Four months ago, I was so excited to start blogging about the progress we would make as our house was being built. Apparently, those four months kind of got away from me and once again I failed in the blogging department.
But here I am, with the update of all updates. Four months worth of them, in fact, added into one not-so-itty-bitty post. :)
November
We started out the month of November with the foundation being poured. I'm not sure why it took so long to get from "the dig" to this point and the weeks themselves felt like months. No one prepared me for how small the house would seem while standing on a slab of concrete and panic struck the first time we really took a good look at things. "Is the house seriously going to be this small? Did we pay all that money for something we'll barely fit into?" Thankfully, my someday-will-be brother in law was able to reassure us that the house would grow in size considerably once the walls were up. Thank God he was right. Within the next two weeks those walls did go up and the floor of the main level was set.
We made a lot of decisions during October and November. From the big decisions like choosing an exterior color & picking out our stone work, to the small decisions like choosing the color of the hardware we wanted to use inside, Mike and I enjoyed doing these things and only caught ourselves in a few minor disagreements along the way. We learned rather quickly that some of the builder's suppliers weren't going to work for us and that we were going to have to do some of our shopping at different retailers. For example, we ended up buying most of our faucets through a major hardware store as we were able to get a better product at half the cost.
December
Things really started to move quickly throughout the month of December. Within just the first week, the framing of the house was complete and the house was closed in by four main walls, doors, windows and a roof. It was a spectacular sight! Being construction newbies, we were also quite surprised to see that the deck was one of the first things put on. We spent a little extra to have the deck be 12'x20' rather than a 12'x12' as we both knew there would be lots of good times spent sitting on those 2x4's and looking out over the lake during the summer time.
We met with the electrician and were able to go through the house and determine how we wanted things set up. Some parts of this were frustrating... for example, I wish I had known to have a 220v outlet placed behind the stove in the kitchen so that we could choose a gas or an electric stove as now we'll always be "stuck" with gas. I was also quite dismayed by the fact that the builder wanted to charge us $150 for the installation of each ceiling fan, which we wanted in each of the bedrooms. After a small battle over this issue, the electrician agreed to let us install our own ceiling fans because there was no way I was spending $600 for something I knew Mike could do on his own with just a little bit of help. It was around this time that I learned one of the big secrets of the home building industry: Builders love to "up-charge" you for things just because they can. I knew to expect that we'd pay a difference in the cost of products but then to be charged $100 just because you want something other than the "allowance" seemed beyond ridiculous to me.
We also got to select our cabinetry in December and I learned lesson #2: Builders like to give you the "bottom of the line" products for their allowances. While I thought I had done my research before we chose our builder, it wasn't until this part of the process that I figured out that while stuff may look nice, it's isn't great quality. Mike and I have always been more interested in quality vs. quantity when it comes to our investments and purchases, so this was no different. We ended up spending quite a bit more on our cabinetry as a result but felt as good as we could about doing so.
January
Decisions really started to be made come January and right after Christmas we started making more appointments to make our selections. Tile and countertops came first. It was a bit sad to choose our countertops as we had just remodeled the kitchen in our Sienna home only a year before we moved and upgraded to Corian countertops and a mosaic backsplash. Unfortunately, we couldn't rationalize spending that kind of money again so soon so we stuck with the stuff that was included in our allowances. I have no doubt that our new kitchen will still be gorgeous... I just really miss my upgrades at the old house! I sure hope the new homeowners love it as much as we did.
Next up, flooring. The barren of my existance for the past three weeks! Being cautious with our spending like we are, we wanted to make sure we were getting a quality product at the best price possible. While the builder typically goes through one flooring provider, we got estimates from two other ones as well. After a lot of back and forth on which place of business to use, we settled back on to the builder-preferred distributor, DeHaan interiors. We were able to use our quotes from the other places to negotiate them down so that we were getting two great products (carpet and wood laminate) at a really good price. We still ended up going a bit over our allowance but again did so happily because we knew the products we were getting would suit our needs for a long time to come.
Appliances were also specified this month and for once, we felt like no changes needed to be made to the products the build had chosen. Sure, they're not "top of the line" but in reality, Mike and I don't need any such things. They're beautiful and practical and that's all that we care about. :)
Within the walls of the house, January brought a lot more progress. Heat was turned on so that the drywall could be hung and mudded. Light graced us from the ceilings in the simplest of forms. The tile flooring was installed in each of the upstairs bathrooms and in the laundry room. Trim work began and I was able to do a walk through of the house with our carpenter to explain what I wanted and where. Our beautiful cabinets were installed all throughout the house. On the exterior, our siding was hung and our garage doors were finally put on. In just a few short weeks, we went from seeing the bones of the house to the beauty of what it was becoming. January was a good month for our house on Edson!!
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| Trayed ceiling in the Master bed! |
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| Laundry |
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| Kids Bath |
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| Kitchen Cabinets with "Chocolate Glaze". Can't wait to complete the look with some hardware! |
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| Master bath |
Last week we were given a projected date of completion of March 15th. While six weeks still seems so far away, I know it's going to fly by especially because the past four months have gone by in the blink of an eye. It's hard to believe that we've been living in this rental house for seven months already. While I'm thankful to have this roof over our head and for the fact that we didn't have to move in with either of our parents or into an apartment, Mike and I are completely over living here and we so desperately want to be in our own space again. I've forgotten what much of our belongings even look like anymore and I'm ready to unpack our boxes once and for all.
Liana continues to become more excited about the new house and loves to go with Mike and I on our weekend trips to check out the week's worth of progress. For a while she had decided that her bedroom at the new house would be pink... she's on quite the pink "kick" these days... but I think I finally managed to talk her back into having her purple bedroom again. As that was one of my other favorite things about our Sienna house, I would love to bring it with us to our Edson house. Should she change her mind though and want a pink bedroom after all, I won't complain. Little princesses should get the bedrooms they want, right? Lukas, well, he's too young to care. But I'm thinking walls of green will again be in his future. :)
Throughout February there are more selections that we will continue to work on and make decisions about including paint colors, lighting fixtures and hardware. I have a feeling we'll see our new home come even more to life in those short four weeks. While certain aspects of building a home are certainly very stressful, it's an exciting time for us as a family overall.
As more changes continue to take place, I'll try to be better about posting my updates. No promises though as I know better by now.
