BACK DECK!!!

When we were building our house, one of the things that I really wanted (dreamed of!) was a back deck. Our back "yard" is incredible, it's just gorgeous and I really wanted to be able to sit out back and have meals out there and read my book (one day...). So we added a back gable and ceiling fans, etc. One day we will screen it in, but for now it's open. When they built it, there were just the top, middle and bottom rows going across to make the rail. The spaces were big enough that Dane could fall thru and it made me a nervous wreck whenever we were out there. My sweet husband added in two more rows, so there is no way Dane can fall through now! Yeah!!!! He did this on Saturday, and on Saturday night we had our first meal out there. First of many to come!

The next morning Will went out on the deck. He was out there for a while and I went out to check on him and found him reclined, enjoying the fresh morning air. Love that boy!!

Live and Learn

Well now the house is done. It's beautiful and we love it. There are just a few loose ends that we are trying to get taken care of. Paint touch ups, some caulk repairs, etc. I'm pretty sure this project took a few years off my life - I now understand why people (usually) only do this once in their lives. I will never do this again, which is good, since we'll be living here forEVER. You live and learn - and if we had known then what we know now here are some things we would have done differently.

- I would have been how...do I say it - a hard-a$$, and not so nice right from the beginning. I was super nice to everyone, thinking that if they like me, they'll do a good job. I learned names and was sure to praise everything all the time. I think they did do a good job, but there came a point where I wasn't very comfortable "fussing" at them or pointing things out because I had set myself up as this nice mom with my kids in tow. I could have always loosened up but it's difficult to tighten up after you've been too nice.

- I would have inspected all the work much more thoroughly. It's uncomfortable after someone finishes a job to closely look over their work before you pay them - I like to trust that people have done a good job. Oh no. Not anymore. I wish I would have gone floor to ceiling, wall to wall, every single time. Because if I had, I wouldn't be finding these little imperfections that eat at me. Only toward the end do you become comfortable doing that kind of thing - just in time for the project to end.

- I knew I didn't want white grout - I've lived that nightmare before. I went middle of the road. I would have gone even darker.

- We wouldn't have spent hundreds of dollars on a diverter valve for our master shower. We never use it - we both like both of the shower heads on all the time.

- I wouldn't have picked out berber carpet. It already has a ton of pulls and underneath it is concrete. Apparently the concrete is uneven and because the berber isn't very tall, in some spots there is space between the trim and carpet.

- I would have gotten MORE skylights. We installed 7 of the tube skylights. Seven. You would think that would be plenty, right? No, I wish we had at least 5 more. I LOVE them. On sunny days I don't even turn on a light in the house until 4:30. Also, they look like regular lights and people who are over don't even realize they're a skylight unless I tell them.

I'm sure I'll come up with more - and I'll just add them to the list. Overall we LOVE everything and are so grateful.

It happened!!

We moved!! On Friday my Dad & Sharon came down and watched the boys so Luke and I could clean. (and Sharon packed our whole kitchen!!!!! - THANK YOU!) Then on Saturday Terri took them and we moved a lot of our things. Mike and Uncle George and Sonny helped us. Saturday was our first night in the new house and it was great! -and awful too. It was great to actually be in the new house. Will wanted to sleep with us, so we let him. At 1am, I was making my 3rd trip through the house and down the stairs to calm down Dane, after tripping up the stairs because it was pitch black, I brought Dane to bed with us too. Rosco paced pretty much the whole night and went out a couple of times. Plus it was the time change that night. So needless to say, we were pretty tired the next day. My mom and Chuck came up that afternoon and brought lunch and helped us for a little bit too. There is still a ton of work to do. Lots to unpack still. Lots of odds and ends to move still. And lots of cleaning at the old house. I'm just so glad to be in the house!

House Remodel - weeks 18 &19

Will this be it? We are planning to move this weekend! There will still be things to finish no doubt but hopefully the inside will be done. I hardly have the energy to type anything about it because I've long run out of house energy. The end of this week will make 19 long weeks of making (often) 3 daily trips down there, toting the boys along with me and dealing with problem after problem. Writing endless checks every Friday.

Ok, I won't be Debbie Downer anymore about it. Especially if we get to move this weekend! It seems like it's never going to actually happen, so if it really does this weekend I'll have a renewed positive outlook on the entire project. Because let me just say, Dan has done an INCREDIBLE job! It's gorgeous and more beautiful than either Luke or I ever imagined it would be. Now we just want to LIVE THERE.

House Remodel - end of week 17

It's getting close! The hardwoods are done - I love them. They look really beautiful. The banister by the stairs is amazing. Dan made it out of the old barn wood and it's pretty spectacular. At first I wasn't sure about it; it's definitely a "statement." But it's grown on me and I think it's incredible. The tile is coming along - it's all finished except for the master shower and tub. Dan still thinks we're planning to move this coming weekend. I doubt it will be quite ready but I'm not telling him that. I'm guessing it will be next weekend. Plus there is a lot of cleaning to do.

Yesterday I was there cleaning (the boys stayed overnight with my mom and Chuck) and I got the fireplace cleaned. I also got all of the outlet covers on - one doesn't realize how many outlet covers there are in a house until you're putting them all on! Then last night my mom and Chuck brought the boys up and the Thompson's came over and they helped me put in our closet system (hanging bars and a few (temporary) shelving units). Luke had to leave for Ohio yesterday afternoon so he wasn't there. We also had our first meal in the house (Sonny joined us too). Pizzas warmed up in our new stove! I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a picture. :( :( :( :(

House Remodel - end of week 15

Luke and I both very nicely expressed to Dan that we were frustrated with the progress of the never-ending ghost-town project lately. After those conversations with him nothing much changed. Then we (I) began to put it not so subtly. And more than once. I'm not sure if it was my trembling lips, cracking voice, combined with a crabby 3 year-old and a baby clinging to my hip with spit up down my shirt and tears in my eyes that did it or what, but something lit a fire and now things have finally picked back up over the past week. Apparently the squeaky wheel does get the grease. That or maybe he was responding to our very friendly threats to find someone else to finish the project if he's too busy (threats to "fire him," as he put it). Alas, we seem to be back on track.

Last week the downstairs carpet was installed. The master carpet was delivered with a run down the middle (defective) so they had to send that back and order new. It should be in within a week or so. They removed the bamboo flooring upstairs and re-installed it (it was done poorly the first time). The appliances were delivered. The trim is almost finished. They've put in some finishing touches like the tops of the ledges in the upstairs hall above the living room and the 1/2 wall by the dining room. Also the outside is shaping up really well. The front gable posts have been put in place, the soffit is almost done and the siding on the front gable is almost finished!

We practically had to threaten Dan to give us an estimated time of completion (the inside) but he finally has. He said "a couple weeks." Yay! Two weeks! Little did I know that "a couple of weeks" is the big construction joke - as featured all over the place including SNL - as in "Sure lady. A couple of weeks. Mmmm hmmm."

House Remodel - weeks 13 & 14

Just as we were beginning to let ourselves get excited for the end, we've had a setback. On Friday night Luke and I had a date night (first one since Dane was born!!) and on our way home we stopped by the house. To our surprise and major disappointment we realized that our new, beautiful, (expensive!) bamboo floors that were about 1/2 way installed looked pretty bad. Large spaces between some of the boards where you could actually see the tongue (of the tonge & groove) between the boards. The pattern of the boards was also less than desirable. Long story short, the installation has come to a halt and our builder is meeting with the owner of the company who installed them. Dan (our builder) said not to worry, he will get this fixed. They are going to pull up the floor that's already been laid and have it done correctly. So what it really means is more time. Probably 2-5 extra weeks depending on whether we have to order more flooring.

On another brighter note, they have begun laying our tile! (no grout yet) This is the 1/2 bath upstairs. We will be using this same tile in the boys bathroom downstairs.

Here is the laundry room. I especially love this tile.

House Remodel - Weeks 11 & 12

Things are starting to move quickly. The past two weeks they have put up almost all of the trim. (and painted!) Our cabinets are in and our counter tops (quartz) and sink were installed. Most of our lighting fixtures are in.

We are SO happy that we've gone with Dan Wesley as our "superintendent/builder." He has been nothing but wonderful. He is adding great touches to the house and has been honest, thorough and pleasant. One of the things we love about this house is not only that it is the house that Luke grew up in, but it's on the Payton land which includes farmland, woods and pasture. There is a beautiful old barn on the land that Luke absolutely loves. Dan took an old beam from that barn and cut it to fit on the end of the wall in our kitchen area. It looks incredible. He is also making our banister out of the old barn wood (which has "buckshot" (sp?) in it - when Luke's grandfather would shoot his shotgun some of the metal would lodge itself in the wood. You can actually see the tiny pieces in our banister if you look closely. What character!) It's gorgeous.

Things are coming together! We hope to be able to start moving in 2 weeks from now. That will be pushing it, but time will tell..

House Remodel - Week 10

This past week they completely finished the drywall and ceilings. I finished picking out the paint colors. The painter got everything primed and should finish the painting this upcoming week. The interior doors came in and they are installed. Kitchen cabinets are in!!!

House Remodel - Weeks 8 & 9

The last two weeks they hung all of the drywall and finally we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! You can really tell what the house is going to feel like now.

Here is looking from the corner of the living room up into the kitchen and hall.

I am standing in what will be the kitchen looking down the hall and down into the living room.

House Remodel - End of Weeks 6 and 7

I grouped last week and the week before together because a lot of the things they were working on ran over the course of 2 weeks. Here are some of the things that have been going on.

The 2 downstairs bedrooms had small windows that were up high - on ground level. The times have changed and now you have to have 9 cubic feet outside a window and only be 4 feet off the floor to pass inspection as a "bedroom" for egress purposes. So we had to get larger windows for the 2 bedrooms downstairs and they dug window wells. One more thing we've encountered that we didn't plan on. (Which equals more time and more money)
The new french doors that will lead to the back deck.

The boys shower is in downstairs in the new bathroom.

One of the boys' bedroom downstairs. New window. We also ended up taking about 95% of the house down to the frame, which we didn't anticipate having to do.

We had to have the entire house re-wired. Something else we didn't anticipate. Things like the wiring and the support that we had to add, you can't tell those things until you really get in to the walls. Apparently they did things differently back in the days when this house was originally built since they found electrical wires duct taped together and nails thru wires. Again, these changes equal time and money, but we are ok with it since this will be our "forever" house and we definitely don't want any corners cut.

New stairs going up.

This is where the front door used to be, on the 2nd floor. They bumped out the wall to be even with the front of the house and added a window. This will be our "office nook".

View from upstairs looking down into the living room. (new garage is farther back)

Front door is in!! View from inside...

View from outside...

All of the new windows are in (except the large living room window) Also the new metal roof is finished. (it's hard to tell in this pic but the color is charcoal - dark gray) You can also see that little bubble on the roof. We put in 7 tube skylights that will provide some (green!) natural light for us.

Finally the outside of the house is almost finished. There is still quite a bit of brick and stone work to be done, and the back deck. But most major things are finished. I think now it will seem to go a lot faster.

House Remodel - End of Week 5

They are getting the roof ready to put on the metal roof - which should be in early this coming week.
They put in the stairs in the garage.

I never put up pictures of the new living room stairs - here are the stairs going from the living room up. They did this a couple of weeks ago.

Basement - they dug here for the new bathroom.

They also dug out the perimiter of the basement for the drain system. They were hoping to finish that this weekend but it may be finished early this week.

New back deck!!!!!!!! It will be screened in. If you can't tell I'm reeeally excited about this.

End of the house - garage. They are laying the brick.

Remodel - End of Week 4

We are having a drain system installed. In case any water comes into the basement this drain system will take care of it. Therefore, the downstairs had to be completely torn out.

Garage, front gable and front porch are framed!

You can see where the front door used to be - they brought it out to the front of the house. A window is going to go there, but they haven't come in yet. Then Zach will fill it in with brick and brown county stone (what is on the corners of the house).

End of Week 3

During week 3 they poured some new concrete and did a lot of the framing on the inside.

Front porch is poured.
New garage is poured.

1/2 wall in living room is framed.

1/2 bath is framed and the new window.

Pantry in kitchen is framed and french doors will be just past the pantry.

View from kitchen-to-be.

New Master Suite.

We are putting in a new window in the master bedroom and they framed it.

They started on the stairs going down.

End of 2nd Week

This week was all about adding support to the house. Ceilings came down and beams were added. The foundation for the new garage was poured.

New support beams in the new living room. New support beam in the new dining room.

The studs will come down and the hole where the old steps were will be covered and this will be our master bedroom.

French doors are framed in.

New support beams in the hallway/1/2 bath area.

House Remodel Week 1

This was the old kitchen (a galley kitchen). The new kitchen will be where I was standing when I took the picture.

They dug the new stairs!

And here is the massive dirt pile from digging the stairs. The guys told us they could move it into Will's new room for him. He of course thought thought that sounded like a grand idea.

Living room to be.They started putting the stone on the corners of the house.