Let There Be (New) Lights

The house isn't even built yet and Kerry is already thinking about remodeling. Actually, we've both thought about changing the bathroom lights. She mentioned that she doesn't think the standard "Hollywood" bulb lights are very appealing. I dutifully responded, "Yes, Dear." In reality, I have to agree. Unfortunately, that's what we have going into the master bath and second upstairs bath. There's an eight bulb in the master and a 4 or 5 bulb in the second. The powder room downstairs has twin fluted lights which wouldn't be bad but it's polished chrome where as all of our other light fixtures are brushed nickel. Obviously, we'd like to keep everything uniform if we can possibly help it.

So, I called our design consultant and asked her for the model style of our brushed nickel fixtures so I can look up matching bathroom lights. I found a couple of possibilities. Unfortunately, I'm not 100% sure how big of a lighting unit I would need in the master bath to match the 8 bulbs of the standard. I do think the designer models are much nicer though so we'll see.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Yucky, yucky rain all night and this morning. Hopefully, it will stop and give the carpenter's time to finish the rough carpentry this week.

Mr. Gorbachev, Build Up This Wall

Our latest visit today revealed that the rough carpentry has, indeed, begun. We have the first floor underboarding in as well as the back wall braced up. There is lots more lumber on site for the tradesmen to continue putting up the rest of the walls in the next week or thereabouts (weather permitting) so I would expect that we'll be seeing a very house-shaped object standing there when we return next week.

We went to Lowe's and bought two ceiling fans and a porch bench. We hope to have the electricians install them along the way so we don't have to hire contractors come out after the fact. We plan to do the same with upgraded bathroom lights we want to get as well as a pot rack ceiling light in the kitchen.

We're probably going to buy our refrigerator, washing maching and dryer at Lowe's. They have the models we like and will deliver for free. If we can also get a 10% discount for opening a Lowe's credit account, we'll do that. And we'll probably get 12 months no interest. Can't beat that. Besides, we can only abuse my mom's store discount so much. Discount dining room and dinette sets will be more than enough, I think.

Solid Progress

The concrete's been poured in the basement, crawl-space and garage. I thought there was supposed to be second crawl-space under the front of the house but so far nothing's been poured there. The front porch hasn't been poured yet but from looking at the rest of the neighborhood that appears to get done later on.

Looks like the sewer and sump lines have been laid. Also the electric meter box has been installed. Cable, electric and gas lines have also been marked off.

Come on, rough carpentry!

Positively Beaming

They've put in the I-Beams into the basement. So things continue to progress. I don't know if they'll pour the basement first or if they'll put the first floor on and then pour to protect the concrete. I can't remember how we did that when I expedited my dad's sites.

Getting more and more excited now.

A Firm Foundation

Just got back from Hawai'i and had to run out to the worksite to see how much they had done during our two week absence. We were happily surprised to see that the basement walls had already gone up and it looks like they'll be ready to start framing and pouring the basement soon.

Our neighbors to the right just had their walls put up when our hole was dug and they already have their home almost completely framed out. This summer will undoubtedly fly by.

Houston, We Have A Hole

We got a call today around 5:30 p.m. from our home sales agent, Caren with a "C". She called to tell me that the builder had dug the hole of our new home. Naturally, Kerry and I raced out to the site to look and take pictures before it got dark. Especially, since with our pending vacation coming we wouldn't get a chance to see it for over 2 weeks and by then who knows how far along they'll be.

So, we under construction. And they're a little ahead of schedule (they were originally planning to dig July 15th). We could be looking at the October closing date. I can't wait to see where they are when we get back.