Going Up?

Welcome Home!  The first floor is framed to the point where we could walk through the rooms and know what they would be.  Looking at the picture to the left, you can see a stripey dumpster at the edge of the picture.  Then there is the front door, then a window that looks into the den/office, then the double door for the garage.  Everything looks good so far, except the door out the back of the garage, which is supposed to be a double door.  Easy enough to get out a saw and cut a bigger hole, I hope.

This second picture is looking into the kitchen from the hallway.  The small window will be to the right of the oven, and there is another small window that is to the left (out of the picture).  The large window will be over the kitchen sink and faces out over the backyard and where the deck will be.  I an only imagine that it won’t be too long before I’m standing at that window washing dishes and looking out over my yard…

This is a view from the kitchen towards the front of the house.  The dining room is in the foreground and has a large south-facing window and the living room is at the front of the house, with a window that I know will be just perfect for a Christmas tree.  The stairs going up to the second floor and down to the basement will be just to the left of the dining room on the other side of the wall.

I must say, now that the walls are up, the garage looks bigger and the rest of the house looks smaller to me.  I’m glad that way back when, Mike Brady the architect encouraged us to go larger with the house.  As unsure as I was of it back then, I’m glad he convinced us.  The kitchen and family room, open to each other, are a large space in which I’m sure we’ll spend countless hours entertaining family and friends.  Now if only we could speed up time to get to all the parties!

First Floor

We have our first floor!  The floor of the first floor has been added to the house!  All of the subfloor has been put on and now there is a big hole where the stairs to the basement will be.  The basement floor is still unfinished.  We will have radiant heating in the basement floor, and the tubing has to be laid down right before the concrete floor is poured.  I’m not sure how that will happen now that the floor is on, but I’m sure it will happen somehow.  Next step: walls!

Wood On Top

When I drove by the site of our new home last week, I saw a few large stacks of lumber – which to me means progress! 

I guess our framer was a little sick and was delayed in getting our project started, but now it has begun.  The foundation was poured a few weeks ago, and now we have wood on top!  The knee wall was constructed and now the framing can begin later this week. 

We have also been given the task of making the first big decisions.  In the next week and a half, we have to decide:

• * the exterior color of the house (siding, trim, windows, gutters)
• * the color, material, and style of the front door
• * the color of the roof
• * the style of the fireplace and what kind of hearth we will have (brick, stone, tile, floor level, bench, etc.)
• * whether or not we want a double oven in the kitchen

…and there’s probably something I haven’t remembered.

While all this sounds like a lot of fun, picking a house color and front door is a pretty big decision!  We have about 75 colors to choose from for the siding and trim alone.  We have three for the windows (and we’ve already chosen white), and about 25 for the gutters and soffits.  Then we have to decide if we want the siding and trim to be the same color.  Or for the gutters and trim to be the same color.   No pressure there!  That’s the face of the house – what people will see first – what people will comment on.  We certainly don’t want to be boring and pick something so neutral it makes you sad to look at it, but we also don’t want people saying “Glad I don’t live next to that ugly eyesore of a house.  I can’t believe they picked that color!”  So, we’re going to make the best use of our next week and a half.  And if it comes down to it, we’ll just close our eyes and point.