Wow!

Sorry for the long delay in posting to the house blog. Wow, what a difference a couple of weeks make! We now have real brick on the front. Apparently when he went to buy the faux brick the real brick was actually cheaper. It looks so cool! We also have siding on all but the front of the house, and the house is insulated and sheet rocked! The mud and taping of the sheet rock will occur next week. WOOHOO!

siding/brick

We made the final choice today for our brick facia stuff. The siding was also started today. We are putting on an Antique Red Brick on the front of the house hopefully it won't look to "'70's" I guess we will find out.

We also picked out our cabinet colors this evening. Apparently the interior doors will be the same stain as the cabinet doors, cool! I learn something new everyday!

while I was there today the house was bustling with heating guys, plumber guys and my contractor and his brother putting on the siding! YEAH!

I will post more pictures soon!

Windows

All the windows are in other than the one we added on the main floor all the way to the left. If is exciting to see it almost buttoned up. We just need doors and the garage wall sheet rocked and it will be all closed up! YEAH!

The furnace guy was also at the house this week and the furnance is there and the vents are installed but not the duct work yet. Also the plumber was there this week and all the sinks are plumbed and the tub and shower are almost plumbed. The frame work was also finished this week for the jacuzzi tub. Very exciting.

Today I am heading to Olympia to Cherie's house and I am forcing her to help me pick out the fabric for the windows. Jo-Ann's is having a 50% off all home decor fabric so I figured it would be a perfect time!

To answer Tiff's post about how often I stop by. I stop by at least once a week, but lately it has been more like 3 times a week. I am only 2 miles from the house from my work so it is very convenient to stop by on my way to or from work. I try not to stop by everyday though because I do like it when I haven't been there for a couple days and I pull up to see that a lot of work has been done!

Roof

The roof is done!

Update

Front of house with roof sheating all on and waiting for roofers are are scheduled for Tuesday!

Inside of garage, you can see the windows stacked to the right just waiting to be installed. The man door on the right is the "workshop" or Tracey's room and the room I am standing in is the kitchen.
STAIRS! We have stairs! YEAH! I know sounds like a silly little thing but it is so cool to be able to "go downstairs" instead of having to walk around the outside.
Back of house, me standing in the living room window, and Trevor is below me playing with his excavator.
The front porch. The importance of this picture is that Ron has now decided that my "endless" fountain in the corner was not sufficient and has decided that a Koi pond would look much better there. I have always wanted a pond with a fountain so I am game I just know how much more work this will be. So I am looking for any input, words of advice, etc., on ponds with waterfalls and fish. I do hear that keeping the racoons out is really difficult so here is to hoping we just don't become the local hang out for the neighborhood racoons. Ron is thinking the pond will be a shape of a peanut and be around 5' x 8'.
Lots and lots of stuff happening at the house. I am not sure if you noticed in the pictures above but Ron spent last weekend regrading the front and getting it more level and also did a little regrading in the back. We decided that we need more fill in the backyard and that we will for sure do the retaining wall on the garage side of the house so that we will have more parking. I think we have also decided that since we walk be "walking" through that side of the yard that is where the vegetable garden will be in theory. We will see how that all works out though because I have never had a veggie garden but Trevor really wants one so we will give it a shot.

As I mentioned before the roof is scheduled to start being installed on Tuesday. So the builder needed the flashing for the woodstove chimney so we had to make the final decision on the woodstove.
My first pick was a Jotul F400 see this link...http://www.jotul.us/content/products/ProductArticle____3107.aspx If we would have bought this stove I would have gotten the blue/black enamel with the fancy front door. But we didn't buy this one.

The price on the Jotul was a little higher than the one we went with which was my second choice okay really third choice. We bought a Lopi Leyden...http://www.lopistoves.com/product_guide/detail.aspx?id=240
This is a really nice stove we had Lopi stoves in the Camano house. The reason it was my 3rd choice though was becuase I don't like cast iron, it always looks dirty to me. So I had originally picked out the red enamel one, well that adds $500 to the cost so it looks like I will have to live with a dusty looking stove. I am sure there is some trick to keeping them looking clean so if you know please share! Ron has from the beginning wanted this stove so it was an easy choice for him, but for me it just came down to the dollar. It wasn't worth the extra cost to have enamel or a Jotul stove. I figure I am too early on in the process to start busting the budget already! That will come later...HAHA!!!!

I will keep everyone posted on the progress. We will hopefully be having some work parties soon so stay tuned for my begging for free labor! =) We will need help with painting, landscaping, pouring the concrete for the garage floor and driveway/sidewalk and all sorts of other fun stuff!

Tub pictures

Master bath shower...

Guest bathroom tub/shower...

I just had to take pictures of the tub and shower. I know that they are not placed yet, but it is still really cool to see them in there!

We have trusses!

View of the front of the house...
The 2 windows in the front are Trevor and Tracey's rooms, the one little window is for the bathroom and the next window that is slightly bigger is the master bedroom...
Same place just more shot of the garage...
View of the back of the house...so there will be one more window on the very left side of the upstairs part.
I realized that I rarely take a picture from this angle so here you go...

Stopped by the lot/house today and we have trusses! So exciting! We also have 1 shower/tub and 1 shower. They get framed in and they are easier to have dropped into the house before the trusses are delivered. There will be a soaking/jucuzzi tub delivered later but I guess because it is not tall that it can come later. Anyway, it is really starting to take shape and things are looking good. We have decided to add a door from the laundry room to the "workshop" area so that we can call it a "den/office" for resale. It also already has 1 window looking out the side of the house but we decided to add a window looking at the "view". I know, these changes are what get you in the end, believe me I am fully aware of that! We just decided that it would be worth the investment now for resale later!

Anyway, from the lumber that was laying about in the basement it looks like the stairs are the next project. It will be so fun to be able to walk up and down the stairs!