New Home Update

10/02/2012

Holy cow! So much happened at our house last week and over the weekend that I decided to move my Thursday New Home Update to Tuesday. Our fireplace insert was installed. The second to last major building inspection passed which meant the walls could be sealed up. We got insulation at  the same time as the driveway and front steps concrete was being poured. The back patio is framed but still waiting for concrete (so there was a dry entrance for the insulation guys). That concrete will probably be coming this week. The insulation was finished Friday afternoon and the drywall was delivered. We were told drywall would go in this week so we were pleasantly surprised when we drove by Saturday morning and found the drywall guys already hard at work! The worked Saturday and Sunday and go the drywall hung in the whole house. It’s been a very exciting week and the house looks so different inside now! Ready for a ton of pictures?

It’s so nice to be able to walk up the steps into the front door now:

I’ve been looking forward to “the drywall stage” for a long time! Finally, we can really get a sense of each space. Every time I walk through I’m rearranging furniture in my mind, thinking about what art can hang where… this is fun!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home Update

08/22/2012

The plumbing has been started at our new house and the rough-in is complete. That means a new water line from the street to the house, a new sewer line from the house to the street, and all the plumbing under the house as been installed and led up through the walls so it’s ready for fixtures to be installed later. Not the most exciting pictures but, it is what it is. Progress!

Digging a trench for the sewer line

Trench for the water supply line to the house

Pex

Copper

PVC

Washing machine. Woohoo!

Kitchen plumbing for refrigerator

Master bathroom, plumbing for the sink.

How good is your imagination? We’re thinking something like this for the vanity, medicine cabinet and sconce lights.

Ali checking out the cold water line for the kitchen sink

Where Ali will be taking baths next year… The plumbers fill all the pipes and the tub with water to check for leaks.

I’m pretty excited about this. When our friends built their house, they added a hot water line to one of their outdoor faucets. Great for dog washing. Great for washing the car in cold weather. Great for filling up a kid’s pool (or water table or water balloons.) The plumber loved the idea so much he said he might install one at his own house.

So that’s the plumbing rough-in. Very interesting, right? Is anyone still reading? Chirp chirp. Chirp chirp.

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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

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

05/17/2012

I wish I had more exciting news to report. I was really hopeful that we’d be breaking ground this week. We’re working things out with the bank, trying some different options to see who/what/where will be a good fit to finance our new home. In the meantime, our contractors have the building permit in hand and are ready to go as soon as we close on the construction loan…which could be a few more weeks. Boo. We’re really eager to start moving forward.

I have some samples of countertops and wood flooring on my desk. This is honed granite, which is an option we’re considering for the kitchen countertop. The wood sample is hickory. Jason picked it up at the hardware store because he likes the fine, straight grain and the variation of colors. I do too. We’re still quite a ways away from needing to make those decisions but we’re looking at options as much as possible now so we can decide quickly later on.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Cedar Siding

04/26/2012

Our new home exterior will have cedar siding, as well as concrete block on most of the front, and hardie plank accents around the side and back. I was having trouble visualizing the cedar so I did some homework and looked for images on Pinterest.

 

Source: houzz.com via Virginia on Pinterest

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Source: contemporist.com via Matthew on Pinterest

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Source: banjarinfo.com via Amy on Pinterest

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Source: 3ghomeimprovements.com via Yunkyung on Pinterest

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Source: Uploaded by user via Lindstrom on Pinterest

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Source: realcedar.org via Meghan on Pinterest

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Source: cococozy.com via Alli on Pinterest

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Source: houzz.com via Jutta on Pinterest

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Source: flickr.com via Amy on Pinterest

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Here is what I DON’T want it to look like!

Source: dwell.com via Colby on Pinterest

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Or like this. Too rustic for my taste.

Source: tinyhouselistings.com via Melissa Barr on Pinterest

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I stumbled upon this image, also. This house has several elements similar to ours. Concrete facade, cedar siding, courtyard entrance, glass store front style door. I also really love the unexpected pop of blue.

Source: plusmood.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Posted by mahlbrandt

New Home Update

04/04/2012

Yesterday Jason, Precious, Lucy and I took a morning walk around the block and stopped by our property to say check on it. Jason wanted to inspect our fruit trees—the cherries and pear we transplanted from our last yard—while I just wanted to admire our giant white dogwood tree.

We met with a team of contractors at Starbucks later in the day. They seem like really nice guys and we had a lot in common personally, too. They’re a family business and all three of them are married and have kids. One of the guys has six, two of which they’re adopting through foster care. We also know some people in common. One of the three original general contractors who were putting together bids has dropped out. We haven’t gotten numbers back yet from the other two yet and it’s been 2.5 weeks. We’re getting antsy. We want to get started!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

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