Louisiana Antique and Other Fun Stuff.

This week was fun in terms of progress! The siding is finished and our brick work is nearly complete on the outside of the house:

Foundation Vents!

It looks far more red in these photos than it does in person, but it is a reclaimed brick called "Louisiana Antique." We picked the brick from looking at another house, so I laughed when I heard the name. Of course.

Our insulation is also complete, and sheetrock started on Friday! It's really starting to take shape.

The insulation started with these fiberglass blankets:

Then they punched holes in it and filled all the spaces up with blown cellulose. I was entertained. It reminded me of that build-your-own-teddy bear thing where they shoot your bear up with fill. I know this because mom and I bought Carson the cutest one at Busch Stadium once. Suckers, you say? Nope, so worth it.

Sheetrock delivered!

They started the ceiling sheetrock, first upstairs. This is the northeast upstairs bedroom...

And this one is our master bathroom ceiling! The darker board is over the shower, I'm assuming it has something to do with the fact that it has to be water-resistant. 

In a week or so, trim will start. Can't wait!

Mechanicals, Round 2 (And Electrical!)

After we got our windows in, we started making good progress again. Our heating and air conditioning systems are done and rough electrical is also complete.

Woohoo, A/C!

Wires and plumbing and stuff.

We are also making progress on the exterior. The Hardiplank siding has started to go on (it will be painted white - it's a lovely color of recycled paper at the moment). 

We found someone to build the doors for the front of the house, which look like the doors on old A. Hays Town homes and apparently are in budget. We got bids from the people who did our windows initially and they were over 3 times the budgeted amount. Beau at our builder's office told me I could swing by another house whose doors the new people built next week and my response was pretty much "whatever dude, you had me at 'in budget.'"

There haven't been a ton of changes on the inside of the house, but they finished the fireplace wall (it just needs brick now):

View from the kitchen

View from living room (+ hi Kevin)

The slots for all of the pocket doors are now in:

And this is the view from the front door. Guess who is going to have to keep the master door closed or the bed made? (Hahahah I am so funny sometimes, it will definitely have to be the former.) Whoops. The third door casing you can see will be our bedroom door. Did not realize how clear this sight line would be! I would imagine the drywall will diminish the "come into the light" effect somewhat.

We have been very pleased by the way everything is coming together. No fun stuff to report - we have both been working too much, but we really need to pick out light fixtures for the upstairs rooms. 

We can't wait for everyone to be able to come visit. And I'll make the bed for y'all! I'm classy like that.

The Rendering

We got a very nice surprise today. As it turns out, our builder has all of his houses sketched by a retired artist. I had seen these sketches on real estate websites when we were initially considering builders, but we assumed those were done by the architects for spec homes to help sell them. So, I was really thrilled to open my email to find this:

We have made one slight change in that we don't have railings on the front porch and stairs, but it otherwise is just as the plans are drawn. I think it's the sweetest thing and I've asked if we can have the original to frame for the house.

Hopefully we will have more updates soon. They have started to put the Hardiplank siding on the house, but I am waiting until more of it is finished before posting more photos. Unfortunately we are in a boring stage right now, but drywall will start soon!

We're (Finally) Weathertight! (I think.)

The windows are finally here!

We had some drama with their delivery. Naturally. Because nothing in construction can be easy/normal/as expected/ [insert descriptor of typical expectations here].

The windows were supposed to come Monday morning. They didn't show. When our wonderful site supervisor, Brent, called to ask why they didn't come, the response was "it was raining." Mmmmk. I failed to understand why windows couldn't get wet at all. Add the fact that I'm pretty darn sure it never got beyond a light sprinkle, and it sounded even more silly. Oh well, Tuesday then.

Brent called them at 6:45 this morning to remind them about the delivery. They said "it's raining." I got a text telling me this, followed by a text that said "Long story short, the windows are here and we are installing them now." I'm gonna need that story later, but YAY BRENT.

The trucks prevented me from getting a good shot of the exterior, but you can see the two windows in the dormers. I can't wait to see what those look like with window seats.

This is the back porch. Those doors will be fully glass in the same pattern as the windows eventually, and we are seriously considering screening in the porch before we move in. The mosquitoes are particularly awful this year for some reason, but it's made us think hard about how we will use the porch without a screen!

The master bedroom set of windows facing the backyard (the other wall isn't pictured).

Our living room bank of windows looks great! I am very excited to see what Nicole comes up with for drapes for these. 

And last but not least, the utility room window looks tee-tiny!

Electrical can finally start, then insulation, and then we'll get to more fun stuff: drywall and trim. 

I do need a shop-vac before insulation starts. I can't wait to see Kevin's face when he finds out that yes, I actually DO intend to vacuum up all the dust between the studs before they put in the insulation. This should be highly entertaining. 

The Standstill (but we have a fireplace!)

Our windows have been backordered for a while now, and our builder has been doing everything they can do without them in to keep the project moving forward. Unfortunately, everything that can be done, is done! The house is looking good so far:

That dumpster is really cramping my photo style. 

We did the electrical walkthrough last week, but due to the prevalence of copper theft in Houston, we are going to hold off on wiring the house until after the windows are in.

They did put our fireplace in yesterday though, and we are thrilled with it so far!

I can't wait to see it with brick around it!

Finally, we hired a new interior designer, Nicole Zarr. My friend Courtland knew what I wanted the house to look like and told me to call her - after meeting with her, I couldn't be more excited. A blogger here in Houston recently did a profile on a house that Nicole designed. The house and other examples of her work can be seen here:  http://www.cotedetexas.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-09-03T01:10:00-05:00&max-results=1

The windows are supposed to be here Monday. If they show up, I'll update the photos then!