Dry Wall

WE HAVE DRY WALL!

(Sante Fe finish 90% smooth 10% texture)

It's amazing how dry wall makes a house look like a home.  Jeff worked really hard at designing special features throughout the house.  Now that the dry wall is up, these features stand out beautifully!

Front entry - notice the 3 open shelves.  They're mirrored on the opposite side too.

Great Room - Large windows show into the formal living room right behind it. 

Kitchen - Large skylights above add natural light.  The window in the back looks out to the backyard.  Our pantry is located through the door left of the ladder.

Master Bedroom - Offers a two-way fireplace from the master into the bathroom.  I also love the accent wall with the built in shelves. 

Computer Station - this is one of our favorite spots in the house!  The computer area sits across from the kitchen and looks out over the staircase.  It's out in the open, yet has it's own space.  As most of you know, we're not T.V. people, but we do sit at the computers all the time!

Main Floor Hallway - leads to the guest suite and the nursery.

Tandum Garage which connects with the two-car garage.

Oversized Two-Car Garage

FOR THE DOWNSTAIRS AREA... 

Basement Living Area

Staircase

Staircase

Doorway to the Theater Room

Spiral Staircase will take the place of the ladder which leads to the racquetball court.  The space behind the ladder is for our workout area.

1 of our 3 Kid Bedrooms (they're all the same)

Racquetball Court

While dealing with the stucco situation, Jeff and the gang worked hard at putting together the racquetball court.  It's a kit and fits together tongue and groove.  The panels are quite heavy and took two men to carry them onto the scaffolding.  Once held in place, they're glued solid.  What Jeff thought would be a full weekend project turned into a full month project.  

The ceiling before...

The ceiling after!

All the effort paid off; the court looks great! 

Now, we just need to add the glass railing and put in the floor.

Martin and Jeff get the first game.  Anyone else want dibs on game two?!

Summer 2013 - raquetball lessons for the kids!

...and Doti's Dance Studio's grand opening!

It's been a few months...let's play catch up!

FEBRUARY - MAY

Within a few days of having the stucco done, it started to crack!  We had cracks all over all the walls.  Not just small cracks, but large ones too.  We called the stucco company to come out and fix it.  They had a meeting to determine why it cracked and in the end could not come up with a conclusion.  They decided it must have been because of the ICF (insulated concrete forms - what we built the house in.)  Jeff was not very happy!  He insisted they repair the job.  Weeks went by and nothing happened.  Finally, some workers came out and "patched" the cracks.  In the photos below, you can see where the cracks were "fixed".

 

Some of the cracks cracked again.  Jeff sprayed them with orange paint to have them redone again!

Once all the cracks were fixed, the painters came out to paint the house.

Unfortunately, it was premature.  If you look close, all the "fixed" cracks show through the paint job. 

Now we had a painted house with stripes! 

Obviously, we were not very happy!

Of course no one wanted to take the blame.  For months, the stucco company refused to return any of our phone calls.  The painters were great to work with, but said we should have never accepted the "patch" work job and insisted they fixed it before we painted.  (Now they say that.  Why didn't they say that before they painted?)  Jeff hired an independent company to test the stucco chemistry.  That didn't turn out well either...he said it was the paint - it wasn't put on thick enough.  We didn't buy that excuse either as we knew the paint had a very thick primer and coat.  We were certain the paint was fine.

To make a long story short, two months later, Jeff insisted in one final meeting with the Stucco company.  They came out and within two minutes told Jeff that they did a crappy job and would repair the whole thing.  On top of that, they would repaint it at their expense.  We were shocked!  Why did this take 3 months to decide!  Although this put us way behind schedule, it's nice to know that the company took pride in their work afterall and came back and did the right thing. 

(Stucco company:  B&H - a usually highly reputable company that came with recommends.)

Doors & Stucco

This month, we've accomplished two things! We have stucco and our exterior doors, including garage doors!

Stucco
It's so exciting to see the house come to life.  Stucco has added that "next step" which makes it seem like it's really coming together.  We hired this part out and the guys took two days to stucco the house. 

Under the bay window and the bottom part of the column will have rock.

Back Patio

Double Arcadia door allows for a wider entrance.
We'll also have rock under the pop-outs on the columns. 

Garage door on small garage.
Side of house view of stucco and pop-outs.

Back of house

Side of garage

Garage - inside view

Master-Bedroom Arcadia Door

Exterior Garage Door - inside view
Jeff, Ed, Martin and Luke installed all our doors.
Thanks guys for all your hard work!

Exterior Garage Door - outside view

These sweet smiling faces are also very excited about the progress.  It means we'll be in our new home soon!  Stone keeps asking if we'll be in the new home by his birthday (July).  He wants to have his party in the new house!

...over the past two months.

Progress is slow, but steady.  Over the past two months, we've installed our fireplace, bathtubs, and have ordered most of our doors (exterior and garage).  Jeff and Martin have diligently been working on the "blocking", which is the final framing stage.  Also, Jeff's uncle Scott was here last weekend to finish the electrical work.  Just a few more miscellaneous tasks to complete and we're ready for the next phase - stucco!

  

Fireplace between the Master Bedroom and Bathroom.

Front of the house - Bay Window



Bay Window - exterior


Below...Jeff is installing the racquetball court lights.



Guest Bathtub



 

Master Bathtub

Aspen's Bathtub

The boys have been entertaining themselves with all the packaging materials!

Misc. Framing

There's alot of small jobs to be done right now before the next phase can start.  The next phase consists of drywall and stucco.  Until then, here are a few things we've been working on...staircase(s), installing lights, finishing the formal dining room recessed ceiling, building the wall around Aspen's bathroom tub, and a few other miscellaneous/timing consuming things! 

MAIN STAIRCASE

Yay...the staircase is framed! 
We can get down without the use of ladders!

SPIRAL STAIRCASE

Framing the spiral staircase...a fun, family event!

It was built in our old house, then rolled down the street to the new house.

The spiral staircase leads from the main basement to the sub-basement / racquetball court.

ASPEN'S BATHROOM

Framed wall around the tub.

LIGHT BULBS

Chase has been helping a ton these days. 
On this day he put in all the light bulbs!

Jeff and Martin finished framing the formal dining room recessed ceiling.

Raised platform for seating in the Theater Room.

Lunch Break with Uncle Scott!

Chase, building a maze for his ball.  He already calls himself an engineer!

A few additions to the backyard.  Martin brought his boat and Isabelle's 10'x8' playhouse over.  The kids are having a blast playing outside now that the weather has cooled off a bit.  The pit is for the trampoline.  Once it has stucco on the walls, we can move the trampoline into it.