Brickyard...

 

As you can see below, the brickwork on our house has begun. 

Inside the house, the drywall is completed and I saw that they had applied the texture and paint to the ceilings.

I don't know, the way we're going, I'm afraid our house will be ready the week we are on vacation in California.  Either way, it's going to be an exciting month of June, that's for sure.

A Room with a View

Other than some continuing drywall work (which is pretty boring to take pictures and write about), nothing much has been going on. They did complete all the siding on the house and have probably already begun working on the brick -- I'll find out more when I go out this afternoon.

So, to keep you all happy, I've added this video. Lisa and I were talking the other day about how nice it will be to be able to sit out on our front porch and enjoy the view we have. Unlike our previous house, we're not stacked up against other houses and have a great view of a country-side setting.

Enjoy. I hope to have more pictures up this evening.

Drywall No.2

Well, I stopped by the house tonight on my way to Fishers -- what a difference drywall makes! For some reason, the rooms look bigger now...like they needed to look bigger.

In this picture I am standing in our front door looking through our entryway towards the back of the house.

Standing in the same spot, but looking up to our 2nd floor overlook. That black square in the upper left is the cold-air return for the furnace.

...standing in our kitchen looking towards the fireplace.

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nice surprise...I walked in our garage to see that the boxes containing our house siding and shutters had arrived.

I thought I would take a couple of short videos to give you a "walk-through" of our house....Just click on the picture to begin viewing.

For this first one, I am standing in the kitchen. As I pan around you will notice the kitchen pantry...

During this next video, I am standing at the top of the stairs on the 2nd floor, panning through our loft, bedroom, and out the foyer upper window..



Lastly, this video shows me walking from the interior garage door through out kitchen.

Drywall In

Well, Lisa and I went to the house this morning to see if we could get a peek at it. Because of our schedules, it's been a couple of weeks since we've been able to walk through the house together. We were hoping to be able to do that today.

As expected, we weren't. The drywallers were there hanging drywall in our house and we certainly didn't want to get in their way. They were moving around quite quickly at their trade. Kind of cool to see.

I will be stopping by the house early tonight to take some pictures of our newly drywalled rooms. It should be fun to see more "definition" to each room. Check back later tonight or tomorrow morning for those new photos.

It's Been a While

I apologize for not giving an update in quite some time.  I've been quite busy and haven't been able to write.  There's not much more to update, other than the things I mentioned last week. 

Plumbing and electrical are complete (as far as I can tell) and they began doing some insulation work yesterday.  I imagine that will continue throughout the week.  Over the weekend the brick for the outside of our home was delivered.

I'm going to stop by today during lunch and then try to give a better update later today. 

The Porch

The crew built our screened porch yesterday.  I have a picture below so you can see it. 

 

 

A lot of other things have happened this week.  The electrical wiring is almost completed on the 2nd floor and they should be working on the first floor today.  The plumbers are continuing to work and it looks like most of that work is completed.

Parke mentioned that insulation should be going in on Monday and drywall will begun being hung in the middle of next week.  Everything is moving along quite quickly and there hasn't been any delays, as far as I can tell.  Someone is out there working every day.

We are very pleased so far and excited to see it take shape so quickly.  Lisa was able to walk through it this morning and was impressed with everything so far. 

An Update

It's been a few days since I've posted an update.  Lisa and I were able to spend a couple short days in Michigan to see our niece Natalie for her 2nd year old birthday party. 

This afternoon I was able to stop by the house to see if anything happened over the weekend and during the day today.  The plumbers have been hard at work installing the water lines and drains on both floors.  The upstairs bathtub is installed along with all of the water lines and plumbing for the guest bath.  Plumbing is installed downstairs in the laundry room as well.  Outside water spigets were installed.

The furnace was installed along with most of the ductwork on the first and second floor.  Lastly, as you can see in the picture below, the garage door was installed.  I believe the door will be painted to match the color of our siding.  Oh...and the shingles were installed.

Where the Chestnuts Roast...

I just took one picture today, that being this photo of our fireplace.

It was installed this morning along with the felt on the roof (material that goes underneath the shingles.)  They also began putting in some of the electrical work.

Upon returning our hardhats to the sales office, I happened to talk to Parke (the construction supervisor) who said they may begin installing drywall in a couple of weeks.  That's exciting! 

I was able to walk my parents through the house today and they both gave "absolute approval." 

A video for you...

You can click on the "play" button above to see a simple video showing our first floor...something just to give you a little idea of our floorplan.

Raise the Roof...

We had another great day of weather here in Indiana so they were able to begin putting the roof on the house. With a large crane to help lift the trusses, these men worked very fast to get the job done. Even with it being a windy day, the crane operator smoothly lifted the pieces into place.

To give you a better idea of the layout of our home, I have labeled some of the rooms on the picture below. If you have trouble reading it, you can click on the picture to enlarge it. (You can do that with all the photos.


Lastly for today, I am trying something new. I took some video of them raising the last section of roof on our camera. The video quality isn't the greatest but you can get an idea of the process. If this works well, I'll post more video at a future time.

Movin' On Up

On Saturday the framers finished putting up the second floor of our house. We were able to walk through it and get a feel for how everything will be laid out. I imagine the roof will be the next thing to go up -- maybe today!









...looking out our Living Room windows...











...standing in our entryway, looking towards those living room windows. (stairs to 2nd floor are on the right)...












...standing at the top of the stairs on second floor, looking at our loft area.

One Floor Down....

Friday evening I drove to our house, expecting nothing to be done due to the wet weather we've been having. Thursday they dropped off the framing package and I just thought I'd go and see if the roof trusses arrived.

As I turned the corner I was shocked to see that there was a crew putting the first floor up. As you can see, the house is beginning to take shape and by all accounts I should have more pictures up tomorrow since they are working on the second floor today.

Uh....Our House Arrived.

Something about this is just really weird....and completely cool. How is it that two flat-bed semi trailers can pull up to your concrete slab and "drop off" a house. Lisa stopped by earlier and saw one trailer and I stopped by later to see them departing with both trailers. I had the chance to talk to one of the drivers. They put the pre-fabbed everything in Franklin, IN and a factory there and then shipped it out this morning. Everything is cut to size -- kind of like a big puzzle. He said the trusses will be delivered tomorrow and the construction supervisor says they might start framing this weekend. Pretty exciting. Here are a few pictures.

Nap Time1

I just had to share this picture with you. Our new kittens are adjusting well, obviously. Daisey is on the left, Lilly on the right.

Great weather - finally!

We had a beautiful day here today so they were able to come and pour the concrete slab. We arrived just after they finished -- and no, we didn't write our names in the wet concrete!

The framing package should arrive any day now and their next step will be to start building up the walls.

They also came in and backfilled the soil around the lot. We now have a better idea what the slope of our property is going to look like. We are looking forward to having a much bigger yard than we did in Fishers.

Speaking of big yards. I just love this -- right across the road from our house in this farm with horses running around the fields. I can definitely get used to looking at this view for many years to come!