Framing Fun

We have walls!

What a week.  After so many days of no changes, to see the house literally grow before our eyes in a day and half was pretty incredible.  We have a wonderful framing crew.  They are patient with all my questions, sweet to my kiddos and their craftsmanship is superb.

The day walls went up...Levi and I ate lunch in the "dining room."

This stage is SO EXCITING!  I just want to spend every moment down there, walking the halls and looking out the windows.  The view out of every window is spectacular!

Panoramic view of the great room

The stairwell to our unfinished bonus room.  For now it will be our very fancy attic access.

View from the top of the backyard and newly installed safety fence

We did have a few design issues creep up on us in this part of the process.  Those gorgeous windows I mentioned earlier?  Well, they are a little too big for the type of fireplace we had originally envisioned in the space.  This means we are having to change gears on how we will style our fireplace (more to come when we make the final decision).  The plumbing in the master bath impedes on the space needed for the pocket door we were going to put in.  So unless I want to have an off-center shower (that would be a little odd), we will need to make a small adjustment there as well. When we first discovered the "issues", it was tempting to have a pity party.  

But then, I step outside my woe-is-me-moment and really look at the house.   I then remember how extraordinarily blessed we are.  This home is more than I ever thought possible and I never want to take any part of it for granted.  I want to cherish every moment and every memory we build with our boys, family and friends.

And before you ask...yes, we have already started using the pool.  I am convinced our boys are half fish.  We went swimming twice today.  We enjoyed an afternoon swim with my mom and an evening swim when Phil got home. The boys are worn out, and so am I!  

- Tara

Happy Father's Day

There wouldn't be a way this home would be built without our dads! Sure, they will help with the physical labor and giving great advice, but it's more than than. 

The 30+ years of advice, example, love, teaching, loving, patience, and countless other things from our dads have made Tara and I what we are today. Without them, we would know so little about life, construction, work ethic, and perseverance that we would be crippled during this process. 

I am so blessed to have both these men so close to me. To the Dad I've known my whole life and the Dad I got 7 years ago, THANK YOU! 

On to stage 2!

After almost 2 weeks of weather delays, there was significant progress made is the last 24 hours!  Yesterday evening, sand was filled and our electrician laid out the floor outlet and lines to the kitchen island. Between 6am and Noon today we had a termite treatment, slab poured and lumber delivered. The slab looks great, and even got a personal touch in the garage:

Sand filled: 

The first pour: 

Lumber: 

Checking out the finished product: 

Levi kissed the floor of his room (I'm still trying to figure out where he learned that!?!)

Walls start going up on Monday for the beginning of stage 2!!! 

-Phil 

No change, no news

The rain has been wonderful. Really, it has been.  The grass is gorgeous and lush. My garden is going crazy.  The weather has been cool.

Unfortunately, the foot or so of rain we have had in the last month has severely cramped our building "style".  

Ground plumbing went in smoothly and then, before we could get it inspected, the rain came (again).  If it is muddy inside the footings, if the inspector can't access the areas he needs, or if sand packed around certain areas has been washed out we will fail the inspection. 

So we wait. We are hoping to see some major changes this week and to start framing early next week. Big changes! And very exciting. We just have to hang on to our spirit of patience. And figure out where to possibly make up the lost time later. :)

Aaron, our UBI consultant, helping review the ground plumbing. Notice our lovely "ponds" inside the footings. 

Lemons You Say?

Fine. Then we will make lemonade. The rain keeps coming. On Saturday, after a 7 inch downpour, we had a small pool inside our stem walls. Which, of course, meant no progress.  

The plumber is headed our way as I type and then we will be able to finish pouring the foundation. Unless of course we have more downpours (like the one forecasted for tomorrow).

Until then the boys are enjoying the extra sand in the front yard.  Some people would look at that pile and be frustrated. Not us. To us, it is another part of the adventure.  Another memory to have as a family. Sure nothing changed over the weekend. But our morning has been filled with exploration, mountain climbing and excavation. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. 

Hide, Seek and Save

The last few weeks we have been waiting for the weather to clear.  After the destruction of the tornado in Moore last week we are more thankful than ever to have a roof over our heads during this time of transition.
At this stage of the build, we have to have fairly dry ground so that concrete trucks don't get stuck (again) in all the muck.  During the (very) wet and rainy days we have taken the opportunity to check some more items off our list.  We visited a few lumber yards to set up our construction accounts, did an initial review of our door and window orders, and made our decision on which framer to use.
We also cleaned up a few of the trees on the property and took time as a family to just play.  We are so blessed to have this beautiful land where we can build our home and love taking every opportunity to start building memories NOW.  The boys love running around the front yard!  And who doesn't love a good game of hide and seek?!?

Levi was long overdue for a trip to Texas, so on Friday we all loaded up and made our way to Gigi and Papa's.  While the boys played and napped at the house, we (Phil, Larry and I) made our way to a marvelous place known as ReStore.  It is a Habitat for Humanity resale shop.  We have one here in the city, but I have never had great luck finding anything.  We hit the JACKPOT at the Dallas location.  We have $4/sf in our budget for wall tile in our showers.  On Saturday we found a 6X6 white tile for both baths for $.63.  That is more than 80% UNDER budget! I still get giddy thinking about it.  We stopped by another store and found the accent tile for both baths.  The accent tile we decided on is a grey penny round for the boys bath and a white penny round for the master.  I expected to pay over budget for the accent tile, but again...UNDER budget.  Only a 25% savings, but every little bit helps. :)

On a side note, our dear friend Christa is saving my sanity right now.  She is a super busy, super awesome woman who takes time to answer my texts and phone calls when I am freaking out about one decision or another.  She reminds me that it is okay to pick things that aren't "the norm" and isn't afraid to tell me when I am totally crazy. We are slowly checking design items off the list, but the journey is far from over and I am so thankful I have a friend like her to help me.

Bible Study and a Track-hoe

Thursday was scheduled to be the start of our footings. The outline of the house was drawn on Tuesday and we were excited to get some more dirt moving so it looked like we were actually building a house. Months ago, I had scheduled to host Men's Bible study, a perfect time to show off our property. So, a campfire (don't worry it was approved per fire code... but that's another blog post), food, friends, and Bible study was on the plan for Thursday evening.

With the rain on Wednesday night, the ground was a bit wet so digging of the footings needed to wait until it dried out a bit. As 6:30pm hit, Tara was getting some hotdogs and s'mores together for Bible study and Dustin was unloading his track-hoe to dig the footings before dark. Great timing, right?

We still had Bible study, and Dustin still dug for the footings. I only had to excuse myself from Bible study a couple of times to check on the work, and once to invite Dustin to the backyard for a hotdog and a coke when he was done. He almost accepted the offer for a s'more, but maybe the desire to get home at the end of a day was stronger.

We finished Bible study and the footings were poured on Friday. It is starting to look like a home will be there soon! I'm happy to already be able to share our home with friends and be able to reach out to those we meet.

Watching the Track-hoe from the safety of the truck.

Bible study

Pouring footings

Completed footings.