FRAMING - PART TWO

Hello, everybody!  Ready for more pictures?  I hope so!!

In my "Framing - Part One" post, I left everyone with this photo ... (excuse me while I rummage through 395,392 photos to find the one that I left you with last time ....)

Here it is!

The framers had completed the walls for the entire first floor.

So, here is what has happened since then!  Drumroll, please ....

Oh, hey!  Snow!!!  And ... a second floor!

Here is the view from the front right corner (the attached garage):

And the view from the side:

And Odie and Bandit make an appearance.  <3

And this is the view from the opposite back corner:

It looks pretty confusing, I know.  The door to the left goes into the the back of the garage and the big opening you see is actually where our fireplace will go, so that's not a doorway.  Also, the boards that are jutting out to the right off the upper level will be a tiny little balcony from our master bedroom!  Apparently those boards had to go there anyway, but the framers had to cut all of them to the length of our house.  We just had them leave a few uncut and replaced a window with a door and bam!  Balcony!

Then they finished up covering everything with plywood.  You know, to keep the snow out from the snowstorms we have been getting every. single. Monday.  For the last four Mondays.  Go away, winter!

  

And then .... the garage got a roof!!

Ahh!  I was so excited this day!  It's really starting to look like a house!!  And, I may be a little biased, but I think it is so stinkin' cute from the front!!

We still don't have the main roof on quite yet, but they did finish up with the plywood and enclosing that bonus room above the garage today.  We were able to walk around up there this afternoon and I am so ecstatic for that room!  That bonus room above the garage will remain unfinished, but we didn't realize how spacious it was.  Eventually (years from now), Carleton and I can finish that room ourselves and make it something cool!

So .... do you want to see what our house will look like soon??  Yes, you do?  Okay!

Isn't it so cute?!!  <3  Can't wait!

FRAMING - PART ONE

Well, it's about time I give an update on the house, isn't it??  Why, yes.  It is!

Framing is well underway!  Initially, we thought framing would take about 3-4 weeks, which means that since we started in mid-January, it would be almost done right about now ... but, we live in New England.  So, there's this little thing called "snow" that keeps getting in our way.  :)  But, I am still amazed at how quickly these guys build rooms and floors on nice-weather days when they are actually able to work!  They are SO fast!

Last time, I promised more pictures.  So .... this post has tons of them!

Carleton has taken approximately 3,583,956 photos of the framing progress.  (Bless his heart.  Seriously.  I'm so glad he's good at remembering to take pictures every step of the way!)  But, because there are so many pictures, I have decided to split all of the framing progress into several blog posts.  So, without further adieu, here is the first of many posts about the framing of our house!

The framers were scheduled to start on Monday, January 12th.  Unfortunately, it snowed that day.  So, materials were delivered but framing didn't start until the next day.  Here's what it looked like that Monday before framing began...

The view of our soon to be attached garage:

The side yard to the right of the garage:

Looking down into our basement:

A view of the rear of our house - our walk-out basement:

Less typing ... more pictures ...

Once the framers arrived the next day (Tuesday), they got right to work and quickly framed out the basement and walk-out:

We'll have a sliding glass door and some nice big windows all along that back wall so that our basement will be sunny and bright!

Check out these huge beams that run along the top:

Here's the view from the front corner where the attached garage is:

Looking down into the basement:

Here's the view from our side yard, looking towards Carleton's mom's house <3 (where we currently live):

You can see how they stepped the foundation wall down gradually along the sides towards the back.  Our siding will eventually step down accordingly.

Then they capped it off:

Once they finished capping off the basement level, guess what they did next?  Add walls, of course!  I may have freaked out a tiny bit this day:
  

The opening that is the furthest to the left in this next photo will be french doors that walk out onto a small deck:

One day later, the rest of the exterior walls for the first floor went up.  Here are the front walls (to the left):

This is the window that will be over our sink, looking out of the front of our house:

When I walked around the back of the house and looked up .... oh my goodness.  It seems so tall:

This is the view of the front of our house.  The window to the left is the kitchen sink window.  The opening just to the right of that is the front door.  And the concrete that juts out forward to the right of that will be our garage:

Driving up to our house!

Are you excited to see the interior walls of the first floor?  And the second floor?  You should be!  They are already built!  :)  I can't wait to show you the next round of photos!  Stay tuned!

TEMPORARY GC

Hi again!  Is everybody as bummed as I am about the snow we just got here in CT?  Ugh!  And, to make the snow here seem even worse, Carleton is on vacation for the next 8 days in Costa Rica!  Without me!  Haha.  He totally lucked out!  He's on a manly fishing excursion with da boyz.  I may or may not be a teensy-weensy bit jealous, but my man totally deserves a vacation for all the hard work he has put into our soon-to-be-house! So, I'm happy he gets to spend a week out on a boat, surrounded by warm air and sunshine.  And I'm already counting down the days until he gets back because I miss him!

But, while he's gone, I've got some big shoes to fill.  He has told me that I am the substitute GC!  Yikes!  Who would ever put me in charge?!  Just kidding!  I got this!  :)

This week (weather permitting) the framers should be finishing up!  Right now, we have a fully framed first floor.  Yesterday, we were even able to climb up on top of it where the second floor will be.  Pretty crazy!!

I'll show pictures in the next post, I promise.

Here's to hoping everything goes smoothly this week!  Wish me luck!!

POURING THE FOUNDATION

On Monday, the concrete guys poured the foundation!! 

We were a little nervous because it was slightly colder on Monday than it had been the week before (Christmas week).  Of course, during the week of Christmas, temperatures were in the 50's (almost 60 degrees!) and it would have been PERFECT for concrete to set.  But, they didn't come to pour it.  (Apparently concrete workers deserve Christmas vacations, too .... )

So, on Monday, when temps were in the low 40's and even 30's while they were pouring, we were nervous.  They poured sometime in the morning on Monday and let it sit for a day.  Temperatures got down to the 20's overnight.  If concrete freezes before it sets, it can crack.

On Tuesday morning, they came to check the concrete and remove the forms/staging.  And .... drumroll please ... all was fine!  The concrete had enough time to set itself during the day while temperatures were (barely) above 32 degrees.  By the time the temperatures dropped to below freezing, it had set.  Phew!!!

On Tuesday while I was at work, Carleton sent me these pictures from his phone:

 

We have walls!!  And little basement windows!!

 

 

See how the walls gradually step down towards the back of the house?  That's because we will have a walk-out basement.  Right now, Mark the excavator man has dirt up around all four sides of the house so that trucks can drive back there, but eventually he will remove the dirt in the back for our walk-out.

Naturally that picture scared the living daylights out of me because Carleton's friend Mike is balancing himself on the wall.  Don't worry.  He is alright!

But, back to those walls!  Don't they look gigantic?  Like, castle walls?  They do to me.  :)

The reason the walls look so tall is because they are!  We will have 9' ceilings in our basement!  You heard me right, folks.  The standard for a basement is 8'.  (I think.  Maybe even 7' for some basements?)  More than a year ago, Carleton and I stumbled upon an Open House sign while we were out for a drive.  The house was super cute so we decided to check out the inside.  This particular house had 9' ceilings in the basement with a walk-out and we both LOVED it.  It didn't feel like a basement at all!  From that day forward, we decided tall ceilings in the basement were a must-have if we ever built a house.  And, now, here we are!  Building a house!!  With our 9' basement ceilings!  (Isn't life sweet?)

So, fast forward to today, Friday.  Three days later.  And, today, I get this picture while at work:

Apparently that truck is filled with crushed stone that will be spread out so that the basement floor can be poured over it.  Moving right along!

All the good stuff happens while I'm at work!

Until next time ... !

THE MOST PINTERESTING THINGS OF THE WEEK

I am constantly dreaming of what the interior of our house will look like.  I simply cannot wait to get in there and decorate the heck out of it!  The thought makes me giddy.  :)

So, naturally, I browse Pinterest every day and soak up every beautiful house photo and good house idea that I can!  I have an entire board dedicated to our house!

For those of you who follow me on Pinterest, you probably have already seen these pins.  Nevertheless, I thought it would be fun to share what I pinned for the house this week and tell you what my thoughts were of each individual pin.

I will try to make this a weekly post.  This week I pinned ...

... this adorable little wooden box to corral small countertop items:

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I could totally make one!  I have made little wooden boxes before - so easy!  Hmm ... if only I had several small and attractive cutting boards to display like that.  I will have to start collecting!

 

I also pinned these combination cabinets and bookshelves: 

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I absolutely love the idea of those built-ins, especially in a dining room where more storage is always needed.  I could hide the less attractive items in the cabinets below and decorate the shelves with the pretty things.  It's too bad I can't really think of a place in our house to put something like that.  Our dining room is pretty open to the other rooms with no blank walls.  Maybe something with shorter cabinets for a TV wall?  Hmm ... wheels are turning ...

 

Next up, I pinned:

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Aaauuhh!  Those letters!  I NEED to do something like that for our laundry room!  It is so stinking cute!

 

Here's something a little less attractive but more practical:

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Definitely need to install that on our TV wall to hide all the cords!  I was already thinking of something like that ... maybe have the framers hide some type of a PVC pipe in the wall so there is one opening behind the TV and one on the ground for the cords to come out?

 

Check out this cool contraption:

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We are going to have a fireplace, so wouldn't that thing look cool in our living room?  I know I could build that.  I pretty much have already built a very similar cart all by myself, so  I would just have to add the plumber's pipe.  (For our very first Christmas together as a couple, Carleton bought me power tools.  It was right then and there that I knew he was the man for me.  Haha, just kidding!  But, my first project with those tools was a cart exactly like the one above.)

 

And, I saved the best for last!  Check this beautiful photo out:

 

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Did the clouds open up and angels sing while viewing that photo??  They did for me!  The initial reason I pinned it was for the floors.  I absolutely love the color of those floors - especially the variances in color between the individual boards.  Upon closer inspection of the above photo, I realized that our house's entryway will be a tiny bit similar to it.  Our stairs are in the foyer (but on the left side, not the right) and we will have a balcony like that to look up to the top of the second floor.  But, I think our balcony will be pushed forward a bit and our foyer is much smaller.  But, I want to copy that white board and batten on the stairs!  Just gorgeous!

Well, I hope that was as fun for you as it was for me!  Can't wait to show you my pins again next week!