. Well, the biggest things that need to be completed now are the carpet and a final coat of finishing paint. The electrician does need to come back and finish his work, so he has maybe a full days' worth of work left as well. But the plumbing is nearly done, so we now have running water and toilets that flush! The plumbers took care of all of that Wednesday of this past week. They ran into one small "snag," but it's in our favor since it involves getting a smaller sink for the half bath than what was originally ordered. So they need to come back to install that- hopefully this week! It's down to the finishing touches now! We were originally told we could take posession on January 1, 2009, but scheduling the painters has been tough since they're booked, and the cleaning crew needs to come in and clean before we move in, so our official move-in date is now January 3, 2009. That's fine with me since the third is a Saturday and it would be better for us to move on a weekend since we are doing it ourselves (with a little help from our friends!). Anyway... here are some pictures from our trip to the homesite today:

This is the finished fireplace! Watching the stone crew put all the stone in place was definitely a sight to see! They were so efficient and good at what they do that it seemed like it took all of two minutes to complete the job- even though I know it took much longer than that. We are SO pleased with the outcome. Doesn't it look like it's just asking for us to have a fire in it?

My mom was in this one- Hi Mom!!! I was getting a picture of the finished countertops with the kitchen sink installed, too. The countertops are covered with corrugated board to protect them from any tools that may be around and will be removed by the cleaning crew when they come in to do the final cleaning. But you can see exposed parts of the counter, and I really like it! The open space in the cabinets on the right side of the picture is the opening for the dishwasher. It will be delivered this week. Hopefully it coordinates with the plumbers' return to finish the half bathroom sink. We'll see!


This is the guest/kids' bathroom. You can see the toilet is now in, and the countertops and sinks are also installed. Yes, there are two sinks in this bathroom. Double cleaning duty here, too... But at least I won't have to listen to the kids fighting over who dirtied the sink- they will each be responsible for their own!

Another view of the guest/kids' bathroom. You can see in the reflection from the mirror that there is a closet behind the bathroom door. It's a rather spacious closet, so there will be plenty of room for towels, washcloths, tp, and other bathroom necessities... with lots of space left over, I'm sure!

This is the master bathroom. YAY! We have two sinks in here, too. I guess I really have quadruple cleaning duty, don't I? Oh well... I'll get used to it! The countertop in here honestly looked a LOT more blue to me when we picked it out... but now I have to confess that it does look more green. That's okay- I like it anyway! And I'm still using blue towels in our bathroom!

This is our finished master shower. We opted for a door to the shower over a shower curtain rod. I know it may be a bit more work to keep clean, but I'd rather that over replacing shower curtain liners all the time. Besides, I like the look of this, too. There is still a small amount of tile work to be done around the bathtub, but I believe that this is going to take place this coming week, also.

Finally, here is the laundry room utility sink. Jeremy REALLY wanted one of these, and I thought it would be a good idea, too. Considering we have some space for us to get dirty outside, a utility sink is great for rinsing off the bottom of boots and such. I'm pretty sure we'll be thanking ourselves for this little tidbit later on!

Well, that's really about it for this visit. By the end of this holiday week we hope to see that the only things left to do are carpet, paint and the final cleaning. It's getting close now! There most likely won't be any updates between now and Christmas, so....

Merry Christmas!!!

Be sure to check back after Christmas as we'll most likely have one more update before the big move. Then, once we get moved in we'll post pictures of the "finished" move... MAYBE even add a video tour!

It's nearly done now!

So Jeremy gets a phone call yesterday while he is working asking him if he can go to the homesite and do the walk through with the foreman for our build. And you know what? He took care of it yesterday afternoon! Before he went I made a list of things for Jeremy to go over with the foreman so all of our questions would be answered about things that still needed to be done and a couple of things that needed to be changed. In my last post I listed a few things that I was skeptical would happen before we move, but Jeremy was told again yesterday that we will, indeed, be moving over New Year's! Up to this point I have really enjoyed watching the whole building process and I've tried not to get too overly excited about things for fear of being let down somehow. But I'll be honest now and say that these builders have not let me down once! The craftsmanship is spectacular, the contractors have all been super to work with, and ANY questions and concerns we've had have always been addressed promptly. I would definitely recommend this builder to ANYONE who wants to build a home!!!

Jeremy came home with my list and he had written answers on it so he could remember what he was told about when things were happening now that it's all wrapping up. We only had 3 concerns at this point, and each of them have been addressed. The last two windows to go in came with full screens instead of half screens that can slide up and down, so new half-screens are being ordered to replace the full ones. The basement door doesn't latch to stay closed, so the strike plate is going to be moved so that it latches properly. Perhaps the biggest concern was one I noticed the other night when we were there. The master bathroom has a separate room for the toilet and I noticed that the doors had all been hung, so I was opening and closing all the doors and noticed that the WC (that's water closet) door swung IN rather than OUT. Now if the WC room was longer it wouldn't be a problem, but since the toilets haven't even been installed yet I don't think the guy who hung the doors realized it would be a problem. You see, if you opened the door all the way and then installed the toilet you would never get the door to close again because it would just hit the side of the toilet... Originally that door was supposed to swing OUT and for some reason it got marked incorrectly... so now they're going to change the hinges and make it swing out so we can actually get into the WC!! Yep- as for concerns, they aren't very big, and seriously, those and the back patio decking (which was already fixed) have been the ONLY concerns we've had!

As far as finishing "touches" go, the stone work around the fireplace gets done today, gravel out front so we can drive our vehicles into the garage gets put down today, the plumber returns tomorrow to install sinks, toilets, and other plumbing fixtures, they're adding a deadbolt lock to the front door before we move in, the painters return to do a final coat on 12/27/08, and the carpet gets installed 12/29-12/31! An attic scuttle hole will be added so we have attic access and a dryer vent will be added sometime between now and when we take possession, too. The electrician will be returning to install the vanity lights in the bathrooms, so we will be purchasing them this week. I didn't mention countertops and trim... Well, that's because they're DONE! Jeremy sent me a picture from his phone yesterday of the countertops in the kitchen and I was jealous that I didn't get to see the finished kitchen counters with him. He said they finished the trim work yesterday, too. WooHoo! It's all coming together and it just looks SO nice!

The closets have nothing in them yet, but Jeremy did say that the gentleman who does the closet shelving will call to set up and appointment with me to go over what I want in the closets. I'm not too concerned- I have an idea already, so it should be a short and sweet appointment! We'll see- I'm hoping he calls today or tomorrow. I'd LIKE to get up there before Friday, but we'll see how it goes.

Well, that's it. No pictures for this entry. We'll be taking my mom and dad to see the house this weekend since they're coming in for Christmas (YAY!!!), so I'll get some pictures then. Until then, stay tuned- don't forget to check back early next week to see the newest pictures!!

Little Details...

We went up to the homesite earlier this week and were excited to see that the hardwood flooring had been installed in the entry and study. It hadn't been stained yet, but it was all installed! The trim work was about one third finished at that point, too. A few of the interior doors had been hung as well, but it just looked like a LOT was left to do. Jeremy and his best friend Chuck took Michael today and delivered the stove to the house, so they got to see what else had been accomplished this week. I was anxious to see it, myself, so when Megan woke up from her nap, we took off to meet them up there (all this after spending the day running errands!). I was expecting to see countertops, but I also had a feeling that they most likely wouldn't be there. That second feeling was the correct one. The trim work is nearly complete, but until it is the countertops won't be installed. Maybe this coming week? We'll see. At any rate, the hardwood flooring has been stained- and boy does it look NICE!!! The treads for the stairs down to the basement have also been done and they look great, too! It's amazing what the little details like trim work and doorknobs will do for a home! Here are a few pictures from our trip to see the house today:

A view of the kitchen from the dining area. The door leading into the study has been put up! In the lower left of the picture is an item wrapped in white plastic- it's the stove. We've been asked to leave the appliances in the dining area until the builders are ready to move them to their rightful "homes" in the kitchen.

This view is of the living room with the trim around the window and sliding door to the back patio. I was under the impression the stone work around the fireplace would be done this week, but obviously that didn't happen. Not sure if I heard Jeremy wrong or he meant that it would take place this coming week. Again... we'll see!

Here is a view of the closet doors in Megan's bedroom. I'm simply amazed at the elegant simplicity in the finished look of the doors here! The trim around the window and door leading out of her room is also finished. The only trim left to put up in the bedrooms is the trim along the floor.

This is a view of the pantry doors from the kitchen. I couldn't even fit the doors in the picture completely due to the door frame! I'm looking forward to using this pantry- it's nice and wide and has great lighting, so I should be able to keep it organized and stocked.

Ah- the study floor!! Doesn't this just look great?!?! I am SO impressed with how wonderful the flooring looks here! Not only that, but when you look at the flooring from the living room (since the carpet isn't installed yet), you can see just how thick the flooring is! We asked the builder to have the flooring stained a bit darker than the cabinets so it wouldn't blend together too much. I love the way it turned out- it's just dark enough to be offset from the cabinets and our furniture, yet light enough to blend in perfectly with the rest of the house!

Well, it seems to me that there is still a LOT to be done- and I wonder if we really will move when they say we can, but we'll see. This is just some of the stuff that needs to be finished:
- trim work
- stone work around the fireplace
- mantle put up over the fireplace
- electricians need to finish wall plates and lights in the bathrooms in addition to any other electrical connections that haven't been completed yet.
- plumbers need to install the sinks, toilets, and faucets
- hot water heater needs to be installed
- carpet needs to be installed
- attic scuttle hole needs to be cut and ladder installed
- dryer vent needs to be cut in laundry room
- countertops need to be installed
- appliances put in their "homes" in the kitchen
- Geothermal system powered ON
- hand rails installed along stairs to basement
- painters return to do a final coat of paint
- general clean-up in and around the house

I know there is probably more that needs to happen, but that's all I can think of right now. Jeremy says it won't take all that long since they tend to be quick with their work- and darn good at it, too- but it just seems like a lot to me and makes me wonder if we REALLY will be moving when we were told and not a week or two later. Well, the only thing I can say is- I'll check back at the end of this week and we'll see how much more gets accomplished toward getting the house completed. So until we get more pictures and an update... sit tight... but don't forget to check back!!