Days 61-65 - Dec. 17-21 - trim & interior stone work

Chip had the brilliant idea to trim the house ourselves.  It's not a hard job, but it is time-consuming.  Time is not something we have a lot of right now.  Here's the beginning of the trim (base trim, doors, door trim, window sills).

We also started installing the kitchen cabinets since a lot of them will be painted.

We also got some more stone work done in the interior, including an accent wall and the back of the island.



Last, but certainly not least, Chip installed the front door he made.  It's going to have glass in it.  It's over sized (you're welcome, movers) and we copied it from a house we saw on a Made of Metal job.

Days 54-60 - Dec. 10-16 - sheetrock

This week, we got sheetrock.  They hung, taped, floated, sanded and sprayed texture.  This is when you really get to see what the rooms look like.  Here's the kitchen and breakfast room.

Day 53 - Dec. 9 - stone complete

The exterior stone is complete.  I really like the way it looks with the dark gray paint.

Day 52 - Dec. 8 - stone and TV

Today the stone masons continued to work on the exterior wainscot.  They might have finished late this afternoon.  We also had a day of taping for the DIY show at the house and at the shop.  Chip started fabricating the front and back doors, which I'm super-duper excited about.  Hopefully I'll have photos of those soon.

Day 51 - Dec. 7 - more of the same

More stone.  The painters painted the exterior of the house.  It's a dark gray color which contracts nicely with the white stone.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  So the painters are done for awhile.

Now we have to start thinking about the metal work (ha!) and the trim since Chip and I are going to be doing that ourselves (ha again!).  I think I finalized the kitchen with the decision to use stock cabinets (and have them painted) and IKEA cabinets, which will be a stainless steel look.  I still don't know what I want to do about the bathroom vanities.

Day 50 - Dec. 6 - stone & paint

The stone masons and the painters started.  We have a limestone wainscot going on the front of the house.  The painters started chalking and prepping for the exterior paint.

The sheetrockers finished hanging the sheetrock (walls).  Next is taping and floating the joints.

Day 48-49 - Dec. 4-5 - more sheetrock

This weekend we got more sheetrock.  The guys are moving faster than we thought.  We also got the exterior stone delivered to the job site.

Day 47 - Dec. 3 - sheetrock

This morning, Chip and I (mostly Chip) installed the frame for the pocket doors.  I didn't know how those worked, but now I know.  You can buy a kit from the hardware store and install it.  It has a frame and the track.  They can put the sheetrock over the frames and we can later install the doors and trim.  There are pocket doors leading from each of the girl's room to their bathroom.

The sheet rockers also started today.  I can't wait for this step to be complete.

At home, I'm working on Mackenzie's room.  Because of her door, closet door, door to the bathroom AND windows, I'm having a hard time with furniture placement (damn architect!!).  I want Chip to make her a new day bed.  I loved my day bed growing up and wanted her to have something new for the house.  It's looking like it's going to be a little tight in there.

I'm also working on paint colors.  My painter is going to be cursing me.  I have 10 colors, different trim colors for different rooms and several rooms with different colors on different walls.

Another thing I've changed a hundred times is the kitchen.  Stay tuned for that...

Day 46 - Dec. 2 - roof

The roofer started today.  We went with a gray-ish colored composition roof.  Since we have such low roof lines, you can't see very much of it.  It should take him about 2 days to finish the roof.

We called our sheetrocker and he is hoping to have the sheetrock delivered tomorrow so he can start.    He'll probably take about a week, but I'm not sure if he's working through the weekend or not.  It's getting really exciting now. 

Day 45 - Dec. 1 - insulation

Since we passed our plumbing inspection, we could move ahead and get insulated.  By the way, I can't believe it's already December.  What happened to, well, the whole year?  Any way, it took them one day to insulate the house.  Time to move on again.

City of Austin also came out today to put up our electrical wires.  The new pole is towards the front of our lot, so we'll go underground from that pole to the house.

It taken a few weeks of using a generator to build, but we should have power very soon.  We joked that we might move in and have to use a generator.  Thank goodness that's not going to happen.  Now we're worried that we might be ready to move in with no water.  Our lovely water district gave us bad information when we met them before we started building.  Now a road cut has to happen and they've informed us that Travis County is really slow.  So we might be delayed by that.

Day 44 - Nov. 30 - green tag and concrete steps

Today we got a green tag...actually, two.  Yay. 

We also got concrete steps in the front of the house.  We went ahead and did those so the guys could start on the exterior stone.   The gap to the left side is for flower beds.  I don't like when I can see slab on the front of my house.  We'll cover it with plants!

Day 43 - Nov. 29 - not much

Nothing happening today.  Since the plumbers finished right before the holiday, they called in for the inspection today.  That should happen tomorrow, so it's just a waiting game.  Last week, we did get attic steps.

Days 33-42 - Nov. 19-28 - Thanksgiving vacation

We decided to take the week off of work for Thanksgiving since the kids don't have school.  We went to our farm, my parents' farm, Houston and even snuck back to Austin for the UT game.  Normally, I'd be freaking out about another week off, but I'm taking on a (slightly) less uptight attitude about this house.  So we enjoyed our week and it's back to work tomorrow!  One thing that got done while we were out was the shower pan for the master shower.

Here is the breakfast room after we finally got all the windows:

Here's the front of the house as of Nov. 26th:

Day 32 - Nov. 18 - more of the same

More rough and septic today.  A few other thoughts...

This is the back porch, which I'm excited about sitting on while watching the kids play outside.

And here's the job site see-saw.

One more note.  We still don't have power from the electric company.  We didn't have power to our lot, so Austin Energy has been designing and reviewing and I don't know what else.  They brought us a pole with a box, but we have no electrical lines to it yet.  This is another case of manana, manana, manana.

Day 31 - Nov. 17 - septic system

As the subs continued their work on the rough, the septic installers started their work outside.  They dug a HUGE hole in the ground for our septic tank and dug trenches for the field.  Pretty boring for most, but extremely necessary.  Chip likes all the heavy equipment they bring and use.

Day 30 - Nov. 16 - rough & cameras

Today the plumber, electrician and HVAC technicians all showed up to begin their rough.  "Rough" is when they put the plumbing pipes, electrical wires and air conditioning in the walls and attic.  They will work throughout the week to finish.

The DIY cameras followed me around today to show me in everyday life with Jack at home and doing things for the house.  My favorite part was choosing the tile.  We also hit Lowe's to buy some vanity lights and Sherwin Williams to buy some paint samples (4 shades of gray) for the exterior of the house.  We painted some squares to see which shades we liked for the exterior and trim.

The girls' bathroom and the half bath is getting some light colored travertine like this:

Jack's bath is getting slate:

The master bathroom is getting a porcelain tile.  Ours is darker than this one:

I know this is not like my "inspiration" bathroom, but what can I say?  We liked this tile in a Vegas hotel room we stayed in last month.  On the shower floor, there will be "pebble" tile.  You'll have to wait for the installation for a photo of that one.

The living areas will have this porcelain tile that looks like wood:

Days 25-29 - Nov. 11-15 - framing & exterior

The last few days have been spent on framing and the exterior.  The framers finished up the interior walls, windows and finally, the board and batten.  I'm super excited about how everything is going.  The sizes of the rooms turned out great and I think the floor plan is going to be great.  I was pretty nervous since we didn't hire an architect or home designer.  There have been some minor issues we had to work out on the fly, but overall, I think it's gone remarkably well.

Day 24 - Nov. 10 - more, more framing

The framers are still working hard.  They finished the roof today and continued on with the exterior sheathing (the plywood that goes on the outside).  They are completely done with the interior walls and blocking.  Blocking is when they put up wood in between two studs to attach things to later, like cabinets or a towel bar.  It makes life easier when you're attaching things to the sheetrocked walls.

Day 23 - Nov. 9 - more framing

Today more framing took place.  They worked on the interior walls and began the roof.  More of the same tomorrow...

Day 22 - Nov. 8 - framing

The framers shows up first thing this morning and asked where the rest of the lumber was.  We only ordered a small part of the lumber and they sent 6 guys.  Here's what it looked like at the end of the day.

We got a LOT of lumber this afternoon and they're supposed to send 10 guys tomorrow.  So we will be ahead of schedule again and hopefully have a roof by Wednesday.
Here is Jose and Chip standing in my closet.

Day 21 - Nov. 6 - shopping

My favorite part of building a new house is all the shopping.  And even though I'm on a budget, it's really fun to chose everything.  I spent Saturday ordering some fun items, like wallpaper and curtains (I know that's technically not a building supply...).  I ordered a galvanized bucket that I'm hoping Chip can make into my utility room sink:

I also bought some vinyl stickers for the playroom walls and Mackenzie's room walls.  More on that to come.  Finally, I bought two chandeliers for the girls' rooms and two pendant lights for over the island:

 

Day 19 - Nov. 5 - Yay for the permit

We got the permit this morning.  Hallelujah, praise the permit gods.  We are now allowed to proceed.  The framers will start Monday morning.  We lost a week but are technically still ahead of schedule because our slab guys finished so quickly.  This is hopefully what our home will look like by the end of the week (maybe minus the roof trusses).

Days 16-18 - Nov. 2-4 - still no permit

We don't have a permit.  We are trying to be patient and understanding but it's hard when we are told "tomorrow" every day.  We were ahead of schedule, so now we're on schedule.  Much longer and we'll be BEHIND schedule.  More news tomorrow...hopefully.

Day 15 - Nov. 1 - framing...not

We got back from our trip and we still don't have a necessary permit.  So we've decided to wait for that before we start framing.  It kills me to waste days, but sometimes it can't be helped.  I was told today that I could get the permit tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.  We'll see...

Day 11 through 14 - Oct. 28-31 - Vegas Baby

Chip and I decided to take a little trip to Vegas and have some fun.  All will be quiet for a few days.  We get back on Sunday, which is Halloween.  We'll go trick-or-treating with the kids and start framing on Monday.

Day 10 - Oct. 27 - pour day

Today was the day that the concrete was poured.  We got a pump truck, which takes the concrete from the concrete trucks and shoots in up and down through a pipe.  This way the guys can control where it's going and get it the far side of the house where the trucks can't get to.

 

We ended up with 11 concrete trucks delivering 106 yards (cubic yards of concrete).  The trucks came in all morning and the slab guys worked almost all day on it.  And here is the beautiful new slab.

Day 9 - Oct. 26 - paper & steel

Today, the slab guys came back and put in the paper and steel.  The steel is re-bar to reinforce the concrete, once poured.