Kitchen Plans Finalized

We met with our kitchen designer today and finalized the plans. Wow, I'm so excited, it's going to look beautiful. He spent a lot of time with us and listened to our needs. I feel like we got everything we wanted and stayed within our budget (barely).

Now I can't wait to see it come together. I know August will come quicker than we can imagine.

Small Shipment

I went by the farm at lunch today and there was a small shipment of lumber. It looks like they also shoveled snow off the basement floor and it was pretty clear and dry when I was there today. I'm sure with tomorrow and this weekend's weather forecasted in the mid-50's, we should be able to get started on the framing soon!

Questions Answered

I had a discussion with Wayne on Friday to answer a few questions.

They are a week ahead, but the lumber likely won't get delivered until maybe Wednesday of this week at the earliest. They will start framing as soon as the lumber shows up. It's probably ok because it really snowed Sunday and Sunday night and they wouldn't be able to start today anyway. The sun is coming out now so hopefully the forecasts are right and we don't have any more snow for the next week or so.

The garage is sloped slightly towards the front. This is standard practice and is so that the garage can be hosed out and the water will run out. We actually checked our garage on our current house and it is also sloped slightly towards the front.

The septic tank will be located where the current dirt pile is located. The leach field will only slope up about a foot and it won't be a concern for horses to walk on.

Picture Journal

Here is another picture for the chronology series.

Skating Rink

Holy cow it's big.

Flatwork

The basement and garage are done. When I dropped the kids off at the farm this AM at 8:00, the cement truck was just leaving and they were done with the garage. They must have been there really early. I can't believe how fast that happened.

I plan to go out at lunch today to take pictures and probably talk to Wayne. I'm curious about when they will start framing. Wayne thought 1st week in February, but it seems like they are a week ahead of that.

More later.

Concrete

I haven't been out to take pictures, but my Dad called this AM and by 9:00, they had the basement floor poured and the pad for the horse grooming tie rack. Wow, that is fast. They must have gotten all the gravel done yesterday, I should have stopped by.

I will try to get out today while it is still light and will post a new picture.

Machine Broken Down

Yesterday they were supposed to 'shoot' the gravel into the basement so that they could pour the basement and garage floor today. The machine that they use to do that broke down, so they made other arrangements to truck the gravel in and place by hand. I'm sure Wayne was pretty bummed about that. Last night when we drove by, no gravel was in the basement, but there were about 4 piles laid around the outside of the house.

I'm sure they won't be pouring concrete today. I'll go check later today and see what they are doing. We have the guy finishing up tiling the master bath in our old house today and a repair person coming to fix our dryer - which seems to have broken a bearing or something. Good thing the dryer will be coming with us.

Kitchen

We met with one of the kitchen designers that we've been working with and the design and price are looking good! We had a few minor tweaks here and there and then he will give us more of a firm price. We were also able to give him exact appliances that we will be using.

The good thing about his company is that he can use different suppliers based on our needs. We can get an overall lower price that way.

January 15 - Another Photo

Looks like they're done backfilling the outside of the foundation. Wow, it doesn't even look or feel like there's a slope up to the house. I'm glad.

Moving Lots of Dirt

They've been putting dirt back into the hole and packing it up against the foundation. The perimeter drain system and sump pumps are in place under the basement and they will pour gravel, then dirt on top of that. They will smooth it out and then pour the floor to the basement and the garage.


As of today the garage is complete and they are working on the rest of the house. It looked like they were finishing it off. Wayne said they'd pour concrete early next week. Probably Monday, Wednesday at the latest. They will also pour concrete for our little wash rack pad for the horses in front of the barn.


Also, one of the trucks backed up into one of our water spigots. The handle broke off, but I guess they'll have to replace the whole pipe down to where the pump is. Bummer for them, but maybe we can get them to move it if they have to dig down anyway...


Latest pics

Getting Ready to Cover Up

They had a city and engineering inspection yesterday on the foundation and everything passed with flying colors. Today they were out finishing the perimeter drainage and sump pump system - we'll have 2, and back-filling. They will cover the basement with gravel, flatten it out, float the drainage pipes on the gravel. They will be ready to do the foundation and garage flatwork probably on Monday!!

We close on our construction loan today, so that will finally be out of the way.

Wayne mentioned that one of his houses may be available to rent if we sell our house before the new house is complete. We plan to put our house on the market on February 1. We just don't know how long it might take to sell. After all the great improvements we've done, I'm afraid that it will sell in the first week. And then again, I'm afraid that it won't sell... Such a game to play. I'm pretty resigned to the fact we'll likely have to move twice unless the buyers would be willing to lease back to us until we are able to move into our new house.

Snow

It snowed last night, but I don't think that should slow down what they have to do this week. It's not going to be really cold. They will be putting in plumbing and perimeter drain.

End of last week they put a coating on the concrete foundation to help with moisture, I guess.

Taking Shape

Over the holiday, they put up all the forms, poured 100 yards of concrete and removed the forms. We now can see the shape of the house! Today they will be putting in gravel around the perimeter for the drain and put in plumbing. They should be doing flatwork for the foundation in about 2 weeks. Wow!

Appliance Update

I was sure I liked the GE Monogram stuff better than Viking, but the appliance center we went to had Viking floor models they were selling. The price was too good, so we ended up with Viking range (48" with 6 burners and a griddle), Viking vent hood, Viking dishwasher (made by Asko) and Viking microwave (made by Sharp). I'm very happy about the appliances and know that I will absolutely love them.

We also got to buy a new dishwasher for our Bluestem house. Our dw conked out on Christmas day - oh joy! We've got to stop spending money on the old house! (Look, I'm already calling it our old house and we haven't even put it on the market yet!)

We also took a trip to the lighting design center to start looking at lighting - so fun! But, we took the kids with us and they didn't like the movie they put on for them. So, I ended up sitting with the designer while Miles took the kids for a drive. We've only done the preliminary stuff though, so we still have lots to decide.