Browsing Tag: new house

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    Last Tour Inside the New House?

    January 29, 2012

    The new house is now locked and we can no longer get inside and walk around when no one’s there (which isn’t often these days, anyway).

    We had some people come to look at our current house on Friday, so we used that as an excuse to go see how the new place is coming along. We were poking around and looking through windows late in the afternoon, when the one worker still inside saw us and invited us in. Sweet!

    Turns out that all of the interior walls and ceilings are now in and he was doing … something. (I have no clue, but you can see him below.) And it probably goes without saying by now, it looks amazing! Can’t believe how quickly it’s all coming together.

    On the exterior, the only thing left is to paint. The garage doors are installed and even the faux rock on the front is in. Here’s a look at that.

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    We got to walk around the whole house and see all the rooms. Here’s an interior shot. I’m standing at what will be our dining room table and looking across into the “great room” where we’ll have the TV mounted, etc. They still have a bunch of stuff to install there — shelves on both sides of the TV, a window bench along the right side windows, etc.

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    And then I’ll share one more photo from outside again. It’s basically the same shot as above, but I tilted the camera a bit. That makes the house darker, but the point was to get a sense of how things will look with the setting sun in the background. After all, the amazing view/sunsets is one of the main reasons we chose this spot.

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    So that’s where things stand. Since the house is now locked, I don’t know when we’ll be able to go inside again. And there’s probably not much point taking more exterior photos until it’s painted and/or the landscaping is done. And we have no idea when those things are scheduled.

    Should be a little more than a month until we’re in … as long as our existing house sells soon. Please cross your fingers/say some prayers for us. Several showings this weekend and everyone likes the place, but no offers yet.

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    New House, Still on Schedule

    January 22, 2012

    The first real winter storm of the year finally hit this past week, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll have any impact on progress at the new house. As best we can tell, and from what the project supervisor told us last week, everything is still right on schedule for completion right around March 1st.

    The storm’s timing was actually pretty perfect — all of the roofing had just finished and the siding was being finished just as the storm arrived. (Cari and I went over to the house as the winds started picking up last Tuesday and we nearly saw one worker get blown off a truss. Yikes!)

    We had a walk-thru with the electrician a couple weeks ago and then another one with the supervisor last week. Both of these were done before the walls were installed, so we could see where all the wiring and plumbing goes.

    Meanwhile, I went over today (now that the roads are getting back to normal) and grabbed another shot from across the street. Sure is looking great, don’t you think?

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    At some point soon, they’ll be installing the garage doors and putting locks on all the other doors, so we won’t be able to get inside without an appointment. No more Sunday strolls through the house for me!

    At this point, seems like the most important we need to do is get our current house sold — and soon! (If you know anyone looking for a great house in wonderful neighborhood, let me know….)

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    Sunsets, Barbecues & Outdoor Entertaining

    January 14, 2012

    The new house is really coming along! Holy moses, it looks terrific.

    Cari and I did a walk-through earlier this week with the electrician to choose where TV, Internet and other cables and wires will be placed, along with lighting and everything else involved with an electrical signal. We have another walk-through next week that will be the last time (I think) before they start putting in walls. So they want us to be able to take photos first so that we have a record of where all the plumbing, electrical and other in-the-wall stuff is before they cover it up. Pretty cool, that may come in handy down the road.

    Meanwhile, there’s THIS!

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    That’s (obviously) the back of the house, where they’ve finally removed the plastic covering on the ground and we can see how big the back patio is – SWEET! This is where we’ll be enjoying sunsets and barbecues, and doing our outdoor entertaining when you come to visit.

    That red circle? On the other side of that small wall/pillar — the side pointing in toward the house — we’ll have a fireplace to help keep warm in the spring and fall, or whenever it gets a little chilly. No indoor fireplace for us, but an outdoor fireplace. Very excited by that!

    Oh, and that bland/ugly yellowish color on the house now? That’s just the base siding. It’ll be painted gray when the house is done, and then there’ll be some black paint around the front side of the house to complement it.

    Sigh…ready to move in now if we could.

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    Now it REALLY looks like a house

    December 31, 2011

    The crews were working today (on New Year’s Eve) and the new house is really taking shape. Windows are going in, roof is just about complete and the shell seems like it was going to be fully finished by the end of the workday.

    There must’ve been 8-10 guys all working at once on various things while Cari and I were over there today. In the first picture below, you can see two window openings on the right side of the house — by the time we left, both of those windows were in.

    Aside from the fact that it’s OUR house, it’s still just empirically fascinating to watch this thing get built.

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    I Shrieked When I Saw This

    December 20, 2011

    Okay, it’s been almost a week since I posted anything about the new house, so bear with me here. I was going to post yesterday, but managed to show some restraint, okay? Okay.

    So, when driving from our current house over to where our new house is, at the very end you go around a corner and BAM! — there’s our lot. Well, I went by the new house yesterday morning and I saw that they had started putting wood down. The framing had begun and, with fairly nice weather on tap this week, I knew they’d be building up this week. And then earlier today, Cari sent me a photo that showed the initial framing being done — some of the walls were up.

    So I totally knew what to expect when I took the kids over there just now.

    But it didn’t matter because, as soon as we got to that last corner and I could see the lot, I let out a loud (and probably somewhat feminine-sounding, not that there’s anything wrong with that!) shriek at the sight of all four walls being up and the frame appearing to be essentially in place.

    It’s amazing to see in person!

    It was another one of those there-are-no-words moments like last month when the first digging began.

    So, here are three pictures that I took from the front and then moving around to the south side.

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    That’s not the angle that you see (or that I saw) when you come around the corner, as I described above. When you do that in the car, you’re actually below the house and to see the silhouette of the frame up high, against the setting sun … that was amazing.

    And FWIW, here’s the photo that I took yesterday when they began the framing.

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    Cool, but not nearly as ZOMG as seeing the four walls today.

    I’ll try to resist the urge to go back again tomorrow and post more pics. Wish me luck.

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    Building Our House with Space Age Blankets

    December 14, 2011

    Get this: They’re using a Space Age Blanket to help build our new house. I’m serious. That’s really what it’s called.

    See, it dates back to last week. Thursday, December 8th to be precise. I had just come home from SMX Social Media Marketing in Arizona the night before, and since I hadn’t seen the new house in about a week, I drove over in temperatures that were somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees.

    I didn’t expect to see any activity since it was so cold, and I had it in my memory that they wouldn’t pour concrete in sub-freezing temperatures. So you can imagine my surprise when I got there and saw this:

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    The crew was there, the concrete mixer trucks were going full tilt and the concrete was being poured and leveled.

    WTF?

    I came home and, when we were chatting about it as a family, my son said he specifically recalls hearing that they could and would lay concrete in cold temps and that they’d protect the concrete with some kind of cover that keeps it warm so it can solidify correctly. He was the only one who remembered that but, as it turns out, he was right on.

    I went back on Sunday afternoon and, sure enough, the concrete foundation was complete and covered up from corner to corner. I got a closer look and saw this:

    space-age-blanket

    They are literally building our house with a Space Age Blanket.

    You can’t make this stuff up. You can even visit MidwestCanvas.com to see for yourself. (Boy, there’s a website that needs a new design and SEO help.)

    So, really, what comes after Space Age Blankets? I think the sky’s the limit at this point and I can’t wait to see what else they’ll be using to build this thing.