Mostly Settled

We still have to adhere the hearthstones on both fireplaces, but they are working nicely. The gas fireplace is pictured here in the living room upstairs. My studious 1st grader is working on her math. I'm not really ready for winter, but we enjoy our brief fall. The fireplaces will make things so cozy!

We are still trying to figure out where everything goes.

Moving In

Even though we aren't legally supposed to move in, yet, our lease is up and we have an unofficial permission note from the county. Boxes for days. It is fun to finally be in, but the moving part is not very enjoyable. It does feel like home!

Puzzle Rocks

We decided to save a bit of money and do our own rock on the fireplaces. This Chardonnay Country Ledgestone is a cultured stone and therefore lighter (and cheaper, I think) than real stone. It was fun choosing the shapes and colors to fit together to form the fireplace. Our hearthstones are on backorder. All part of building a house. :-)

Solid as a Rock

The granite countertops turned out gorgeous. It doesn't even bother me any more that they put on the wrong edge. I ordered square polish and they did bull-nose. Just all part of building a house! The granite looks great with everything in the kitchen and I can't wait to roll out pie dough!

The Brown House

We finally settled on a color for the stucco and we all think it looks great. It came out a nice cocoa brown like I wanted, and doesn't look a thing like diarrhea like I didn't want. Good choice: Adove.

Toffee Cabinets

This is the first time in a while we've had a different cabinet other than pine. These are Toffee colored maple and will look great with the countertops and tile! It is a fun thing to watch your kitchen come to life! Someday we may be able to afford the crown moulding!

Heavenly Shower

We love this double shower and the custom tile work. Still waiting for glass for this window, though. It doesn't even bother me any more that the grout is the wrong color. Just part of building a house!

A Family That Works Together

Mom and dad came a couple of days to help hang the tongue and groove pine on the ceiling. It takes many hands, some to saw, some to hold, others to nail. It all looks very nice. Thanks for all of the help! Also note the sage green walls! The only white walls in this house are in the pantry and in the garage. Hooray for color!

Decisions, Decisions

It is difficult to choose hundreds of square feet of color for your house when they only give you a 1 inch square sample. So we had the stucco guys give us some bigger options. We went with the far right brown on the top. The darker brown in the middle will be on the soffits. The best part of this brown, is that it is almost the same color as the dirt. No dirty splash-up when it rains!

Brown Coat

Yes, I know that the brown coat is really gray, that's just what they call it. These guys are so quick. The whole thing was done in a day and a half. As soon as I choose my color, they come back and do this all over again with the color/texture coat. You never have to paint it or stain it. Cool.

Back in Black

This stucco process interests me. The house looks completely different than it will in the end. All of our other houses have been log or cedar sided. Stucco never has to be painted or stained, the main reasons we decided to do this option.

All In Pink and Ready to Rock

Insulation is a quick process, especially when professionals install it! We are ready for the drywall, can you believe it? This will also be done by professionals, no offense to my multi-talented husband, but he doesn't have the tools nor the time. It's funny now that you can't see through the walls, the rooms actually look bigger!

Can You See the Railing?

The front view of the house is a bit obstructed at the moment due to the scaffolding for the stucco. I love these railings Cary has been using on his latest houses. They are so crisp and sharp looking! The pickets are a reddish/brown color.

Ready for Stucco

The porch is going to be different than we have done in any other house. We will have metal pickets and stucco covered posts. Cary has done a good job designing and I have helped a bit with window placement and asthetics. Stucco starts this week! We've chosen a dark brown.

Windows of Heaven

We love looking out our windows and seeing the beautiful trees and mountains all around us. I helped Cary install most of these, one of the few things I've been able to help with since the baby. It is looking like a house, don't you think?

The window's pictured here are in our master bedroom and dining room. The black space on the far left is where the glass block look window is going in our shower.

You also can get a good idea of what the shingles look like. We chose a nice multi-colored pattern that I think looks quite nice.

Where Do I Dump This?

Wheelbarrows are great for giving rides to little people. The girls loved taking turns riding around the house. We all need a little break once in a while!

Little Helpers

The girls and I spent most of a day helping dad clean up around the job site. We took all of the scrap lumber up to the back of the house (it makes great kindling) in our brand new wheelbarrow. We ate lunch in Shay's future room using the bathtub box as our table.

Surveying the Scene

Cary takes a moment to check out his handy-work. The girls are great supervisors. The black strip is where the deck face plate will be nailed.

Warm and Toasty

The fireplaces have been installed. Cary still has to frame around them and then after sheetrock, we'll do the rock, hearth and mantle. We have a gas fireplace upstairs and a woodburning downstairs. A lot of meat to these- intake, vents, pipe, etc.- must be why they were so expensive! They are known to be great fireplaces.

Magnetic Helpers

The girls love to help daddy, and one of the jobs around any 'work house' involves picking up nails. We broke our nifty 'nail picker upper' that had a long handle, so we picked up this small one at the hardware store. It is better for short people who are lower to the ground. Those who drive up the driveway are always risking a flat, so this cuts down on the chances. They get paid a penny a nail. Hey, that's more than I make!

An Enormous Garage

All men will be envious of Cary's new garage. It is an over-sized 2-car and because of the grade of the property and how the house sits attached to it, it is about 13 feet tall. I'm thinking storage! We have now had to change to a 10 foot garage door!

Trusses

The trusses went up quickly with lots of helping hands and a crane. The ones on the main house went up in less than a day. Now it is really starting to look like a house! There will be a covered deck all along the front to break up the face of the house.

And the Walls Go Up

It is really starting to look like a house, isn't it? The work is coming along nicely and we have had some wonderful people over to help out with framing. The balloon walls will be next and we plan to be ready for trusses next week.

Job Supervisors

The girls love to check on the progress dad is making with the 'work house'. Today they walked around in the basement to see where there rooms would be. They already have a knack of seeing the big picture! They are planning where to put their furniture even with a dirt floor and see-through walls!

Coming Right Along

The basement walls have been built, the floor trusses rolled, and the sheeting placed on top. This is the ceiling in the basement, the floor for the upstairs. Everything is measuring out nicely and it looks as though we'll have a nice view from the south side of the house.

How Firm a Foundation

The Greenblock walls go up very quickly, almost done in just one day. We actually have already poured cement but it has been too cold to go up and hang out at the work house these past couple of days. It took 28 yards of concrete for the foundation.

Things are moving right along! Can I pick out my cabinets, yet?

Yep, Just Like Legos!

Yes, SKR, Uncle Cary is playing with giant legos. We wish you could be here to help. We have been using Greenblock for foundations for many years. They are quick and easy to assemble, keep all walls and angles plumb and straight, and add insulation to the basement.

These building blocks are filled with re-bar and cement and make a great foundation.

Fabulous Footings

Here we show the footings poured and curing. We're getting ready to put the foundation on top. It takes a lot of cement and secure placement of forms to get everything to turn out well. No problems here.

Picnic With Dad

The girls love to visit dad at the 'work house'. We have so many jobsites going right now, we just say, "lets go to our house to see dad". It was a bit chilly (Colorado Mountains in the Spring) but we still enjoyed a picnic with dad on his break.

This is Shyanne's first experience with building our own house, Shay has done it many times. We are all enjoying this family adventure!

The Big Digger

No, this isn't Cary's machine but of course he would like one someday! Our excavator is quite talented in maneuvering this big dog and dug the foundation for the house, the hole for the septic tank and the leach field all in one day.

Cary is standing on the infiltrators for the leach field. For those of you with public sewer systems, you may not know about these. The tank holds the solids and the liquids go into the leach field and leach into the ground. Yes, that is probably more information than you wanted. The grass is always greener, you know.

Holey House!

Here we have a huge hole. It was easy to dig with the big machine pictured above. The frost is gone and the decomposed granite is all we have to work with. No rocks or clay here!

The girls are standing in the food storage closet. This is where the walk-out basement will be and above is the main floor.

The CAT Man

Boys and their toys... need I say more? This machine is great for clearing trees (not too many, please) and moving dirt. I was up here supervising today while the driveway received a bit of grooming.

I am standing on the building site for the house.

I can just picture myself in the garage.

Come On Up

This is the driveway that leads to the house that we will build. It needs a little 'tweaking' so that you don't have to turn around in the road just to go up. The grade is not too steep, though, a requirement when we searched the county for a buildable lot.

The lot is situated on a corner and we have homes in closer proximity than we are used to. It's all good. After all, we'll just sell this one an build again anyway.

A Nice View

We love this piece of land, though it is much smaller than what we are used to. .7 acres instead of 2. It is a nice corner lot with plenty of trees and we have a view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains if we go up high enough.

The house planned for this lot is a rancher with a walk-out basement, about 2500 or so square feet. It will have rooms for everything, something the rental is not providing for us right now.

We are excited to start building!

You Have To Start Somewhere

When our house sold las summer, we were forced to rent. This is an experience that none of us want to do again. We are quite motivated to build our new house, because our lease is up at the end of July.

Builder dad and the girls hung a sign on the tree to officially mark our property. This also serves a purpose so those who need to excavate, deliver, and inspect will find it as well.

Permit will be ready this week. Wish us luck!