House tour, door - now

When I pulled in the driveway Tuesday, this is what I saw. He just walks around on the edge of the house like it's no big deal.

This is the back, or front, entrance. You pull in the drive, go up the hill, and drive around to this area. We are calling it the entrance....no front or back, just entrance. So, that middle opening is the entrance door. To the left is the garage. To the right is the kitchen. That kitchen window hasn't been completely cut out yet. It's bigger.

This is the "door situation" I spoke of in my last post. See the smaller doorway that leads out onto the deck? See to the right of it? That is the entry way to the family room from the foyer. Well, when you open the door to the deck, it will show in the opening of the foyer. Hard to explain but it just won't look right. So, we need to downsize the door to the deck or downsize the entryway to the family room. If we downsize the door to the deck, it will be hard to get furniture through the doorway. I chose to downsize the entryway to the family room. It's five feet and I really wanted it four feet to begin with. The reason...I like being able to close off the kitchen or family room, for privacy. I have french doors leading from the kitchen to the foyer (got that idea from watching that movie It's Complicated with Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, and Meryl Streep - she had the coolest house and the movie was hilarious) Anyway, if I didn't like the french doors in the kitchen, then I could move them to the family room IF both openings were four feet. So, that took care of the door problem. And I'm rambling...but my point is....it's always something...always. And I wouldn't have caught that until the door was installed and it was too late. But Dave is good when it comes to construction. He's caught a lot of stuff before it was too late to make changes. On with the tour...

Family room

See Mike up there....he just walks around up there like he's walking on the ground!

My kitchen window now that it's lowered... it looks low, but that is a few inches above counter top height. 43 inches from floor.

Another view from the driveway leading into the back yard

garage

View from the street....the right side, you see it kind of sticking out, will have an upper level. It's a southern style house. I know I'm a yankee, but I like the south!

Boys will be boys...they are climbing around upstairs...

OK I had to get up there too.

I didn't go out there yesterday and I guess they are building the upper level. I'm anxious to see it.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away?

Cindy

Septic/Cement truck/window situation - now

We got home from Brown County and went to the house site. Scott has been working on the septic system. And Dave became very concerned. A porch is going in, in front of that area you see in the middle of the picture, and in another area you cannot see.

A cement truck has to get to that area, and the only way for it to get there, is to run over the septic lines. Now, the septic lines will be buried, quite deep actually, but Dave was concerned that they would crack anyway. I told him that I told all three people about the septic and the cement truck schedule. I told the septic guy, the cement guy, and the framers. No one thought it was a big deal.




Except Dave.

And he worried. And at 1:00 a.m. (Sat night/Sun morning) I finally said, "everything we have worried about so far has been fine. They know what they are doing, we don't know what they are doing, so don't worry about it." He finally called the septic guy Sunday evening....because he was also very concerned about this.....

see all this dirt....follow the pipe to the clearing that we made for the septic 'fingers'.

It looks like this. And now that there are septic fingers in there, we were afraid we'd never get this area smoothed out again because you wouldn't be able to go over it with any equipment. And it's a big area. So when Dave talked to Scott, he said you have to leave it that way through the winter, let the soil settle, then he will come back and go over it with a machine that he has that smooths it out in the spring. Phew.....
nothing to worry about, right? Wrong....he had to change those windows.....

What windows? Well, when he was worrying about the septic/cement truck situation, I was standing in front of the kitchen window. The one that goes above the sink. And it just didn't feel right. You can see the opening in the top picture on this post. The window felt too high. But who am I to know, just the person who will be standing in front of it every day for the rest of my life! I asked Dave about it. There was nothing on the print to show how high it should be. So, we came home, measured my window height I have now over my sink. Then we looked up the 'typical' height in a book we borrowed from the library, then went back and measured the window height. About four inches too high. So, Dave spent part of Sunday re-doing that window. Problem is, he changed the bottom so it would be lower, but now, we have to decide.....bigger window or smaller window. Because when you move the bottom, you change the size of the opening. The new opening is now 40 inches. That particular window comes in 36 and 42. And should we change the other window in the kitchen to match, or leave it as is? If we leave it, then they will be different heights and it will show, especially at the top of the window, so Dave spent Monday after working changing that window too, then resizing the top of the window to make them both bigger. The reason Dave did the work rather than the framers is because this detail was not on the prints, so it's not the framers fault. The windows are fine now. I'll talk about the door later.......We're ready to go back to Brown County!

Cindy

Small Problem with Foyer - now

The plan was to leave right after Dave got off of work on Wednesday, and head to Brown County, Indiana. (see that on my blog http://www.thebeeladyfromhilltopfarm.blogspot.com/)


This is our "get-together" room as my cousin calls it. Most people call it a family room.
Dave was waiting on me so we could discuss the problem.


See this area....it's the back door (or front door-you'll see what I mean when it's finished and you come to pay me a visit!) Anyway, when you walk in to the back door, there is a small restroom to the right (left if you are looking at this pic, right if you are actually walking in the back door, and who doesn't have to potty the minute they walk in the house?) and a guest coat closet. The area when you walk in the door is a foyer, divided by an arched wall leading to a vestibule (whatever a vestibule is? I don't think I've ever had one!)

This is my kitchen doorway. I am standing in the foyer (would have been the vestibule) taking this picture. To the right is the guest closet and small bathroom. We could have moved my kitchen door to the left more, but then it'd run into my kitchen cabinets. Not good.

The problem is, the closet was running part way into the kitchen door and there was no room for an archway. So, we shortened the bathroom two feet (Dave's decision) and we got rid of the
archway (my decision).

Now it all fits. And when you walk in the back door, you have the restroom to your right, the coat closet to your right, and the kitchen doorway. No archway, no vestibule. Oh well....

Cindy

Main floor - framing walls - now

Dave has been studying and studying these prints. He's made a few changes and found a few mistakes, but nothing that couldn't be remedied. Sarah (our niece) felt he needed her help. She has no idea how tired and out of patience he is! He did good.

Our place is beginning to look like a lumber yard.

And I've been on the phone or e-mailing almost daily about deliveries of lumber, osb, whatever else they need.

and we've been picking up lumber, caulking, etc. in the evenings when they run short. This is the view of the side where the walk-out basement is. The front room is the TV room. The middle room with the big opening (which is for a window) is our bedroom. The window is not that big. Behind the bedroom is our closet. The laundry room is kind of small so I wanted the closet big enough to hold a fold down ironing board.

This rectangle will be my kitchen. It's big. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. So does company, so we decided to make it a big part of our new home.
Another view. The bedroom is in the middle and the TV room is in front of the bedroom. There will be a screened in porch in front of the tv room so we can enjoy the view when we're not watching tv. There will be another room, larger, for company to enjoy the view and tv.

And this...is the view.

Cindy

Dirt/Basement framing/septic fingers-Now

Mom & Dad came out one day last week. I know she is thinking....

who is going to clean this mess up?

This is a huge pile of dirt in the front yard.

It looks like the basement is going to stick way up out of the ground.

I was very nervous about the way it was going to look from the street.

We just need to relax with it all. They fixed it. That's why they had those piles of dirt.
Basement framing

This will be a bathroom/laundry room.

I took this pic standing on top of the basement roof (or main floor) looking into the basement.
Those are the I-Joists they were carrying last week.

This is going to be my food pantry/root cellar.

Looking from the basement out through the I-Joists

Stairs from the basement to the main level.

This is part of the "fingers" to the septic system. There are five fingers, which takes up a lot of room and took out a lot of trees. Sad about the trees.

He stands on the finger to make sure it is solid on the ground, which has been leveled. Then he covers it with soil. You can only use this type of system if you have good elevation and very well drained soil. We're fortunate, in more ways than one.

Cindy

Basement walls, I-Joists - now

The basement is coming together just fine. See those 'boards' across the ceiling? You can see part of one in the right hand corner of the pic...I think those are called I-Joists. They're a bit heavier than 2x4's or 2x6's.

Well.....I've decided that Construction Workers

are just a different kind of person.

I don't mean this in a bad way....not at all.....

I have the utmost respect for them.

My Shug, he was a construction worker when we met. I think he's a bit sentimental watching all of this...and I've heard stories from him, such as changing the light bulb on the top of the Bank One building in downtown Indy. But that was before I knew him.

and I'm glad.... because this guy... walking across the basement walls like that? Carrying an I-Joist? I was a tad nervous. Let me just say I double checked with him to make sure I was clear on one thing. He carries insurance on himself, I carry it on the lumber and tools and such. OK - we're good.

Cindy

Basement done, Garage begun - now

The basement floor is done, except for sweeping.

On to the garage. They framed it

and poured the walls.....and when they took the frames down, Dave said, "where's the cutout for the door." AAUUUGGGHHHHH!!!!

aaahhhhhhh.....no big deal, they cut them out. But they did forget. And when Dave told me, I wanted to run as far away as I could run, which isn't far because I can't run! But they don't know the last 'door story'...the one where I was up at 3:00 a.m. in the morning when he said, "They didn't cut out the door."

They poured the garage floor yesterday (Thu) and moved some dirt.

The pad between the garage and the house is a breezeway.

And the framers showed up and started the walls.

See that pile of wood to the middle left of the pic. That's the wood they refused to use. So, last night we went to Menards and bought some wood. Carter's was closed. And we took it to the land and unloaded it, but there are more walls up and we had to squeeze it through the slats onto the concrete. And my poor shug fell over a bolt because it was dark out and he is tired. He needs a break. We need a break. But it just moves so fast.

They are moving this pile of dirt today in front of the house. The septic guy is supposed to start today. Today is the last day for the concrete guys for a couple of weeks. And I should be out there taking pics of the dirt being moved, but I have a long list of stuff to do here, at home.

Cindy