Photos: Showing framing today ... including the garage.

Thursday: This week has gone well (so far) with the framing company. They are doing an excellent job ... and I'm sure to tell them whenever I catch the foreman on site. This evening I managed to "drag" Nathan and the dog Holly, both on tethers (big smile) up to the property. This alone is quite a fete as they both seem to want to go in different directions (at once)! As you can see from the photos, Nathan found his room and posed by his "window" opening. There was a small measurement problem ... probably a miscommunication with the draftsman. I told him my dining room needs to be 12'x12' (I'm thinking all along inside measurements) ... he made it that size from the outside measurements ... thus, giving me an 11'x 11-1/2' room; making the width a bit too tight with my buffet cabinet. My (wonderful) builder was able to fix the problem by making a slight adjustment to the pantry and adding a "bump-out along affected wall. I'd much rather have the bigger dining room and lose a foot of pantry space!
Photos: Framing progress this week, Nathan standing in his new room, nightfall tonight barely showing main floor and basement walls.

End of Week Three: We have water, septic tank connection, and basement plumbing stubbed. Monday, weather permitting, we should have the garage and basement floors poured. Things are moving right along. This week I've been a "mad woman" trying to put together the appointments for the masterbath. It should be a combination craftsman and a country look. Clawfoot tub, craftsman vanity and mirror. It pays to do a little comparison shopping. The siding quote this week came in two to three thousand $'s less than the first quote we got ... for the same brand and color, plus I've had two friends use this particular company and were very happy with them. They install roofs too ... so we may be using them ... and they have a partial roll of the coppertone metal roof for the "eyebrow" roofline along the front portion of the home. Said I could get a good deal on it since it's leftover from another job. We found similar savings in windows by shopping!

Photos 9/15/06: Basement plumbing stubbed out, and a little wooded knoll we had graded for a picnic table and lodgepole lawn swing. From this vantage point there's a filtered lakeview.

Just happenstance ... but we now have a circle drive! When the earth dozer first arrived at our property a few weeks ago to do its thing, in order to get to the lot, the driver chose the lowest spot from the shared easement driveway (shared with two other homes) to enter property. By doing so, he opened up a perfect path for our intended driveway to circle on around, making it a circle drive. When DH asked the builder about keeping it, our builder wasn't sure because it wasn't in the plans approved by the county ... but today, he informed us that the county said we could incorporate it into the plans. DH was smiling ear to ear over that little prize!

Top photo: Basement walls

Middle photo: Driveway leading to garage ... and curving around to circle

Bottom photo: Curved driveway from different approach.

We have crawlspace and basement walls. Things are progressing quickly now.

Photos: DH checking out his new turf, Forms supporting concrete walls

Building progress ... Week One: We have the foundation footings up. A light scattered shower passed through on Wednesday ... just enough moisture to lessen the dust. By friday the foundation footings had been framed and poured with cement. The kids, dog, and I had an al fresco lunch in newly established backyard area.

Artistic sketch of our home (colorized sketch by Mrs. Mac) 9/3/06

Today began day one for construction and near the end the garage, crawlspace, driveway, and part of the basement were dug. There is a lot of nice topsoil with some clay mix beneath ... just a tiny little bit of shale type rock that was eventually dug up. Next week they should pour the cement forms.

We have liftoff! A for sure real green light to start building ... the actual building permit ... issued by the county ... just yesterday! Amen ... and THANK YOU LORD! When my builder called me yesterday afternoon and said he had been in the county building permit office for over two hours waiting for them to issue the permit ... well, lets just say I almost fainted! My dh had all but stopped asking me when he'd call to check on the family how the progress was coming along ... quit asking about the permit all together. Earlier this week, with the hope of the permit, the builder had made arrangements with his excavation crew to be ready next week to start "grubbing" out the land, digging the basement hole, and grading the area for the driveway. Oh, I must remember to go up there today and pick the huckleberries before they're disturbed ... don't worry, we have lots that won't get plowed under. We should have to only take down one tree and a snag (dead lopped off tree); which makes us happy to keep the beautiful existing trees. Oh, happy day!
Photo of property

The end of yet another week and still no construction. This "productive" week found me checking with the county on my permit ... they yet have issued the PAPER to begin building. Seems there was a question about a beam in the foundation or basement area ... of course, that meant another trip to my favorite engineers ... whom happened to be on vacation. Such efficiency! So I busied myself with selecting windows, interior doors and knobs, trim molding for doorways, baseboards, and windows. I also checked out some nice freestanding gas (wood type) stoves that can be used as supplemental heat in the winter. After watching my pop buy/haul/cut and stack wood for their heat the past twenty years, I'll be happy with the gas version. Yes, I know the wood is the real deal ... but not in my golden years, pleeeze! Here's one of the stoves I'm considering ... along with the windows selected.

End of week update on This New House: Have we gotten any closer to starting? Perhaps a little. The county should have the permit ready today (I hope) ... Yesterday the builder gave me a call and asked if I could meet him at a warehouse sale not far from here. There was a company that had gone out of business and the property owner needed to clear out the warehouse ... There were some beautiful hemlock unfinished wooden front doors, stair rail parts and even a set of beautiful (to be stained) interior french doors that we picked up for about 1/2 off wholesale. The stair rail parts were 25 cents a piece and were the style I had in mind ... so I picked up what I needed for $8. Both front and french doors for $275. I just love to find good quality stuff at a bargain price. The front door even has some leaded glass panels at the top. (Peeking through the windows is the frenchdoor.)

The squeaky wheel ... well you know ... gets oiled! I did a lot of squeaking today. Friday my general contractor informed me that the county needed a few changes on the plans in order for them to issue the (coveted) building permit. What we have here people is a lack of communication. Said contractor took the county's request and plans back to the engineer's office. Someone there told him that they probably didn't need the plans ... so he just left the fix-it request. Friday the engineer (helper?) called me at home and my lovely daughter asked, "Is this a prank call?" and hung up. When I got home she asked, "Do you know a guy named ___?" ... "Yes, I'm expecting an important call from ___." "Oh, (silence) ... I thought he was a prank caller." Needless to say, I wasn't too happy with her ... and after leaving a message for _____ on his answering maching and not getting a return call, I took off to his office this morning with a determination to get to the bottom of this ordeal. I even called the contractor on my cell phone for ___ to talk with. After agreeing that the work would be finished today (which in the past has not been taken seriously), I said I'd return later in the day to pick up my completed plans. Fast forward to 4:30 PM ... arriving at the office, I got a little bit of a brush off (to be expected?) But being determined to get what I was there to get (and already paid plenty for) ... stayed til closing. Did I get what I was after? YES! (At least I hope it's what the county wanted).

Today I went to the flooring showroom. I've got the carpet and wood flooring selected, but wanted a few more choices for vinyl bathroom floors. We've had tile and/or marble floors for the past 19 years, and now that we're living in a colder winter climate, we opted for a nice vinyl ... it will stay warmer on the tootsies and the selection these days is quite nice ... not your grandma's vinyl flooring. There was a glitch in the county building permit that needed a change with the engineering firm ... drats! Hope they get to it this coming week as just about everything is falling into place. Even the interest rates have dropped a bit. Everything is in the Good Lord's hands.
Photo: Sample of vinyl, wood and carpet selected. The wood is oak with some knots and a slight to medium grain color variation. It should look well even if it get's a bit distressed from Nathan. I'm a neutral kind of person and try to throw in color with accent pieces. Learned a long time ago that you may not like peach or blue tile and/or grout 5 years later! The carpet has flecks of jewel tones, but overall is beige. Click on photo to enlarge.

Try, try, try to not have to re-do or return something when building a new home. The hassles are great and sometimes cost additional $. I got blessed today and was able to exchange an undelivered kitchen range, but it was a big hassle. We orignially were going to go all electric with the building of our new home. Then about a week ago, decided to go ahead and install the gas lines just in case we opted to change out some appliances later on ... or for a good resale selling point (believe me, we're not thinking of selling our home). Our original kitchen range was from LG and had a glass cooktop/covnvection oven. Nothing wrong with this choice, but my cast iron skillets are a big no-no against the glass. I was starting to feel sad about my original choice and opted to return the range in exchange for a duel fuel Jenn-Air double oven. Of course, it's in white! I'm getting excited to start cooking on it :)

Some facts about siding: In our area of the country, the predominant siding is a lapboard type or rustic wood. There's not much in the way of brick, stone or stucco, except for some skirting or trim. Older rock homes can be found out on the prairie that used field or river stones for all four walls. In the lapboard category, we have vinyl, cement fiberboard, wood, and steel that I know about. There are advantages and disadvantages to all. Vinyl has a limited life and can be damaged by cold weather as it becomes brittle, and it's the least expensive. Cement fiberboard has to be prepped and then painted; it's less expensive than real wood, but somewhat expensive. It can sometimes be a problem where caulking is used, but you can paint it any color and it's pretty much fire and termite resistant. Galvanized steel is a newer product to our area for siding and comes prefinished and is seamless, and even looks like wooden lapboard siding ... but you have to stick with the color you choose and costs about the same as the cement. When you compound researching just one area, then multiply that by all the major elements of the home, you can see where the confusion comes in. Today, dh and I went driving around our new neighborhood and a few others and the only thing we noticed was everyone's siding. That one's vinyl, that is wood, oh, there's steel, etc. Everytime I drive anywhere now, I notice SIDING. Next it will be everyone's windows. At least I think we have finally made up our minds and will be going with the steel. Here are a few photos of homes around our property that have steel. You'd never know it except for the nice crisp lines and seamless application. It's a better choice for us and will mean less maintenance in the retirement years.