the Routine and the House

It's Sunday morning, and my early bird riser is up at 6 AM ready for the day.  After eating breakfast (or throwing it to the dogs), I dress myself and Aidan.  As I am putting his shoes on, Aidan looks at me and says "House?".  Yes, Aidan, we are going to the house.

Our Sunday Routine - Eat breakfast, Ride out to the House, and Go Grocery Shopping

Visiting the House is Aidan's favorite, in fact, he use to tolerate a long grocery shopping trip while riding in the car cart, but now, he's done halfway through.  He wants to walk and run all over the store like he does at our property and the House.

It's the House I want to focus on...right now it's shaping up to look like one, and one day the House will be our Home, and I can't help but think of all the memories we will make living there.  I can't wait until we can walk out our back door to play in the the large yard or run to the creek. Or sit on the back porch in the early morning drinking coffee and listening to the sounds of nature. Or walking the long driveway on the weekend to check the mail. Or taking the dogs for walks though the woods. Or teaching my boys how to shoot a bow and arrow. There are many things the country living will offer us, and I am excited to watch my boys experience it.  

But I don't always have time to daydream what living in the new house will be like...nope, we have selections, selections, and more selections to make.  Choose a color, a texture, a material - make a change, envision a layout, add and delete...the house changes so much it seems in a weeks' time that I would be crazy to miss one Sunday of taking pictures and walking through the house.

So what have we chosen?  Well, we (errr, I) knocked off a big portion of our list with finalizing plumbing & electrical fixtures along with the appliances.   Big decisions, such as the stone cap color, roof shingle color, cedar shake color, soffit color, brick color were made, too.   Color, color, color.  We attempted to have Aidan help choose when we couldn't decide between two colors, but he offered no help by choosing both.  Sometimes we went to the builder and had him weigh in, too.  In addition, we found a granite slab that we really like and will go well through out the house.  Finally, we made some selections for floor tile and shower tile colors, textures and layouts.  Making all these selections was very time consuming, and we are still pursuing bids so we can ensure we're getting the best price and value.

In addition, we've had electrical outlets moved, lights moved, lights added, and hvac vents relocated (when possible).  We try to imagine how we will use a space so that the layout of electrical, plumbing and hvac won't interfere and is convenient to what the need will be.  In addition, we opted to go against a trapezoidal column and go for a straight, rectangular stone column.  The top of the column was 2' by 2', and it would be massive by the time it was angled and reached the bottom.  We like the looks of the column, but we do not want them to overpower the front of the house.  These changes and decisions means there has been some great progress, right?!  So I'll share where we're at.

The framing crew worked to finish out the exterior while the plumber and electrician began roughing in their perspective trades.  The HVAC guys began installing the duct work and vents, and the masonry guys have begun the stone work.  The roof is complete and most of the windows are in - unfortunately one was broken during shipment, so they're waiting on the replacement.  The county inspector came out to approve placing the concrete for the garage.  The inspector also gave the go ahead for insulation...so I made sure to get pictures of the studs to show where plumbing and electrical is running - ya know, for future reference.