Walkout Basement

These pics are of the lot that we believe is ready to start digging the basement. The first picture is of our back yard. It's huge. Much larger than I thought it ws going to be. The pictures of the hole is the side where the walkout basement will go. As has been the case since the get go, Brandon did all the digging and clearing. I was starting to think he was working on other people's lots he was out there so much! But it turns out he was working on ours.

Stay tuned. Our builder is out of town until tomorrow; hopefully he will let us know when we can officially dig the basement soon!

Bricks and Stones

Brandon and I went and picked out our brick an stone for the house. I've realized that this is going to be pretty much to me as Brandon 'doesn't care' what I pick, as long as I'm happy. :-)

The brick we picked is made by Belden Brick Company and is called Winewood blend. It's a mixture of red, brown and gray brick. Here's a picture.

The stone we picked is called Cypress Fieldstone. Here's a picture of it as well. Just keeping everyone informed! Thanks for stopping by!

About our house

I know most of you know (i.e. the family members) but for those that don't, I thought I'd give a little background on the type of house we're building.

It's a 2 story. You walk in the front door and go straight back to the great room. The dining room is sunken and is to the left. We currently don't have a formal dining room table, so that room may be sort of a formal living room for awhile. We'll have to see. The great room's focal point is a fire place on the back wall with double french doors on either side leading out to a patio. We're not doing a deck as neither one of us are fans of the maintenance required so we'll have a concrete patio. Open to the great room is the kitchen and there's a small breakfast nook off to the side. The laundry room is also off of the kitchen as is a small 1/2 bath.

On the other side of the great room is the master bedroom with a full bath and walk in closet. Back track to the front door and go upstairs to 2 more bedrooms. The upstairs is open to the great room below so the ceilings are really high. Also above the garage there is a huge bonus room that will probably serve as an office/workout room until there are little ones running around then it will probably turn into a toy room. There is also a full bathroom upstairs.

The garage is side load and 3 stalls. Brandon eventually wants to build a separate garage behind the house but we joke that we'll do that in 31 years when the house is paid for. The front and side of the house is going to be brick with stone around the front entry way and extending up to the 2nd floor on the front. The same stone will be used on the back for the fireplace. There is a full basement and we went ahead and had a bathroom roughed in and also a fireplace. That way when we do finish it a few years from now, it will be a little easier. Walk out french doors are also in the basement.

That's about all I can think of for now. Brandon's hoping to start digging the basement this weekend and then once that's done, the guy can come in and start pouring the footers! I can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by!

Moving Dirt

Yesterday (May 12) Brandon and I went to the property. He was preparing the site for building while I sat and read my book and got some sun. I had a purpose for being there, really I did. Once he got the site all scalped, we then staked out the house and decided where it would go on the site. Here are some progress pictures. The one above shows our lot before he started.

This is Brandon just starting to cut the driveway.

This is the view across from our house, essentially what we will see out of our front door.

This is the site once it was pretty much scalped. Brandon got all this done in one day. We're hoping to start digging the basement in about 2 - 3 weeks, just whenever our builder calls us and says to go ahead!

Not much else to report right now. We are going on the 24th to pick out our brick and stone. We have a pretty good idea on what we want, it's just a matter of picking it out. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy!

And So It Begins....

On Thursday, May 3, we signed the final construction agreement and got our final cost to build from the builder. We are offically locked in to this whole deal! Woo hoo! The next morning I received a fax from the builder's right hand lady, Irene, with specific instructions on what I need to get started on. She wasn't messing around! She made an appointment for us to go and pick out all of our plumbing fixtures today at 9:00. So today Brandon and I picked out our faucets, bathtubs and showers. The sinks will be picked out with the countertops because they're all one piece. I know nobody cares about this, but I'm going to post some pictures for my reference, that way I won't forget what I picked. And some of you might care, who knows? I just want to document as much of this as I can so I can remember it later!

This is some brick I saw today when we ate lunch in Amish Country that I really like. Thought I'd take a picture for later when I pick my own out!

All of our bathroom faucets, etc. are going to be in stainless finish. Some of these pictures are of chrome, but they're all going to be stainless. The stainless is sort of a 'brushed' look that I really like. This is the faucet and handheld shower that is on the whirlpool tub in the master bathroom. It has jets and a heater so the water never gets cold!
This goes in the shower in the master bathroom. We got the 'rain' type head. Brandon's always wanted one of those.
This is the faucet that's going in the master bath. There are 2 sinks so obviously we'll have 2 of these.
This is the faucet for the half bath off the kitchen. Again, stainless, not chrome.
This is the faucet going in the kitchen.
This is the faucet that is going in the laundry room sink. The faucet comes out like a hose for easy cleaning, etc.
The commode. :-) It's a tall one and Brandon liked that. It will be in white.

The only thing I really didn't take a picture of was the tub. But it's cool, let me tell you. Everyone was stressing out about making all these decisions, but truthfully today was fun. Next up is picking the brick, stone and shingles. After that is the cabinets and countertops. Should be fun!

Here's The Story of a Lovely Lady

When our friend, Todd, saw our rental home he said it reminded him of The Brady Bunch house. It's pretty dated. It was dirty. I mean gross. The girl who lived here before us made homemade candies and sold them. Apparently she also slopped chocolate all over the floors, countertops, stove and refrigerator and didn't clean up after her nasty self as well. It was disgusting. The kitchen has these nasty green counter tops and, get this, metal tiles on one wall. They're brown and silver.

With a little sprucing up, the house is coming along. We haven't purchased a computer desk yet and as I type this, I am sitting on a Rubbermaid tote filled with dog food with the keyboard on my lap. The mouse is on a tv tray and the monitor is on an empty $8 filing cabinet. The dog's crate is directly behind me and my grandma Mabel's beloved La-Z-Boy recliner is to my left.

The other spare bedroom is crammed full of furniture and my treadmill. Brandon did hook up the plasma tv in there so I would have something to watch while walking/running. Thank you, Brandon!

The basement is straight out of Silence of the Lambs. I put carpet remnants on the floor because I didn't even want to put my dirty clothes on the floor. But let me tell you something this house does have: a laundry chute! I am loving this thing! SO VERY COOL! Also, another positive, the landlord put an all new bathroom in prior to our moving in and I'm very thankful for that!

Here are some pictures:

This is all of our stuff stacked in the basement

The scary basement

We have a really nice back yard though! Nice and flat...the other side of those trees though? I-77!

Here's the front view

The dining room

Notice that metal tile. Too funny!

Enough complaining. The big picture is this. We have a decent little house and believe you me, the rent is nice. We're building a new home and this will all be a distant memory soon enough! Until next time.......

The Lay of the Land

I know it doesn't look like much now, but this is where we're building. I'll have more pics of the land later on....

A Little Background and a Timeline

As most of you know, Brandon and I are building a new home. It all began back in August of 2006 when we listed our current home, which we bought in 2000 on the market for sale. The ground that we're building on is a new subdivision near Old Washington, OH. It is an 'executive' subdivision with specific deed restrictions (i.e. minimum sq ft is 2400, no cows or horses, etc.) We bought our lot and were just waiting on our house to sell. We had the option to do a bridge loan, but I knew Brandon's heart would never take it. It would stress him out to begin construction on a brand new place before our old one sold. Yes, that means moving twice, but financially it was the wise decision.

Our house finally sold on April 20, 2007. We were very happy with the sale price and had 2 weeks to vacate! With the help of our excellent friends, Bill Cowden, Todd Knauf and of course, my mother, who is a saint, we got all moved. The rental house is for another post. Stay tuned and welcome to our blog!