The Geese Nest

Well, I finally have something to write about on the house.

After closing on an old house on November 20th, knocking down said old house in early December, and sitting down with the architect for the first time in mid-December, we thought we'd get started somewhere around April. As it turns out, it takes a rather long time to design and get a permit for a house. Especially when the city of Houston decides you need to build a sidewalk. But your neighborhood has no sidewalks. 

Our builder, Southland Homes, broke ground on July 1st. As these photos show, they have made remarkable (to us) progress in the last 27 days, especially considering the near daily rains we got in July, and we couldn't be more thrilled. We can't wait to actually live there - after 8 months of "mentally" living in the house, it's so surreal to start to see it come into existence.

December 2012: Demolition

We wanted to get the old house down as quickly as possible after closing because we knew it would sit empty for a very long time if we didn't, and we were concerned about potential liabilities (silly lawyers).

It only took them about 30 minutes to reduce the old house into this pile of rubble

At the lot about a week later during a wet December day

Then these kids came to visit. My sister is really excited.

It's raining and there's not much to see here, mmmk?

Groundbreaking: July 1

We got the floor plans finalized in May and spent pretty much all of June dealing with permitting issues. Thanks, City of Houston.

They staked all of the locations for our pier and beam foundation's piers and started pouring concrete on July 1st and 2nd. Everything at this stage was completed in mid-July.

Staking piers

Pouring the garage slab and continuing the piers

Piers and slab finished, July 14th

 Framing: July 15

They started with floor joists and worked up to the subfloor - I was thrilled to arrive to see this:

LUMBER!

Less than a week later, we had this:

View from back yard (the darker boards are the rear porch)

The view from the front of the house

Neither of us went up to the house for a couple of days, thinking that the sub-flooring would take at least that. Oh were we wrong. I was shocked to find this only two days after the joists were completed:

!!!

The following were taken between July 21st and July 27th.

Entryway:

July 22nd: The dining room is to the right; the study, the left

The Kitchen and Hearth Room:

July 22

View from the master bedroom into the back yard:

July 22

Kevin taking photos in the evening of July 25

My favorite part of the house: the Back Porch:

July 26 (ceiling joists complete)

More progress:

Entry stairs on July 26

We are hoping to have the house finished some time between mid-February and mid-March. Please come visit - we'll have plenty of room. However, we will not have a 60 ft. strip of sidewalk to nowhere for you to walk on. So sorry.