framing days 13-15

There have been a few minor changes during framing, but nothing major-a wall moved a few inches here, a door changed there. Things are moving right along. We feel the need to get some firm decisions made so as not hold up any progress. We picked our HVAC today, are meeting with the brick guy later this week, and are finalizing our roofing materials. Some of the fun stuff should begin soon - like drywall. The plumbers are expected this week as well as the electrical guys.

Brent took a few pics the other day of our coffered ceiling in the new family room. You can also see the framing for the fireplace.

framing days 10-12

I just can't put all the awesome pictures of the work going on in the house on this blog...so here it is in a verbal nutshell.

There is a new back staircase from the friends' entrance, the framing for the coffered ceiling in the family room has been done, the cuts have been made in the original house for transomes over the living and dining room entrances, and the fireplaces are framed in addition to all the work that is readily visible outside.

We have "joked" with our builder that we're not his run-of-the-mill job, but he didn't get that we weren't talking about the house but about us. Case in point: apparently the roof was in the way of a window upstairs. We wrung our hands over the correct placement, number and spacing of the windows during the design phase with the architect, but apparently one cannot always build a house as drawn - something about "in a perfect world..." anyway, Brent and I were touring the house a couple of nights ago and noticed the window in the master bath watercloset was just barely over the top of the potty - and it looks right into the neighbor's driveway. We talked with the window guy, who, by the way, is almost as OCD as we are!, about making that one shorter when he mentioned a change upstairs that the framer called him about last week. I ended up meeting him at the house to go over these things and low and behold I almost went postal when I saw the change that had been made. I'm sure he was, at a minimum, glad he was not the man who was married to me! anyway, after a little discussion we worked out everything before it became catastrophe #2. So, we will again be explaining to the builder that we realize this is his line of work, but we want to be notified of every tiny adjustment before it's made. That'll probably come back to bite us!

well, here's a couple of shots from framing day 12.

framing days 6-9

Man, I was out of town for a long weekend and missed a ton. The framing is almost complete! We have a brick mock-up next to the existing house in hopes of getting a pretty close match, but the mortar is going to be the biggest issue. Luckily, there is really only a spot or two where a difference might be noticed, and a very slight difference may never be seen by the casual observer. The electricians are expected later this week as well as plumbers. We are checking out shingle samples. Our initial cabinet changes are back and we need to begin our finalization of those -- deciding on color is our biggest hang up. Do we go with white in the kitchen or interject a lovely buttercream; and if it's buttercream, how do we make sure it's not too yellow... Ah, these are the questions of the ages. Anyway, we've selected our fireplaces, and have a good lead on tile. Amazingly enough we will have to get our tile from 3 different suppliers. -aside: we now realize why we looked at so many houses before buying in this town - the housing supply market is about 15 yrs behind. Many of you reading know what great houses are being built in Nashville - Laurelbrook, Westhaven, etc - but here the main house being built reminds us of Horseshoe Bend built in the late 80's and early 90's. We go in to talk to a particular supplier and they don't have the slightest idea of what we're looking for. I guess they don't ever see a Southern Living, Southern Accents or Traditional Homes magazine either. Anyway. Even though it seems like our house should be ready for us in a matter of weeks with the "insta-house" quickness with which the framers worked, things will apparently slow to a painful crawl once the drywall is up.


day 9-friends' entrance and side porch between the old and new garages - upstairs windows are 2 in laundry and one in bedroom


day 9 photo - new garage with dormers to match the single dormer on the original house


day 6 - the library with the master suite behind

framing day 5

Our neighbors have started referring to our house as "insta-house" because the framing is going so quickly. They have also gotten in a few good jokes about lawyers and property lines...hahaha. Anyway, when we went over this evening the kids pointed out that they could see the playroom. That meant that the wall was gone. We wish we could make every room real for those of you reading and looking at pictures. For us, we're taking pictures of our specific rooms, but we realize it probably just looks like construction to the rest.

framing day 4

Whoa!!!

1pm Monday - they've torn into the back of the house! They are making the necessary changes to the existing house to tie into the new portion. wow!

Brent and I sat on the swingset for about half an hour watching them work...

framing day 3

saturday - 2pm

new garage

saturday 2pm

library

saturday 6pm

kitchen- backyard perspective

saturday 6pm

family room - backyard perspective

saturday 6pm

master bed and bath - backyard perspective

Andele! Andele! Epa! Epa! Yeehah!!! (Brent made me put that in) ok, so I'm still cheating, but now I am caught up with the workers - 3 posts in 1 day to equal 3 days of work.

framing day 2

ok, I know this post is cheating, but they worked too quickly for me.

At 1pm we counted 18 guys working and 1 foreman.




1pm - looking into the family room


1pm - the screened porch in the foreground and the garage in the background



5:30pm - the master suite in the foreground with the great room, kitchen, garage in the background




5:30pm -- wonder how long they'll stay on a Friday?