Ice, Ice, Baby

09/11/2012

One Friday night we went on a fun family outing to the appliance store to look for a refrigerator, dishwasher and range. We don’t need to purchase them for a while but we figured it would be helpful to decide what we want to get, especially since we had to order the range hood for the HVAC guy. We know we want to get a gas range. They scare me a bit (thanks to our first apartment and its ancient gas range that almost blew up the house…) but Jason is more of a cook and he’s set on it. If he’ll cook more, it’s all fine by me. He assures me that a new gas range will not almost blow up our house. Beyond that, we know that we prefer a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer to the popular french door model.

We just assumed we’d get stainless. That’s what we had in our last house. That’s what you put in new houses. But then… Then, we saw this.

Can you hear the choir of angels singing “Halleluh…” because I can. It might seem silly to most people, but I totally fell in love with this Whirlpool White Ice line of appliances. They’re white but not the textured white with the white handles like we had back in the 90s. They’re a smooth semi-gloss white with sexy stainless handles. (Yes, I just said sexy stainless handles.)

We had a few irritations with the stainless appliance at our last house: 1. they scratched easily, 2. drip marks were constantly appearing on the dishwasher and the freezer door below the water dispenser and 3. toddler hand prints. I can’t say for sure that these won’t scratch or show drip marks but it sure doesn’t seem like it. We asked Ali to test irritation #3 and she was happy to oblige. NO TODDLER HANDPRINTS! Yay!

I’m sold. We walked all around the store looking at other stainless appliances but I couldn’t get White Ice out of my mind. We haven’t purchased them yet, as I mentioned, but we will be. I have a Kitchen Inspiration Board post coming soon.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home Update

09/05/2012

Since my last update on our hew house, we’ve had our windows installed, the ground leveled around the house and our roof has been shingled. All of that excitement packed into one picture-ific post:

The house feels much more grounded, nestled into the property, now that the dirt has been leveled. We’ve got a lot of landscaping to do!

The window in the foreground will be over my desk, looking out into the backyard.

The front door (in the right of this pic) opens into the dining room and kitchen area. The windows next to the door were not yet installed in this picture. We get a ton of light while still having a lot of privacy from the street.

From the front door, we can see straight down the hallway and out the window in one of the kids’ rooms. I love how that worked out.

Also from the front door, I catch a glimpse of the living room with big window and tall concrete block fireplace.

We’re looking forward to cozying up in front of the fire this winter.

I really, really love how much indirect natural light we get in the house through the clerestory windows. Three cheers for thoughtful architects!

The exposed concrete block continues into the den/playroom/spare bedroom. Jason is probably swatting a mosquito in this picture. They’re really bad down by our house. Maybe because all the dirt was stirred up with the leveling?

We have some nice big windows in the master bedroom too.

I love that we get to look out at this beautiful crepe myrtle tree all summer and fall!

Lucy is very happy that we have some low windows and glass doors that she can bird watch through.

The front door on a different day, after the windows were installed. This is from the dining room looking out toward the courtyard entryway.

A couple of weekends ago, Jason and I did a bunch of yard work. We removed about 60 feet of chain link fence and posts, cut back/down some trees, weed and shrubs and hauled all the debris to either the dumpster or the curb for brush pick-up. It was hard work on humid days but it felt so good—the physical exercision and the fact that we were working on our new property. This photo is taken from the back corner of our lot, the highest point on the property.

In the above pictures, our roof is covered in tar paper but not shingles. I’m not sure if you can tell by looking at them. But, in the pictures below, we have shingles! Yay! We selected “weathered gray” and it’s just what we were hoping for. We didn’t want to go too dark to attract the sun and we didn’t want to go too light that it looked the same shade as concrete. We didn’t want to go too brown since we have gray concrete block but we also didn’t want to go too gray because we’ll have cedar wood siding. Needlesstosay, we’re pleased with our choice.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Help Us Pick a Paint Color – Follow Up

08/29/2012

Remember, the Help Us Pick a Paint Color for this Brick Ranch post? Well, Jeremy didn’t exactly go with the top pick on the poll, but I think it did help to influence his decision. The result is really nice. The house is the lovely Ellie Gray from Sherwin Williams. (Coincidentally the same color we had in the kids room at our last house.) The windows are dark gray with white trim. The foundation is dark gray. The front door is a lovely yellow-green from Sherwin Williams. I thought you might like to see how it’s coming together:

It looks bluer in the above photo than it really is. Here’s a close up of the colors (and the silver- and bronze-medalists for front door colors, to the left and right):

 

 

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Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home Update

08/01/2012

The framing is just about done now, minus a few little additions here and there. The floors are all swept and the house is wrapped in plywood. The roof has been wrapped but not shingled yet. The soffits are almost all wrapped in HardieBacker. This stage is really exciting for me. I love being able to walk through each room and really get a sense of the size, even more now that the outside is wrapped and the floors are cleared. These are all Jason’s pictures:

On Monday morning we met with some window sub-contractors. We’re getting bids for vinyl windows and store-front commercial windows and we’ll be making a decision based on price, appearance and function – probably prioritized in that order. Very soon the plumber and electrician will start roughing in lines. We’ve got quotes for different styles/woods for our siding. Things are moving along rapidly now. Every time we go over there it feels a little bit more like our home, and not just our construction site.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home Update

07/25/2012

Last week our family was out of town. While we were gone, the framing of our home started. We got these pictures from our friend/neighbor Jeremy:

From the street:

Back of the house (flat roof part is my office/laundry room):

After we got home on Sunday I took these:

Courtyard to the front door (approx where the step ladder is):

Great room (from the dining room, view of the kitchen and living room):

Great room (from the living room, view of the kitchen and dining room)

There will be a corner window in the master looking right out at this beautiful crepe myrtle tree that started blooming last week:

Next week I should have another update of the finished framing. I love this progress. So exciting!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Help Us Pick a Paint Color for this Brick Ranch

07/18/2012

Our good friend and real estate guru, Jeremy Hundley, is in the middle of remodeling a sweet brick ranch our here in East Nashville. It’s getting a complete makeover inside and out and will be for sale in the next couple of months. Jeremy asked me to mock up some paint color ideas for the exterior of the house, which is currently an ugly peach-colored brick. I went a little crazy and came up with way too many choices. (I had a hard time choosing the top 6 to post here!)

Can you help us narrow it down? What is your favorite color combination?

Don’t get hung up on the front door design. It’s solid now…I was just experimenting with options. Also, it looks a bit naked without any landscaping. That will be remedied after it’s painted. Please choose your favorite overall combination in the poll below, but feel free to get specific in the comment section.

Thank you so much for your help!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home Update

07/11/2012

In my previous home update the concrete block foundation was done and they workers were just starting on the front wall and fireplace. Now both of those are done, too. We had a couple of hiccups. The fireplace was about 1/3 of the way up before some errors were discovered and they had to knock it down and start over. There was also a spot of foundation near the garage entrance that needed to be redone. No big deal in retrospect but it caused a bit of stress between our (Jason’s) discovery of the issues and getting both places fixed. Here are some pictures of dirt and concrete blocks, in progress:

This cutie pie strolls down with us to check out the house sometimes. She was so adorable with her pink frilly skirt and flushed cheeks, that I couldn’t help doing a mini photo session.

A couple days later we went back to check out the finished concrete block. Jason and Precious are standing in the garage.

It may not look like much yet but when I see these pictures, I see the office and laundry room…

the courtyard and front door…

the kitchen and dining room…

the living room…

the master bedroom, bathroom and closet…

the kids rooms, bathroom and den…

When Jason and I see the front wall and fireplace, we can envision the whole house built around them.

But, I can imagine it looks pretty strange to someone who doesn’t have the finished house design in mind.

A neighbor we haven’t met stopped by the other day and asked our site supervisor what we’re building.

“A house,” Scott answered.

“What’s that wall for?” the neighbor asked.

“It’s part of the house!”

And that was that.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home Update

07/03/2012

On Thursday the work on our concrete block foundation, front wall and fireplace began. And it was HOT. In Nashville we hit a record temperature of 109 on Friday. The block workers busted their butts for us and we’re grateful! Turns out half the crew was Salvadorian which is kind of cool because Precious is half Salvadorian, too. Jason took all these pictures while I was working during the day:

It look me forever to figure out the direction of this picture. The corner coming at you is the my office/laundry room/mudroom. Beyond that is the garage.

The beginning of our wood burning fireplace. Woo hoo!

Jason said when the guys take a lunch break, they lie down in the shade and take a nap. Apparently they also eat tamales:

I took the pictures below in the evening, when it had cooled down to approximately 95 degrees. You’ve probably noticed our concrete block is straight stacked in a modern, art-deco style. That was our architect’s idea. We like the grid pattern it creates.

The concrete block will be exposed inside part of the house…in the dining room, the den/playroom/4th bedroom, a tad in the nursery (I think) and the fireplace.

The left side of the picture is the corner of our garage and the right side of the picture is the wall of our courtyard which will lead up to the front door. That front wall is going to get a lot higher.

Here’s the garage. We’ve never had a garage before so we’re pretty excited about keeping our cars out of the heat and rain, as well has having lots of storage space. Those two openings are for access into the crawlspace under the house. That pile of dirt back there will be filled in around the house so less of the foundation is visible.

It’s dirty, dusty, dry and hot—but it’s our home!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home Update

06/25/2012

Last week the ground was dug and leveled for our new home and the concrete was poured for the footers (the base that the foundation blocks will sit on). I had to get a phone replacement and I lost a few pictures so almost all of these are from Jason’s phone. I took this one of Precious. We take walks down to the new house several times a day.

There was a lot of junk buried from the previous house. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but the house that was originally on this lot had a fire and was demolished. According to the city codes, they’re not supposed to do this…ahem…although, our contractors and the footer guys didn’t seem terribly surprised. It’s not usable as fill dirt so most of it had to be hauled away.

After the ground is leveled, they did trenches for the concrete. There is a trench for every load-bearing wall as well as some square pits for support pillars. Our house will have a crawlspace, not a basement, in case you’re wondering why its so shallow. Our ground is very rocky in Tennessee so basements are not very common. (Unless it’s a hillside property, blasting is usually required to get deep enough into the rock for a basement. $$$) We considered doing a slab instead of a crawlspace. I’m happy to explain why we decided on crawlspace if anyone really cares. Otherwise, I’ll spare ya the details.

Once the trenches are finished, rebar is set in place for the concrete. I learned the difference between concrete and cement last week, in case anyone else is interested. Quick answer: cement is an ingredient of concrete.

Speaking of, here comes the concrete truck! On my birthday. Biggest and most expensive birthday present I’ve ever received!

It was about 95 degrees out that day.

This was taken after the first truck load. It took about 2.5 truckloads of concrete all together. Later on in the building process the concrete truck will be back to do our garage and back patio.

On Thursday the concrete blocks were delivered.

This week, that block should be going into place around the foundation and the front of the house. It’s so exciting!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home Update

06/19/2012

Last Wednesday, the surveyor came out to mark the four corners of our property and to plot out where our house will be situated on the lot. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that our property is even larger than it appears, especially because one of the side fences is about 10 feet inside the property line; not right on the line as we (and our neighbor) had assumed. Thankfully, our neighbor is not upset. We’ve met several of our neighbors already and I’m really thankful we seem to be surrounded by great people. Jason took all these photos of the surveying.

On Thursday we broke ground! It was a wonderful anniversary present.

Things are moving quickly so I’ll have one or two updates a week on the house build. Today is my birthday and we’re hopefully getting a delivery of concrete for our footers. We might even get a delivery of concrete block for the foundation and front wall.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

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