It's the little things...

Most of you will look at this picture and think, "Tara, that's just a vent." But it means so much more to us. It's a small sign that things are really moving forward. That vent cover? To me it means that this time next week our new home will (most likely) have heat. And that my friends and family is a BIG deal. :)

Fireplace

A few posts back I made mention of issues we were having with our fireplace.  Let me take a moment and record the "fireplace journey."  Can you feel the drama?  No?!?  Oh well...read on.

When we designed the house we knew we wanted a fireplace.  A WOOD BURNING fireplace, preferably with a blower (to distribute the heat).  Why not gas you say?  1.  We don't have any natural gas in our neighborhood and don't want to deal with propane.  2.  This is Oklahoma and chances are that we will lose power in the winter at LEAST once every other year.  For any non-Okies reading this blog the loss of power usually coincides with some severe inclement weather...like a layer of ice coating every surface outside.  The first year we were married we lost power at our home for almost 4 full days.  Besides, who doesn't love sitting by a fire in the winter months?  If you don't you are maybe a little crazy or live somewhere ridiculously/awesomely warm like Hawaii.

So we decided to have a fireplace and place it in the corner (I have a soft spot for corner fireplaces).  We fill the rest of the back walls with windows on the plan and BAM!  Design done.  Framing starts and we reach the point where the framer needs the dimensions of the fireplace unit.  As I said before, I was hoping for a blower and possibly a medium efficiency model to reduce utilities in the winter months.  Armed with my very thorough list I head to the stores. SCREECH!  At the first shop I am forced to slam on the brakes.  At first glance there isn't a single fireplace that will fit the space we have and still meet code requirements.  We shopped around online and in town.  A lot of people tried to sell us a product we didn't need, couldn't afford and frankly didn't listen to anything we said.  When we would question them about hearth sizes and clearances they gave us vague and sometimes INCORRECT responses.  I was getting extraordinarily frustrated.

Finally, I came back to the store where the search began, The Hearth Shoppe in Edmond.  They are a small store, but they know their stuff!  If I asked a question they knew the answer or were pulling code manuals off the shelves to find the answers.  We ended up getting the smallest box they had, but it has worked out PERFECTLY.  One of my concerns was that it wouldn't provide enough heat in the winter months.  However, with the insulation we installed in our house, it will be more than enough heat to get us through any short periods of cold.  I can't wait until we move in (in 6 weeks) and can RELAX!

Quick update

There is a whole lot going on, it's hard to take time to update the blog. We've had lots of help and could not have made it this far without it. I feel like we are rounding turn four and heading towards the finish line! The problem is that there is still a lot of stuff to do before we can call it done! 

Here are some pics to give you an idea of what is going on: 

Concrete finishing

Light Fixtures

Building closet shelves

Lots of trim and tile

And who wants to miss out on picking up 1134 pounds of capstone?!?! Pictures coming soon of where this will end up. 

Just Loving Life

The title is a direct quote from my amazing husband Phil. Made just now, at 11:15 pm. Yes, it was with a bit of sarcasm. Why?

Because he is digging a ditch. Yes, at 11:15 pm. We are in the final phase of construction. A lot of exciting things are happening: cabinets have been installed, tile has started to go in and the house is (mostly) painted. More posts will follow with more pictures.  

But right now, in spite of his sarcasm, we really are enjoying life. Maybe not loving the 14-18 hour days and consequent dreadful lack of sleep, but I can't help but reflect on the many blessings of the day and past weeks. We worked side by side with our parents laying tile and have had many friends sacrifice their time to help us along this journey.  My mom lovingly tucks my children in at night when I can't be there.

These wonderful blessings are compounded by the excited smiles of our children as their rooms come together and the way Phil still makes my heart overflow when he looks at me. Yes, I am definitely loving life.

Labor Day Painting

Labor Day weekend was packed full of family, friends, painting and cleanup. An affordable scaffold rental and a couple ladders made for some quick painting with the sprayer. Trim painting and a few other projects rounded out the weekend, an some of us even managed a dip in the pool! 

Harlan working the scaffolding! 

Robert hanging some doors. 

Painting trim. 

"Painting" with water. What a helper! 

Chimney chase finished. 

Finished colors look great! We love this shot because you get the full effect of the stone, brick and siding. 

It's pretty close to our inspiration: 

Waiting

We are almost done with trade (plumbing, electric, and HVAC) inspections and I feel like its been dragging on for way too long. 

By the end of the week, we should have all our rough and final framing inspections passed. Then it's on to insulation and drywall. Now it's the time to start really putting in the sweat equity! We will be doing some insulation, then lots of paint, flooring, and trim work. It is getting close to looking like a real house! 

We are still here!

It's been almost a month since our last post. Don't worry, we are still moving along, just too busy to sit down and write. It seems every time I sit down I start to fall asleep. So before I snooze tonight, here are some of the progressions since our last update: 

Electrical rough going in

Levi "helping" our electrician/cousin Chris

Clean-up! 

Exterior doors

Fireplace

Brick and Stone

More stone 

For now, enjoy the teasers. We will update details on these improvements soon!