The plans have been drafted, the design selections made, and the construction loan closed. It is time to start building!! We are shooting for a March completion barring any weather or supply delays.
September 2021
We have officially broken ground! The dirt guys came and created the pad for our house in one day! We were able to use dirt from our property (saving $$) and expanding our pond as a bonus. James is pumped- the pond easily doubled in size.
Also this month, the well company came and drilled our well. We're still in the process of getting electricity to the property, but as soon as we do, we will have water! They will come back in a few weeks and build a small "house" around the pump to keep it insulated.
October 2021
When we left for our 10th anniversary trip to Hawaii, the foundation forms had just been delivered to the land. When we returned a week later, the plumbing rough in was complete and the rebar was set. A few days later, concrete was poured! This was a huge milestone for the timeline.
You can see the well house in the picture below. It was customized to match the house (white with black trim). While we aren't building our shop yet, we went ahead and had them pour the concrete for the future shop and covered RV pad.
A funny note about this stage: When they marked out the footprint of the foundation, I thought there was NO way it was big enough. So much so that I made James get a measuring tape so we could measure the pad. Sure enough, it was correct. Our builder said this is extremely common and he typically warns people beforehand- haha!
By the end of the month, sticks started to go up. We had the first floor framed out with plywood going up next.
November 2021
Things started to really take shape in November when the roofline was finished and the dormers were added! It looks like a whole house! The framers continued to work on finishing out the exterior and interior. It was so cool to be able to walk the rooms now.
December 2021
The house was totally wrapped in Tyvek and ready for the roof. The framers continued to finish up all of the framing inside, with much of the bracing/supports coming down. The cedar posts went up on the front porch and I am in love!
January 2022
Things started to progress on the inside. The fireplace insert was installed- the tiles on the fireplace will be painted black. The water dispenser was installed backwards (facing the garage instead of facing the mud room) but was a quick fix. The plumbing and electrical/HVAC rough-ins were done. Windows were delivered!!! (Windows were a huge delay in 2020.)
We also, after months and months, finally got power to the land (yay!). Unfortunately, the power company didn't do what we agreed to and they put our pole in the wrong location (boo!). We also aren't supposed to have a guy wire. It has been such a headache getting temporary power and we still have a ways to go!
February 2022
We were rocking along pretty steady until this month. Visible progress slowed, minor repairs needed to be made (dent on the water bottle refill panel, broken trim from the roofers, studs removed by plumbers bringing in the two drop in shower units) and we ran into our first real issues with delays.
First, a damaged shower unit for the Jack and Jill bath was delivered. Turns out they didn't have any others like it in stock, so we had to go with another option (which I like better!) but that meant that we had to drill into the foundation to move the shower drain.
Our exterior doors were supposed to be delivered during the ice storm, but they were delayed at manufacturing. We were waiting for the doors before moving forward to install the windows. The doors were the only thing keeping us from being "dried in" so that we could continue work on the interior (spray foam! sheet rock!).
Finally, we decided to move forward with the window installation. They look SO good!! Also, check it out below- brick was delivered! The shingles are done on the roof, but we are still waiting for the metal pieces over the front porch.
We hit a few design snags this month as well. During our initial electrical walk-through (where we decided on plug and light switch placement), it became apparent we were going to have to rethink some of our lighting choices. Our ceilings were too low to accommodate the large chandelier we chose for the living room, but were too high for the kitchen island pendants!
With the delay from the doors, it is definitely going to be a few more weeks; I can't wait to be dried in and working on the interior/fixtures/finish work. I'm bummed about the delay, but things should really start rocking and rolling these next 6-8 weeks!
Leave a Reply