We’re getting closer!

Here’s another update on the progress of the house.

After the texture was dry, the finish carpenters came in – and they were amazing! I am so pleased with the work they did. They put in all the baseboards, closet shelving, framing around the doors and windows, and all the build-ins. This is the boys room. A closet for each of them with built-in book cases in the middle.

Sydney and Spencer are sitting on the window seat in Sydney’s room. She has come to love seeing her room when we look at the house. Every time she runs to the seat, sits down and asks for her picture to be taken. We had the same built-in book cases and window seat put in this room and Emma’s also.

This is a picture of the mud room with the built-ins for coats and backpacks and shoes and whatever else.

Right off the kitchen is what we are calling the mini office. You can see a small desk on the left where the computers will be. On the right is a wall full of cubbies – for a charging station and a place for all of the kids school work and papers, and anything else that needs a place (like maybe the mail, or whatever other random papers and items I never know what to do with).

At some point along the process the hardwood floors went in. We chose a natural, rustic hickory. I love these floors. I came to love hickory after seeing Wendy’s kitchen cabinets about 7(?) years ago. All the variation will hide the dirt :), and with so many colors, it made it easier to match everything else in the house.

And we got a stair rail installed! The wood is alder and it will be stained to match the kitchen cabinets. It was so nice to have some kind of visual block to the down stairs. That upstairs landing was totally open for a really long time and I was always nervous that someone would fall.

Adam did a panorama of this area. And we have kitchen cabinets! On the left you can see the opening to the mini office. Also notice the paint on the walls.

And a little while later the granite was installed. The island ended up being massive! It is much larger than what I had expected from looking at the plans. But it is just what I wanted – a large open space with no sink or stove. I simply wanted a huge work space. And we can fit at least 6 stools around the two sides with the overhanging granite.

We also have built-in cabinets on either side of the fireplace. I am so happy with the mantle. I asked for something simple and chunky and large. It looks just like I imagined it would. The fireplace will have stone covering the whole thing, floor to ceiling.

And tile went in, and actually was completely finished today. I know this is pretty dark, sorry. This is the kids bathroom.

And this is the master bath. I was so impressed with the quality of work that our tilers did. We didn’t really know what in the world we were doing when it came to tile. I was so overwhelmed with all the choices. So I am all the more grateful that it turned out so beautiful. They put a tile “rug” in front of the sinks. And you can kind of see a trim on the face of the tub. That same tile is used as the backsplash and also as accent in the shower. I’ll have to do better pictures of the tile in the house once we actually have electricity (which should be tomorrow).

As daunting as the tile picking was, I felt just as uneasy at picking an exterior paint color. Adam and I have been burned by paint colors before. The outside of our current house has a tint of peach. The inside (when we moved in) was the color “off pink”, or at least that’s what we’ve called it all these years. And when I’ve tried to paint a simple neutral beige in the house, it has regularly turned out to be yellow. So we were a bit nervous about this decision. So here is our sample wall.

Thankfully we picked right. They painted, then the stone went up a little later. We couldn’t be happier with the outcome!

And I’ll leave you with a picture of a few of the boys on our new street. If I remember right there will be 28 kids on our cul-de-sac of seven houses. Too fun! (And also busy, and maybe a little crazy? I think we all need signs on our doors for when it’s play time or family-only time).

What happened while we were on vacation

We went to Adam’s parents house for Spring Break this year. It was amazingly relaxing. We watched some movies, played a lot of games, ate really good food, and simply hung out. This post wasn’t supposed to be about our trip, but since I have only one picture from it, (which is of the kids eating Arctic Circle shakes and watching cartoons) I thought I would show it now.

But while we were away in Soda Springs, things were happening on our house back in Boise. Of course the first thing we noticed when we pulled up was an actual driveway! That made the house seem so much more real to me.

Also the siding was being put up.

And the concrete for the back patio was poured.

And inside drywall had been put up. Behind Emma and Spencer is the kitchen and eating area.

And then some time during the next week texture went on the walls. This is the family room. The fireplace will eventually have stone all the way to the ceiling. (Actually that might be happening today.) :)

This is looking at the upstairs. The master bedroom is on the left, and Sydney’s room is straight at the end of the hall. That opening in the wall is the laundry chute!!! I’m just a little excited about that. :) I had to work hard to get that put in the plans.

And just a couple more shots of the drywall and texture. The first picture is standing at the front door looking into the family room. The door you see on the left is the powder bath.

And lastly I had to show a picture of the doors going in the house (well they technically were installed yesterday). :) Love, love them! I am so happy with the way everything is turning out. This post is the last of my pictures that are actually on the computer. Hopefully we can get the others downloaded so I can keep up with the progress.

The Inside Scoop (and some outside too)

So exciting to see actual walls up on the inside! To get a real idea of what each space would look like was so fun. In this picture you can see the front door and entry way, stairs, part of the kitchen and family room.

In this view we’re standing in the family room looking into the kitchen and eating area.

Adam did a panorama of this space. I thought it made it nice to see all of it together.

And I couldn’t leave out a picture of the great garage. We have a two car garage now. Adam has always wanted space for a wood shop, so that was one of our priorities in building this house. So that far back corner is Adam’s shop. He’s a little bit happy about it. They put down the tarps to help warm the frozen ground enough to pour the concrete floor.

And once it was warm enough, we got a garage floor!

Here’s Emma standing in her room! (Notice the windows are in!) When we started the process of building, we asked the kids if there was anything they wanted in the new house. Emma said that she really wanted to be able to watch the sunset from her room. (Cute girl!) So we were really glad that it worked out for her to have a south facing room, with the small windows facing west. (BTW the boys really wanted to put a slide in the house – which I was all for, but Adam had to be the practical one and put a stop to it. :))

Before we knew it, electrical, plumbing, HVAC and insulation went in.

This is a picture of the back yard taken out the window from the landing on the stairs.

And a picture of the back of the house.

And one of the front. I can’t believe how close we are getting to being done! We should be able to move in two to three weeks!

Framing

It has been so fun and interesting watching our home be built. It seemed so much more real when the framing started going up. Here is the front of the house when framing just got started.

This is the same view of the front of the house with some of the plywood on.

Do you notice that tipped wall? It is one of the outside walls of the two story family room. We went to the house one day to check on the progress and saw the wall like this. Confusing, right? That can’t be safe. The next day we found out that as the workers were trying to stand it up in its place, one (or more) of them slipped (everything was so icy), causing the wall to fall on them and injure several of them! As far as we heard no one had to go to the hospital, but they were off work for a few days recovering. I think they ended up using a crane to place the two-story walls.

The ladder was the only way into the basement for a while. That made all of us nervous. It was SO cold this winter (well, so cold for Boise), making the ladder icy, and our hands week from being frozen.

This is the beginning of the master bedroom. I was grateful that Adam was willing to climb up to the second story and take pictures for me. There was only a ladder to climb for a while.

Another upstairs picture. It took a while for the stairs to go in. That was an exciting day – to actually walk through the bedrooms!

And a picture of the back of the house. On the right is the family room. On the left is the master bedroom above, and the kitchen and eating area below.

It has been so exciting to see our blueprints become real. Some of the spaces in the house have ended up being smaller than what I hoped/expected, while others are bigger. There are things that I have already come to love about the house that I hadn’t expected (like the big, open landing at the top of the stairs).

But so far, this is one of my favorite spots in the house – the stairs. They are open to the family room and kitchen. I love the location of them (right in the middle of the home). I love how open they are, and I love the window on the little landing that looks into the back yard.

And here is a picture while standing on that little landing, looking into the family room and eating area and kitchen. Eventually the stairs will have wood rails and wrought iron bars. I’m so excited!

It’s all about the house

 

That’s how our life feels right now. It’s all about building the new house, or trying to sell the one we are in. It’s very busy, but also fun picking out cabinets, flooring, doors, lights, etc.

We will be moving into our new home some time this month! But it has been a long process getting here. We had a very cold winter this year (like most people I know), so building was extra slow during that time.

First they dug for the basement.

The kids were digging for fossils in the dirt walls.

This is our neighbors basement. It’s two stories deep since they have a basketball court down there. (Not full court – just big enough for a 3 point line).

Then forms for the basement walls were put in place.

And then they filled them with concrete. I loved the huge crane they used to do this!

A couple days later the forms were taken off and we had a basement! It was so hard to believe looking at this space that there was going to be 2 bedrooms each with small walk-in closets; a full bathroom; a family room; a storage room and a game closet.