Month: March 2021

Week 7 — It’s a mess

This last week rough in plumbing and electrics started. Monday evening we walking through with our electrician (another former classmate) to place lights and outlets. I’ll just say wow…that was a little overwhelming. Mostly because I hadn’t given much thought to anything other than a few lights I knew I wanted. Otherwise I felt like I was saying “whatever is normal” in terms of outlet placement. It felt weird to see marking up the studs for all the switch and outlet placement. Imagine it when we were asked to draw our island on the sub-flooring and the wood stove on the concrete.

Once we did our walk through they started putting in boxes, switch boxes and all the other ‘fixtures’ that will hold the canned lighting and actual lights and ceiling fans. They’ve strung lots of wire this week and while it doesn’t look like BIG stuff, it’s a lot of progress and work.

Plumbing seemed to move quickly too. We even got tub/shower units in on Thursday this week. That definitely felt surreal. Lily is more than happy to show you where her bathtub will be (it’s in our main hall bath, but she’s certain it’s only hers).

Lily is a bit dismayed at all the wood chips from the holes for plumbing and electrics that are accumulating on her bedroom floor. She walks back to her room and says “It’s a mess”. She doesn’t seem to mind digging holes in the dirt piles, but apparently the wood shavings on the floor bother her a bit.

The weather was beautiful enough we had a few picnics on the patio and deck. We even had our first dinner guests this week when Kerry’s folks came to join us for pizza on the patio Saturday evening. The railing and steps were finished this week and it looks so incredible. I am just thrilled every time we drive down the drive way at how it’s all coming together. It looks better than I even imagined.

The weekend we went to pick out flooring, purchased vanity tops, island and dining room lights. We also bought some outside sconces…I’m not sure I like them. In the store they looked plenty big, but when I held them up on the wall, they look too small. We’ll see…

On to next week…I can’t wait.

Week 6 — Now we’re cooking with peanut oil

One of my band teachers use to say this all the time when we were practicing and were finally making progress. 🙂 After two weeks of bitter cold and unsafe conditions for our building crew they were finally able to get back to the hill and make progress. They worked hard this week and we were thrilled to out every evening to see all they got done.

Monday we got our first look at doors and windows! They had been delivered just before the cold snap so we could hardly wait to see them in. They also finished the south side of the deck. We look forward many evenings and good times with friends spent on our deck.

  • Doors on West. One to Living room and one to the master bedroom
  • Dreaming on the deck

Tuesday we ate our first meal at our house on the hill. The weather was beautiful so we packed a picnic supper and ate dinner on the patio. We would have eaten on the deck, but it was a little windy. The stairs were done Tuesday and it was exciting for us to be able to walk to the basement instead of climbing a ladder or going around outside.

  • Our first meal on the hill
  • Stairs!

Wednesday the front door went in and the front windows for my office and living room were put in. The frames were built for the windows over my sink. I think I’m most excited to see these in. I’ve been dreaming about them for months.

  • Office windows
  • 12′ of windows along my kitchen counter

Thursday the siding went up on the peak on the west side of the house. We could see it peeking over the tree tops as we were driving out that evening. There were audible gasps in our car when the boys saw it. The railing for the stairs was framed Thursday as well. I have visions of a built in bookshelf on the long side.

  • Basement escape windows in
  • West side view
  • Railing

Friday the siding was finishing on the east side and the framing complete for garage doors. Doors and windows were installed in the garage. I’m pretty sure the windows have been waiting to find their home for the last 20 years as they were ones my parents bought when they were remodeling a house. For some reason, they were never installed and we’ve moved them from place to place not sure what we’d ever use them for. In fact, when we moved this last time I was so close to just tossing them. But here they are…installed in the garage of our new home.

Saturday Kerry and I had a busy day running errands and buying a few things for the house. We plan on staining our own trim so bought some stain (we’ll need more yet) and had plans to buy insulation for our basement (we’re doing that ourselves). But instead…we bought bathroom vanities. While we were at Lowes we found the vanities we’d like to use for 75% off! They had 5 in stock and we bought 4 of them. We also ordered our kitchen cabinets while we were there. I spent the rest of the day questioning if we’d measured correctly and worried that we ordered the wrong thing…what if it doesn’t fit? Kerry assures me it will. Kerry will be making an island for the kitchen so I’ll have plenty of counter space.

We also lined some things our for our woodburning stove in the basement. Kerry and his dad will be building our hearth so we wanted to be sure our contractor was good with our plans.

  • Signed and ordered.
  • They fit!
  • Kerry talking with our fireplace contractor