A Day of Rest?

Today is the first time we've had workers at the house on Sunday.

The stucco guys were there putting up more chicken-wire-mesh for the base stucco coat. In this picture, they have hung the mesh on most of the front of the house above the garage.

They have hung the mesh on the right side of the gameroom window, but not yet on the left side.

It looks like they have also started framing for the garage doors.

The plan for this week is for the framers to finish up with the windows, arches & ceilings.  That will enable the electrician, plumbers, HVAC & audio/visual guys to get in.  They are also hoping to get the concrete work completed this week which should consist of the driveway, front porch, back porch & perhaps the sidewalk.

They tell me that for the next couple of weeks things will feel pretty slow. 

I mean, how exciting can laying wires & pipes really be?

Windows & Arches, Oh My

There were so many changes today.

Here's a view of the front of our house and you can see that most of the windows have been installed.

The two arched windows in the office have been completely installed.

...in this close-up of the entrance and balcony you can see that the arched window into the game room hasn't quite been framed in yet.

 We thought it was interesting that the windows came from the manufacturer with labels so the framers would know exactly where to install them.

This one is labeled "gallery off master bedroom and harvest room."

In case you are wondering, it's been installed it in the correct place.

This is the view out the back of the house. Shane is standing in front of the windows in the harvest room and to the right of the three living room windows is the doorway that leads into the master bedroom.  It's hard to see in this pic, but today they framed that doorway to have an arched top.

This picture is a view of that arched doorway (from the above picture) from the other side; looking out of the master bedroom into the little hallway that leads into the living room.

They've installed the walls that will create the little alcove the tub will sit in.

And they've built the arch for that alcove but haven't yet installed it.

Shane's helping them out.

They've corrected the framing of the staircase so that we can have a larger powder bath.

Here's the staircase before the changes were made; they added a stair at the platform half-way up so the powder bath ceiling can be taller.

Here's a picture of Shane with the staircase and wine room behind him.  They've framed a couple of windows into the room.

And the gameroom with the windows installed. 

Well most of the windows are installed, we seem to be missing a window-one of the upstairs side windows isn't installed, but we couldn't find it sitting around anywhere.  I'm sure they take care of that this week.

Looking down stairs into the entryway (the wine room is to the right of the staircase).

 And lastly, a picture of the entry.  It's rather dark, but you get the general idea.

Obviously, Shane didn't know I was snapping a picture, but I wanted him in there for reference.

We spent most of this afternoon driving around looking at other houses and trying to pick out what color of stucco we want.  Can you imagine how much Shane loves driving while I'm snapping pictures out the window as if I'm casing the neighborhood?

We also went to some open houses to look at kitchen cabinet colors and wood floor colors.  We also visited one of our builder's houses from the 2010 Parade and talked with them for quite a while-we are coming up with lots of ideas!

The agenda for tomorrow? A repeat of today, but I think I'll sleep late and skip the 9 mile run before we do our running around.

Two days in one

The house didn't get a lot of attention yesterday...

We both drove by on our way to work, but neither one of us were able to visit at the end of the day.  Not that it mattered much, it rained cats and dogs all day long and the workers didn't get much accomplished.

Here are the pics I took yesterday morning, you can see that they still had a tiny bit left to do on the roof.

 And the sides were still in need of some Tyvek.

 This morning, the roofers were getting closer to finishing...

The house still wasn't completely wrapped with Tyvek and the seams of the roof still needed to be completed.

By this afternoon, the roof was completed...

All the horizontal boards the roofers have used for walking around have been removed.

It's a beautiful roof, isn't it?

 The entire house is finally wrapped and they have started covering the Tyvek with the chicken-wire-like-mesh that will hold the stucco on the house.

Here's a close up of the mesh.  They were still working when we left, and they still had three sides of the house to cover.

More good news-the windows have arrived!

They were delivered today and hopefully will be installed tomorrow.  The grey rectangle on the floor is the stucco mesh, it's smaller pieces than I would have expected.

Last night we went back to the tile store and looked at more tile with fresh eyes.  Shane came with us and we were able to pick out tile for the master bathroom.  We still have to make selections for the other bathrooms and the kitchen floor and backsplash.  Oh, the decisions!

The Roof...part 2

I'm guessing that tomorrow is the last day for the roof.  They got a lot done today.

Here's a couple of pics from before school...

And here are the pics from this evening...

As of 5pm, they had almost all of the roof covered in shingles.  It looked like they only had this little bit on the front to cover, and they needed to cover the seams at the ridges.

They already had the shingles prepared for the ridge covering...

The roofers were still on the roof when we left. I'm not sure how much they'll get accomplished, but rain is in the forecast, so I'm sure they are hurrying.

The electrician, windows & audio/visual are next in line, but the framers aren't quite through with the inside of the house & they have to finish up before anyone else can get in.  The staircase needs some tweaking...our powder bath is under the stairs and they've got some adjustments to make. 

There seems to have been some misunderstanding between the blueprint and the framers on what kind of  ceiling the master bedroom is supposed to have; so there are some adjustments there.  Also, the hallway ceiling is supposed to have a curve to it (they call it a barrel ceiling), but that hasn't been completed yet, either.

Currently, Shane is typing away on his computer on the other side of the room, looking for tile.  He really wants to have a say in the tile choices, but he really doesn't want to go to the tile stores with us girls again (can you blame him?).  Hopefullly, he will decide to assist so he will love everything as much as I will.

The house is almost entirely wrapped in Tyvek for stucco & once that is completed, the windows can be installed.  I'm assuming that will be completed this week.

The Roof

I guess a roof is a pretty important thing.  I mean, especially after the roof at the rental house leaked during the snowstorm I certainly don't want a shoddy roof. 

But that's about all we've got going on these days...and as far as pictures go, it's really not that exciting.

I stopped by on my way to work this morning (I know that surprises you).  I didn't intend to, I was headed to McDonald's for a cup of coffee and this amazing new oatmeal they have & the Rover just turned right into our neighborhood.

Here's the back of the house this morning.

I intended to be at school early, but once I got to the house a couple of guys with a truck full of shingles arrived and I really needed to see what was going to happen next.  Shane had mentioned that he saw them off-loading shingles yesterday, and it wasn't done by hand.  So I waited and I waited and I waited. After about 20 minutes, the guys got out of the truck and moved a huge arm on the truck and started a conveyor belt.

I almost didn't have time to run by McDonald's, but since I had a coupon and I was already going to be later to school than I intended (and I don't like to miss a meal) , I managed to have time for my oatmeal.

But Shane stopped by shortly after I did, and sadly, once again he was able to see something much cooler that I did.

He saw them using the conveyor belt to load packages of shingles onto the roof!

That just makes perfect sense. I mean, they've got to get up there eventually anyway.
So, before school the roof looked like this:

...and at 5 o'clock, it looked like this:

You can still see the roofers up there trying to get as much done as possible (there's a chance of rain tomorrow).

It looks like there is only one more side left to roof, hopefully tomorrow they'll get this finished.

Next up?  Installation of windows...

Electric, A/V, Tyvek & Tile

There isn't a lot going on inside the house today, so I'm not posting any pics of the inside.  But despite the cold and windy weather we are again having in Tulsa, the crew at the house today was the roofers.

I had the day off work, so on my way to meet friends for brunch (that's a great thing to do on a day off), I drove by the house and snapped a picture of the back when the roofers were just getting started.

We had a walk-through this afternoon with the builders, the electrician & the audio/visual guy (he might be Shane's favorite person at this point).  When we arrived, they had begun wrapping the house with Tyvek to help seal the house from the elements.  They hadn't yet made the cut-outs for the doors and windows and we had to enter through the garage.

We all spent a couple of hours walking through with set of house plans, a permanent marker and a can of spray paint and marked the walls where every outlet, light switch, Control 4 panel and television will be placed.  This will enable them to run the electric and the cable for all of this equipment. 

Quite frankly, when they are talking about the A/V stuff it sounds like "Wah, wah, wah, wah," to me (you know what Charlie Brown's teacher sounds like?).  At this point I'm a little concerned about my ability to turn on a TV or have music at the new house without calling Shane at work for instructions.  But he knows what he is doing and both Shane and the A/V guy assure me that it will be very simple and even Minnie & Bo might be able to watch TV while we are away if they should want to.

After our meeting, we went to a couple of tile stores to see if Shane could find anything he liked and when we stopped by the house again, the back of the roof looked like this. 

They have begun trimming back the Tyvek around the doors and windows, which makes it easier to enter through the front door, but also allows the icy wind to get in-and boy is the wind icy today!  I will be glad when the windows go in and we'll have a wind break.

Here's the last pic of the house for today. 

We are still choosing tile and plan to go back to the tile store later this week with the builder to make some final decisions so that she can get things ordered.

Changes, Changes, Changes, Changes

Lots of changes today...

Here's a picture of the front of the house taken after the workers left for the day.

 

When I went by after my run this morning, the roof looked like this.

But by the end of the day, they had installed the chimney. 

Thank goodness, now Santa Claus will have proper access.

I know you are wondering why we have pictures of the house in so many different stages today.

This is probably where I should tell you that I saw the house four times.  Today.  Shane only saw it three times.  He wasn't with me after my morning run.

Oh yeah, and this is probably where I should tell Shane thanks for finding a rent house close to the action...

They've installed our staircase and I've included several pictures for your viewing pleasure.  This is from one of the windows surrounding the front door.  The rectangle in the curved wall is a little window that looks into the wine room.

This picture is taken from the office.

 ...and this one is from the upstairs balcony.

Here is a picture of the balcony from the game room.

And a picture of Shane on the balcony from the top of the staircase.

This is a view from the front of the house out into the backyard.  There are two large windows and with a door in the middle; harvest room is on the left side of the picture.

And another couple of pics of the front of the house, just because I like them.

 

Today we went to look at lighting options, just to get some ideas-wow there are a lot of choices.  Monday we are supposed to have the electrical "walk through" where we will meet with the builders and the electrician to decide where the wiring for the light fixtures and switches will be placed so we thought we'd check out what we might like.

This whole thing just keeps getting better.