Happy New Year!

Two years ago today, Eric and I were driving home from work, and I said to him, "I have been looking on the Internet, and I found this great house". First, I should say that I am not allowed to look on the Internet anymore because it scares Eric completely! Second, I expect Eric to say no to me with all my hair brained ideas (like houses and school!). He does not always come through for me in that regard! Anyway, when we got home, Eric did some number crunching and said I think we can do it. I was not expecting that result! Anyway, we were under contract for our house on January 10 after another contract on the house fell through and getting mortgage preapproval all in a very short time. Yes though, I did fall in love with our house from Internet pictures!

If you had told me a year ago, that we would GUT our house in November, I would have laughed my head off. We were just hoping to get new windows this year! I think this is the biggest project that has ever been done to get new windows.

So what does 2011 hold for us? Well, hopefully some time in February, we can move back home. But the rest will just continue this wild, crazy, fun, loving journey for us. I hope it is the same for all of you too.

New tub

Powder room (maybe we should call it the hall ball since there is a shower!) tub arrived on Monday. It looks great - and very spacious compared to the coffin shower!

December 22 progress

Lots of electrical and plumbing continuing. It seems like they are coming along nicely, but I don't know where they end! New stairs were fixed. The landing in the middle includes a step so that messed up the stair count. So the bottom half had to be replaced. It looks much better! Lots of misc. framing done too.

It really looks like a house again! I can not get over how much I love the floor plan in person. We did not however get rough inspection done today. There was just too much to finish.

Pictures of new stairs

Because the stairs are really the only thing I can take pictures of right now! Installed last Thursday. It is so nice to be able to go between the two levels inside. Although honestly it is probably warmer outside still!

View from the bottom of the stairs in the basement


View from the top of the stairs pointing down


View from the powder room

Random pictures

Pictures from Sunday's work on the house. Eric worked on the extending the electrical line trench for the telephone/cable burial. It was a lot of work.

Eric digging:


Straight on view of the new master room bedroom sliding door and new basement window (only one window left in the basement to be installed, and they look so great!)


Side and back view of the house. The 3 windows close together are over our bed. The other window on that wall is the master bathroom. Then you can see the sliding door too.


Back of master bedroom and dining room. P.S. We will be painting the outside this spring so I promise the outside will improve!

Chaos

It is hard to accurately describe how our house looks when we go over in the afternoon. I thought that I had taken a good picture of it but really not. There are just so many people in the house working between plumber, electrician, roofer and general tasks that it is nuts to go over there. Unfortunately we can't go over after work because it is way too dark then. Anyway, it is hard to take a step anywhere without being in someone's way. And it is messy. Really though everyone can make fun of me for caring given the overall condition of the house. It is not as though I am living there!

"I am so much happier now that the roofers are here"

Quote from my sweet husband on the way home today. The roofers came today to put new roof on the living room/dining room - the old one had to taken off to get the beam into place between the original house and the 1990s addition. In addition, all the new penetrations had to be fixed in the old roof as well as the old fireplace hole. Our roof looks like swiss cheese now with all the vents! We will however actually having working vents in every bathroom (0 before!).

Cell phone picture. Trust me that there are roofers up there!

December 16

So Mom, it is December 16, and this is my 16th post of the month. That is pretty good right? You are not at all fooled by my multiple posts in a day, are you? Darn.

New stairs

New stairs were delivered yesterday. Hopefully they will be installed today. It will be a beautiful day when you can go from the main level to the basement without going outside! Some times I think I am too easy to please!

Some schedule:
Rough inspection next Wednesday
Then insulation
Then drywall
Then Eric and Jen get to work their butts off getting the paint and guest bathroom done

This week's progress

We have been working late every night, and so here I am at work updating the blog. It seems it might be the only way to get it done! In addition to the late nights, we have been having computer problems at home, which are frustrating after a 10-hour work day. I did take pictures today just because it was such a circus at the house today with plumbing and electrical work; hopefully I got some good shots. The funny thing is that it feels more like a house with all the inner workings than with just the framing. I am not sure why that is true - maybe because it is always cold there! Are you getting that it is cold at our house?? Evidently those old walls with no insulation worked better than I thought! No - I doubt that.

I am starting to feel excited about the house because it feels like it might actually get done. It is really an amazing house! Even I must say much better than I thought it would be when we bought it.

Electrical progress

Lights are going in today along with outlets. There are a lot of lights. And we have planned every single switch. At least I will always know how to turn on a light though! In the future, we will be adding some more home automation to the electrical. So for example you can do a cooking scene that adjusts the kitchen lights to be right for cooking. Also the automation can be run from the iPad. I don't need that, but it will be cool. It will be interesting to see what we come up with in that department.

Plumbing progress

Plumbing is coming along. I think they finished all the drains upstairs. Then they need to put in all the water lines. We got quite a bit of the bathroom order today, which was exciting. The guest bathroom vanity and cabinet arrived, but we will not have it delivered until we are more ready for it (like when we have drywall!).

HVAC Progress

HVAC was finished yesterday. The furnace is installed but not on. We still do not have the basement windows in yet, and there is no insulation. So it is really not time to turn on the furnace yet. We are anxious for it though as the house is always freezing!

We discovered it is difficult to install modern HVAC in an old house - here was the penalty for keeping the shell. In a modern house, there are significantly more return air runs, which we have previously discovered is required for a high efficiency furnace to work. There is going to be visible ductwork along the middle of the house in the basement. However, I think all the rooms look really good. The upside of the modern HVAC: even heating/cooling throughout the house. This was a big issue before especially in the old sun room (now dining room and living room). I am excited to see how it turns out!

Master Bedroom Sliding Door to Nothing

New huge sliding door in the master bedroom is in, and it is amazing. Unfortunately right now, it is a door to nowhere. Some day there will be a deck with a hot tub. In the mean time we have a great view!


Closeup of door


Door from master bathroom to give a little perspective

Main Electric Line Buried

The sad part of framing is that does not make for good pictures. So on the blog I am forced to post pictures of the Xcel lines burying the electric line. Seriously though it will be nice to have the line buried especially because the old line would have been right over our new (some day!) deck off the master bedroom.

Week of December 6 Progress

It has been awhile since I wrote. I think I am just exhausted. Lots of house stuff going on and work makes for one very tired duck!

HVAC: Duct work is coming along nicely. Seriously can not express how anxious we are for heat. Or at least no more open air to the outside!

Electrical: Main line from the pole to the house is buried now. Electrical panel/meter moved.

Basement Framing: DONE! I just love to see the realization of the house plan. It all just looks so great.

Sliding doors upstairs: Done too. New doors in the breakfast nook and our bedroom. Awesome.

Things definitely went fast once the basement floor was in.

Bee Hive of Activity

Things are quite busy at the house today. Our very favorite people are there - HVAC. Seriously our house is so cold right now! Can't wait for the heat to be back on. The basement floor looks fantastic (I will take a picture!). Framing in the basment is starting. Yippee!

Basement floor pictures

I went back over to the house tonight, and the new floor looks so great. Eric and I are both so excited about it.

Concrete truck and pumper truck. It was impressive. Our neighbors surely hate us!

Putting in the floor!

New Siding

The back of the house looks great!

Basement Floor Is In!!

They just finished pouring the basement floor concrete. I think we got some good photos of the concrete pumping. I will try to put them up today. Now the work can begin again!

End of the week status

Work continues on fixing the outside siding. The new siding looks great!

The plumbing in the basement floor is done, and the inspection for it should have happened today. Elliott, our contractor, wanted to ensure that the basement was ready for concrete so we are holding off on that until Monday morning. Then this part of the basement will be done!

Last night, I ordered all the guest bathroom fixtures (tub, sink, cabinets, faucet etc). We are going to fix that bathroom before we move in.

One month in

We started one month ago yesterday. Some times it feels like forever ago.

Some things we have learned:

It was very, very wise to bring our own bed to our basement living. We probably would have gone nuts without it.

Work happens much faster when Eric and I are not doing it by ourselves on the weekend.

Even when you are not having the contractor do the finish work, there are still a ton of decisions to be made.

We were completely nuts to think that we would have any free time now. With the longer commute and the crazy work schedule, it feels like we are going 24/7.

And this one is from Jen:
I have the best husband ever who puts up with my crabbiness in all of this.

Yesterday's progress

The dirt in the basement is mostly in, and the plumber is to come today to do the basement plumbing. I think inspection for that is tomorrow and then floor could go in Saturday. I can't wait for this floor to be finished.

The new siding is up at the back of the house. The old windows were larger, and there was one more of them so siding had to be added. It looks fantastic, and some time during the day, I will take a picture.