House Build Week 21-23

I didn’t post an update for the last three weeks for a few reasons.  The primary one being that, while a lot of progress is always happening at the house, none of it was majorly interesting.

There haven’t been a lot of things to share pictures of – unless you like looking at multiple pictures of ductwork, gas lines, and PVC pipes.  For example:

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It’s exciting to Chad and me, but only because it means that the house is one step closer to being finished.

I did want to share some of the bigger things with you, though, that happened over the last several weeks.

They poured the concrete patio slab in the back of the house, the garage floor, and the small patio outside of the stair tower entry.  This is really the last of the concrete work that will happen on the house.

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The masons also came in to start hanging our stone, which is a product that my husband sells.  They’ve finished one wall so far and started prepping two other areas.  It’s been so rainy here that they haven’t been able to work much.

The stone we chose is a custom blend of natural stone from three different quarries.  It took my husband and me weeks to work out which stone profiles to combine to get the exact look that we wanted. It’s mostly medium greys, with some dark grey and browns thrown in to add interest.  Two of the profiles are fairly rectangular, but we choose the third stone profile in a larger and irregular shape to break up the pattern and make sure it didn’t get too linear.

We could not be happier with how it’s turning out.  Pictures don’t do it justice.

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Inside the house, most of the progress was what I mentioned above: plumbing, HVAC, fireplace venting, and electrical.

Most noticeably, we got temporary stairs.  They are tiny in comparison to the real deal, but the workers needed a way (other than ladders) to get their bulky items from basement to attic.

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The stairs are a necessary evil – it’s kind of a bummer to pay hundreds of dollars for something that will just be torn out and replaced in a few weeks, but it had to be done for the sake of progress.  I have to admit that it’s really neat to be able to just walk up and down stairs to get to the different floors and not have to navigate ladders.  It also gives us a good idea of how the stairs will look when they get put in, which is still weeks, if not months, out.

They’ve also been finishing off the framing inside – little walls that they left out during the initial framing – and making some minor changes to walls where Chad and I decided we wanted things to look different.

All the gas fireplaces are in place now – there are 6 of them!

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We’ve also been making a ton of design decisions over the last few weeks.  Outdoor faucets and electrical outlets have to be installed now, before the stone gets put up, so that means we needed to finalize their placement and how many we wanted.

We also did the placement of all the lights, light switches, outlets, ethernet and cable lines that we had specific placement preferences for.

Other things we made decisions on were outdoor siding and trim paint colors, outdoor light fixtures, plumbing fixtures for most of the house, and placement of built-ins.

The thing I’ve learned the most these last few weeks is that there is so so sooooooo many more decisions to be made than you would ever think.  And so much figuring out things, researching to find creative solutions, reading reviews, staring at open walls and trying to see a finished room.  It takes a lot of energy, but it’s a blast.

Keep checking back for updates each week!  You can see our progress so far on the Home Building page.  Also, sign up to receive my newsletter at the bottom of the page and you’ll get an email anytime I update the blog!