It's Starting to Look Real!

This is from September 30.  As you can see, there's a LOT of progress!  We stood here for 10 minutes, just quietly looking at the building.

Here's a close up of the first floor.  You may be able to see that they have put the stairs in!  Woo hoo! 

And here's another one straight in front of the house!

 

Frames!

The frames are up!  It's starting to look a lot more like a house, rather than a random piece of concrete!

We went by our lot (soon-to-be our HOUSE), Saturday, September 22, and this is what we found!  Remember, just one week ago, we saw the studs in the concrete and lots of lumber.

You can see the frame cut outs for the windows on each floor.  We'll get lots of natural sunlight!


There's the garage on the bottom with the large board over it.

Our Favorite TV Channel - HGTV

Since we have starting building the house, our favorite channel is HGTV! 


Michael's favorite show is Holmes Inspection.
The show is hosted by Mike Holmes in Canada. Mr. Holmes goes into houses at the homeowners request to see if home inspectors have missed anything. He often finds items that are not up to code or outright dangerous. Then he and his crew come in and make everything right. They are all about making the home safe and seeing examples of the shotty jobs reinforces Michael's assertion the new construction is the way to go. It's on on Sundays.  Betty's favorite show is a 2 part episode, called A Hole Lot of History where a couple bought a beautiful older home, but it comes with lots of problems to be fixed!



Betty's favorite show is Property Brothers.  
Property Brothers features Drew Scott and Jonathan Scott, twin brothers who turn complete fixer uppers into beautiful dream homes for so many people. They stay in budget and complete renovations in 4 to 6 weeks.  I also learned that certain materials look nice - like quartz countertops and are a less expensive alternative to granite. They also decorate and are very practical about the space as well as considering realistic parameters.  Some of the clients on the show are really picky!  They're on Wednesdays! 

Michael thinks they're models. HAHA

Lumber

More

Ceramics, Hardwoods, Carpets ... Oh My!

Options, Options, Options

Part of the fun of building the house (and remodeling) is picking out your own floors, countertops, cabinetry, backsplashes, etc.  In this round, we will have to pick out our flooring for both upper and lower levels of the house, countertops for the kitchen and bathrooms, cabinetry colors and adds.  We were at the "design center" for about 2.5 hours mixing and matching. 


Do I want the chocolate brown or the white cabinets!?

 
 Which floor am I on?

Ooh pretty tiles...

 

More Cement.

Apparently, a lot of concrete is used to anchor the house. 

Saturday, September 8

 
This is a view of the whole lot. The line going down the middle of the concrete is our garage.

The parlor and front door and entry area, dining room will be in this space.  Way in the back will be our living room!

Sunday, September 2

 Compared to the week before.

Cement!

The foundation has been laid!

I don't know when we have been this excited EVER, particularly about concrete and cement. Maybe when we got married.  Maybe when we got our dog.  Hmm, it's a different kind of excitement.  We went by on Saturday, September 1 and you can see that they have laid the cement down for the foundation of the house. It's still being held up by the frame on the sides.  It looks pretty dry, which means they probably put down the mixture last Monday.  I am assuming it takes a while to dry out.  It's been warm and lovely and Petaluma, so it helps!  Michael and I walked the width of the house again, and it's bigger than our current apartment.  

Look at the beautiful blue skies!  Can't wait!