Back at Home

This post is about 6 weeks overdue! We moved back into the house on November 7th, and have been slowly settling in. There has been much to do on the "punch list" - builder speak for last minutes odds and ends that need to be finished up. (Aside from getting a bigger house, I have also expanded my vocabulary during the process. Who knew the little wooden strips that divide the window into panes were called mullions?) As of now pretty much everything is done with the exception of the driveway, which will need to wait until we get back up into the 60s. It is very lightly snowing at this moment, so I think we might be waiting for a bit.

Here are a few random pictures from the past few months. Once we get the detritus from our holiday preparations tucked away, I'll post some "after" pictures for your perusal.

Charlie expresses his excitement over his blue room


Baby's room


Our room


Downstairs with paint and finished floors




The kitchen, pre-fridge


Those of you that know of my David Sedaris obsession will appreciate the fact that Paul Sedaris, aka The Rooster, did our floors (OK, it was his work crew, but whatever). Evan, however, got to meet him and shake his hand. I made him promise not to wash it until I got home.


A few random shots from Thanksgiving, where we were joined by Matt, Paula and Addy the dog

A few more updates . . .

Closet inserts . . .




Master bath tiling all done - shower




Stair treads


The painters have been at the house since Monday. Looking forward to having some color on the walls!

Back on Schedule

We had a 3-week slowdown at the house, that started with, though was not caused by, the plumber leaving an open water line in the upstairs bathroom. Thankfully the damage was not extensive, though Evan did end up bailing 5 gallons of water out of the crawl space. Sigh.

Prior to the mini-mess, the house was painted, cedar shakes put up . . .


tiling done (this is Charlie's bathroom) . . .


and the dry wall was finished.


Things ground to a halt about halfway through the trim, but are back on track now.

Floors, etc.

We came back from Montreal and had a lovely surprise waiting for us - floors! They are beautiful, even unstained . . . I love the wide planks. The insulation is mostly up, too, which means the sheet rock is just around the corner.







Before our trip, we went to pick out tile for the bathrooms, which was a little overwhelming. But here what we decided on:

For our bathroom: the gray mosaic tiles will go on the floor, the pebble tiles will go on the shower floor, and the others will go on the wall of the shower


For Charlie's bathroom: we ended up ordering these hex tiles, but with a bit of a grayish border around the edges - that way we can avoid white grout (which I hate the thought of cleaning)


The siding is all done, and the cedar shakes are in


And we have a door!

Bathrooms Underway

We have bathtubs! They are currently filled up with about 8" of water (and bugs and other floaties) to make sure the fittings won't leak. It has been hard to convince Charlie that he doesn't need to get in and test the water.

Our tub . . .




. . . and shower stall


Charlie's tub

Plumbing, Electricity and Columns, Oh My!

Things are going well over at the house. There is wiring everywhere, plumbing climbing up to the 2nd story, and outlets galore. The outlets are especially important, considering the original house seemed to have only in each room . . . and hardly any were 3-prong. Our only bathroom had no outlets at all. As I'm sure you can imagine, I think we're going to plug stuff in just for the hell of it!

Evan went by tonight, and found the front door and all of the windows hanging out in the kitchen, waiting to be installed. The subfloor in the living room is ripped up, too, so that the old furnace can be lifted out of the crawl space by a 2-ton jack. There's a good chance we'll have some dry wall up by the end of the week.

Outside, things are looking like an HGTV series called "Destroy This Yard." Both of the holly bushes have been ripped in half (hooray!) and between the piles of junk, you can see that the lawn has turned into a meadow of sorts. The porch now has two brick colums ready for supports to be added.

So, lots of big changes, but none of them photo-worthy per se. I'll get some more pictures up when there's something worth seeing!

Porch & Deck

As of Memorial Day, the porch and deck are done . . . or at least the framing. The porch still needs to be screened in, door hung, etc., but I think that will happen further down the road.



View from the master bedroom deck


View from the living room onto the screened porch - Evan is particularly fond of the metal ceiling

All Framed Up and Nowhere to Go

Things are really moving along! We have a fully framed 2nd story now, and stairs (which is key, because I was starting to plan an escapade that involved ladders and rope swings).

Friday, 5/15
Notice the workers up on the roof!




Saturday, 5/16
Stairs!


What will be the master bedroom - that opening will eventually lead to a deck


Charlie coming out of his closet

2nd Story

Despite tornadoes in the area on Tuesday and lots of rain this week, we've seen quite a bit of progress on the house. We now have a 2nd story, and hopefully the roof will follow shortly.

First Story Framing

We have a fully framed first story, and what looks like our first minor problem. One of the downstairs windows (or at least the framing for the window) is a few feet too far to the left. This has made me appreciate all the more that we are able to stop by often and check things out.

Extension for 9 ft ceilings


The house has a back!


New framed wall between the future living room & guest room


The incorrectly placed window


In other news, we picked out a front door today. It's an Arts & Crafts style mahogany job with 6 tiny windows (which I've learned are called "lights" when on a door). It's very lovely, and we got a great deal on it - hooray!

We've had lots of folks ask how Charlie has been affected by this. So far, not at all. If you ask him what's happening to his house, he says, "The guys are fixin' it." The kid is totally unflappable. He also distinguishes between the "old house" and "rental house" with ease, as if this is a totally normal.

!

Nothing could have prepared me for how totally insane our house looks. I walked through it a bit, and all of the rooms felt so weirdly small, despite being open to the sky and/or the backyard. Tomorrow looks clear, but after that we're going to have 5 days of rain. The big question on both of our minds is: Will the world's biggest tarp be enough to protect our floors?





View from the front door towards the backyard

Roofless in Raleigh

This is the vision that greeted us today:





I couldn't help myself, and went inside and climbed up the pull-down ladder into the attic. Kind of a cool view, as long as you don't actually have to live in the house!


The backyard crap pile - and you can [sort of] see the slab has been poured


Another surprise: These irises finally bloomed this year! I took this as a sign (although of what, exactly, I'm not sure).