Sweet!

That one word sums up the last two weeks for my life in general.  I put all the house business on hold and went to Utah to be a with my soon to be married daughter, Michelle.  I arrived on a Saturday night and for the next 6 days we were busy every day, all day and I loved every minute of it.

I don't have any of the "official" wedding photos yet--this is one Jim took on his i-phone!

There wasn't one thing about the whole week that I would change, other than maybe the day we were so busy that we didn't eat anything until 5 pm...  I am so grateful for the time that I had to spend with Michelle!  We love her husband, Miles, and are so glad he is a part of our family.  

The wedding was last Friday and we made our way home on Saturday, finally arriving at about 10 pm.  I was up at 3:30 am... mind going a million miles an hour... I guess stress is stress whether it is good or bad!  I was anticipating seeing the work that was done on the house while I was gone.  And so my trip out there the next day proved to be pretty sweet, too.  This first set of pictures was actually taken before I left--showing the insulation going in.

Insulation!  Foam insulation sprayed in all the outside walls and in some of the inside walls where we want it to be extra quiet.

The dome ceiling--close up

This is the foam after it is sprayed in and dried.  They will come along and shave off the excess so they can put up the drywall.

Master bathtub

Spraying the ceiling in the great room

I don't really know how it works, but I think the spray comes in the big drums and they use a pump inside the truck to power their sprayers inside the house.

The view from "the spot"

Dome ceiling view from first floor

back stairwell with drywall up

Rob's room:  drywall complete.  That happens to be Jim hiding out in Robert's wall... we will have a built-in dresser there eventually.

This was our unfinished attic space.  Builders have a way of talking you into doing things that you hadn't planned on.

They finally started putting the metal roof on the curved areas.  

Stone going up.  It looks a lot more gold in this picture than it really is.

This picture is taken looking down onto the stone going up.  I was surprised that the stone doesn't actually go right onto the wall.  You can see here the metal anchor that goes into the mortar and the stone wall is a few inches off the wall board.
(Take note of my wedding pedicure at bottom of picture.)

These are the beams that will frame Jim's office door on the outside.  They are massive.

Here is the gas line running to the house.

front porch is almost complete

another view of the front

"Tongue and groove" ceiling on back porch.

Well, that's enough boring house pictures.  If you really want to read something fun and interesting, see Michelle and Miles' honeymoon blog.  It is super sweet!

There's something to be said...

...for vacuuming the entire house in 7 minutes!  We are all settled in the first of our two rental houses and enjoying the simplicity of 6 very small rooms:  2 bedrooms, bathroom, living room, kitchen and laundry room.  It has been reminding us of our college days in a basement apartment with just a little less square footage than this house.  Here's the digs:

Master bedroom with walk in closet!

Living room

Kitchen

Laundry room

View of living room from kitchen

Walk in pantry!

Last week was, in a word... EXHAUSTING.  Here's how it went:

Monday:  Major house clean out--sorting through every drawer, shelf and closet to get rid of junk before the packers came.  2 trips to the Grace donation station and at least 5 garbage bags full.  Where did all the junk come from?  5 am to 11 pm.

Tuesday:  More of the same--in addition to cleaning the barn, teaching a riding lesson and a 3 hour cabinet design meeting for the new house.  The guy at the Grace Donation Station now recognizes my car!  5 am to 11 pm.

Wednesday:  The packers showed up at 8:30 am (30 mins early) and there were 5 of them.  They are FAST.  I had to have everything labeled to pack/not pack.  As they packed downstairs I was continuing the clean out upstairs.  They worked until 6:30 pm and the whole house was packed, other than a few items for the next day.    5 am to 11 pm.

Thursday:  The movers showed up at 8:30 am.  (I was expecting them this time.)  There were 4 of them and they were great.  Anyone needing a recommendation for movers in the DFW area let me know.  At this point, I can't really even remember what I did while they were loading everything up.  I know I was busy about every second.  Tasha brought us lunch. I took Susie over to Cindy's so she wouldn't freak out.  Once the truck was gone for the day I happened to notice that the packers had packed the pillows of the sofa and chair that are going to be reupholstered.  I had a note on the sofa that it was not going with the moving company but somehow the pillows were on their way to Dallas. That will be an interesting dilemma to deal with in a few weeks.  In the evening we checked into a hotel since the boys beds were already loaded.  Joe tried to convince us that he could still stay at the house but we convinced him that he couldn't.  Robert said, "what about my clothes for the wedding?"  Well, they went to Dallas on the moving truck, too.  And no, honey, there's no way to go and get them.  Shopping trip on the calendar.  5:30 am to 11 pm.

Friday:  3 movers showed up to finish loading.  They were done by noon.  At 1:30 the second moving company showed up to get all of the furniture we are giving to Michelle and Miles or having reupholstered taken to our storage unit.  That and our food storage... I wanted it to be in the air conditioned storage.  The mover said, "that's A LOT of food!"  Loading it all up took another 5 hours. Someone came to disassemble the pool table (which our mover bought for his dad.)  Then a friend of a friend came to get our old freezer and refrigerator and a chair.  We quickly figured out why the previous homeowners didn't take the refrigerator with them:  it wouldn't fit through the laundry room door without removing the door itself AND the doors off the refrigerator.  :-(  That was a long process that we finally finished at about 9:45 pm.  Then we were off to the hotel.  6 am to 11 pm.

Saturday:  I spent most of the day organizing for our move to the rental(s).  What to pack for 4 people for 3 months.  What food to keep and what to toss or give away.  The last of the furniture was picked up by a local consignment store.  Those were the pieces that the buyers of our house didn't want.... and the house was finally empty of furniture.  We took yet another load of stuff to the storage unit and utilized their dumpster so the new owners of the house wouldn't have to deal with all of our garbage.  Robert and Joe patched nail holes in the wall.  We dragged into the hotel at about 11:45 pm.  Whataburger never looked so good... (at least to the boys!)  6 am to 12 am.

Sunday:  We slept in until 7 am!  Then took Robert to the airport to catch his flight to Utah for his EFY camp at BYU.  Then Jim flew in from Washington DC, where he had been for business and a quick visit with his family there.  Around lunch time we got the call that our rental was ready and we could come on over... so we loaded up all three cars and became Grapevine residents.  It took 5 carloads to get everything over.  Settling in went quickly and smoothly.  I must say I managed to be quite organized about it all--I think even Jim was impressed.  We picked Susie up and brought her to the rental.  She was not happy.  7 am to 10 pm.

Monday:  Taking Sunday off from the Stockton house was great but in order to get everything done for closing I had to get up at 5 am again... over to the house to finish cleaning by 6:30 am.  Touch up painting, wiping out ovens, refrigerator/freezer, spot cleaning carpet, touching up stairs, etc etc.  Closing was at 9 am and went off without a hitch.  I went back to the house to finish and finally locked the door and left at about 12:30.  Before I left I took a minute in each room to remember something about it.  I'm glad I did that.  It was a good house.  Lots of memories in 6 years.  5 am to ?  

Tuesday:  Meeting to finalized flooring for the new house.  Grapevine is turning out to be more convenient than I thought--it took me 2 minutes to get there!  Once the meeting was over I felt the wave of exhaustion hitting me.  I was comatose from about 2:30 pm until Jim was knocking on the front door at about 6 pm!  I rarely ever sleep during the day but I definitely needed it.  And I didn't have any trouble getting to sleep by 11 pm that night, either.  I still feel like I'm catching up.

So, that sums up the last week.  On Monday we will be moving across the street to a larger rental.  Hopefully, Susie will not freak out again.  She has been barking her head off when we are not here.  Poor thing just doesn't understand and wants to go home.  

To end on a positive note, we met with our builder today and he said everything is going great and we are on track to finish up end of Sept/beginning of Oct!  Hang in there, Susie!

Announcing....

The sale of our home!!  Closing date July 2, 2012, And other great news...

What does that mean in terms of the new house?  Well, to be exact... one upcoming week of TOTAL CHAOS, followed by (hopefully) 3 months of relative simplicity living in a furnished rental house (see below), where I can focus on our daughter's wedding (see below) and getting the house on Golden Gate finished up.  If I can survive the next week... including packers coming on Wednesday when I was planning on them Thursday, I think I can survive anything.  Rather than being here at the computer I should probably be doing something to get ready for the move but I'm in a state of inertia right now... where I have written all of my lists and checklists (including ones for the boys... but they don't know it yet, haha) and I'm just waiting for the alarm to go off in the morning at 5 am so I can take this week on.  (okay, it's really an extreme case of denial.)

The actual progress at the house is coming along nicely, although the pictures of it are fairly boring.  I guess that's a warning to any who don't want to see pictures of ductwork and wiring.  As I've said before... I'm just trying to document all the progress so that someday we can look back on it and remember how it all came together--pipes, wires and all.

So, here it goes:

View from "the spot:" roof almost finished and windows in!

One of our first major "OH NO" moments came when we found that the architect had actually called out on the plans for many of the windows to be fixed rather than opening. How did we miss that in the months and months of designing? We are still asking ourselves that question.  Not that you have your windows open that much in Texas since it is usually too hot... but still.  We do have a few that open and a few that are supposed to open and don't... and they will have to be replaced.  

Wiring in the garage.  Talk about a puzzle.  The guys crawl all over the place stringing the wires.  They are very patient when we need to make changes.  At least they are patient to our faces...

Ductwork and sprinkler system (required by city code.)

Family room fireplace chimney finished!

Herringbone pattern

Grandad... and Grandma... THIS IS YOUR ROOM.  Please make plans to come soon after it is finished!  It will need some company.  

Media wiring

The front door is in! 

We think they finally have the brick selection right.  It's the one in the middle.  

Here's the great little rental that I found.  Michelle was hunting for places to stay on their honeymoon and I found this place on the vacation website.  This will be our home for the next three or so months... that's probably being optimistic... it will probably be four.  But it is immensely more livable than the little house on the property would have been... it's really a good thing that that house is gone.  Hello, Grapevine!

Joe asked what we are going to do if it hails.... I told him we would drive to the mall as quick as we could and park in the parking garage.  Let's pray for no hail!

The move is challenging, the house building is exciting, but the most important event of the summer:  Michelle and Miles are getting married July 20, 2012.  We are so happy for our wonderful daughter and this great young man!  All of the other events pale in comparison to this!

Happy Summer!

I simply cannot keep up!

I don't know how "real" bloggers do it.  How do they keep their posts regular and timely?  It could have something to do with getting paid for it... As much as I have good intentions of posting every few days as things change at the house I just haven't been able to sit down and get the pictures uploaded and on here.  Well, at least I'm taking pictures.  Probably waaaaay too many.  But at least someday if we want to see what the "guts" of our house look like we'll be able to refer back to them.  "Where does the gas line run through the house?"  "Oh, wait one sec while I go check the blog..."  

So, here in chronological order is what has happened at 1312 Golden Gate Drive in the past two weeks:

5/29/12  Framing continued

View from "the spot"

ceiling dome

Jim in the front yard.  He looks so small from an upstairs window.

Front yard garbage pile.  

Back yard garbage pile.

View from front door.  These three windows look off center from the front entrance, but they are centered to the angle on the back of the house.  One solution that was suggested was changing the windows to"butt-joined" glass.  A mere $3,000 upgrade...  We decided to keep it the way it is.

View from northwest corner of house in front.

We met some of our neighbors who we had only talked to on the phone.  They adjoin the north side of our lot and our house is closest to them.  I was a little nervous to go talk to them in their back yard but Jim thought we should be neighborly.  I'm a little shy of new neighbors as some have not been so welcoming.    This older couple was SO nice!  They LOVE the house!  They are SO excited to see it go up!  They can't wait to have horses next to their back yard!  Talking to them made my weekend.  

5/31/12:  Framing details and the beginning of the "seconds:"  plumbing, hvac, electrical.

The first plumbing to go in.

Ceiling detail:  double groin vault.

Ceiling detail:  barrel vault.

Arched doorways

6/1/12:

Joe is just thrilled to have the "house bathtub" in his bathroom.  He did try to convince me that we didn't need one.  I keep assuring him that someday when he brings his little kids to visit me he will want to have a place to give them a bath.  No, I am not willing to bathe them in the kitchen sink once they get past infant stage.  Sorry, Joe.

6/4/12:  Roofing!

Shingles going on!

close up of shingles.

I have a new respect for construction workers.  

6/8/12:  details, details.

View from "the spot."

Arched doorways in hall connecting foyer with laundry/mud

We have learned that sometimes what the architect has designed just isn't possible from a framing standpoint.  But, we have a great builder and framing team who has been able to improvise and keep most of the design elements that give the house such interesting character.  We were told that they just couldn't do a dome here because of the floor joists up above and that the ceiling could be round but it would be flat.  Next day we came over and lo and behold.... a dome!  Yippee!  Chocolate chip cookies for the framing crew!

view of two levels from front door.

Firerock going up the family room fireplace

This fireplace is a little simpler.

It looks like something out of a science fiction movie, right?  Our vision of using that space for an extra linen closet has succumbed to the reality that they really do need space to run ductwork and plumbing.  

One of three air handlers.

roof detail

View from the back.  All the shingles are on.  We are awaiting the metal roofing to go on the curved areas where the shingles wouldn't bend enough.

View from front northwest corner.  Notice the workers... you can't see their faces but they were smiling for the picture.

You must read the sign.  It says, "No touch.  This means you!!"  Well, it doesn't mean you as in Carol.  It does, however, mean you as in Jim, Joe and Robert.  Enough said.

Robert was out of town this past week and so he was amazed to come home and see the roof almost finished, as well as all the plumbing rough-in and the HVAC rough in.  We have most of the electrical boxes placed and wiring for those will start this week.

We have picked out tile (not sure if we made budget,) appliances (a little over,) cabinets (WAY over and still working on it) lighting (we were under but after some changes will probably be over.)  We have a standing joke that whatever change we want to make will be a cool $13,000.  

We are still trying to get the right brick (see previous post) and are now on sample number 3.  Or maybe it is even up to #5 by now.

We think the framer is actually kind of miffed at us...  There was one ceiling detail that was not spelled out on one section of the plans (the ones he was using) and listed on another section (for electrical) and so he was not happy when he had to re-do that ceiling.  Blame it on the architect!  He's the one who added all the fun details... you should have seen the project manager's eyes bug out of his head when I pointed out that certain columns in the hallway have precast (stone) moulding instead of wood...

I found the most awesome light fixture for the bathroom.  But Jim hates it.  I'm sure it is just "too girly."  What to do....

On one hand, he did tell us (me, the creative designer and the light lady) to just choose whatever we thought would work throughout the house.  On the other hand, I don't want to put something up that he hates.  On the other hand... it is three women against one man. Didn't he realize he was entering dangerous territory?  Oh wait, that's too many hands.  I guess this one is to be continued...