Can we say progress?

Yes - we can definitely say progress! Things are really moving along. We got the whirpool, shower pan, tub faucet and shower faucet all delivered. This allowed the plumber to come back and rough in the fixtures and we were able to get the rough in inspection completed. The new a/c unit is up and running as well! We also got some our windows in - we had a small snaffu with Home Depot - they didn't order a few of our windows correctly so 4 windows had to be installed at a later date but they are all in now! The house has been insulated and the sheetrock is up as well! It won't be long before we get it taped and floated.



Rodney and I picked out the door hardware for the house and got those ordered. We were able to put the new deadbolt and handle on the french doors to our room. Now the house is once again secure! Of course gadget girl had to order push button cypher locks...they are super cool.



Last week the brick showed up! A big semi dropped off the pallets! I had been slightly worried - ok extremely worried that we were not going to be able to find a brick to match. The guys that are going to brick the house came by and knew exactly what brick we had but wasn't sure if they would find any to match. They went to Elgin to the brick place and found one that is very similar. Our brick is from when they built the hemisphere in San Antonio and they don't make it any longer...this new brick is almost the same color...it just doesn't have the small flecks of yellow in it. I'm very happy with the match. I think that it will blend nicely. We found out today that they won't be able to work in their schedule to brick the house until the first part of January. So that is going to be a small delay but it won't be bad.

The wall from the house to the new addition has been knocked down! Thursday night all of the sheetrock was down and the studs were the only things left. Friday morning our contractor jacked up the wall, took out the studs and added the header. By Friday afternoon we no longer had any division between the two areas.

This weekend Rodney with the help from Robert took down the remaining panelling and sheetrock that was in the soon to be dining room and they also took down the ceiling. Rodney worked a little bit on the plumbing for the existing guest bath - we are converting the tub into a tub / shower.

Today they took out the window final window in the old guest bedroom and put in the new french doors. It is really windy today so it was quite a challenge.

The house is looking fantastic! We have picked out the tile that we are going to use for the master bath and we ordered the bathroom cabinets...those should be ready within the next week or so. Once we get those installed we will figure out exactly what kind of top that we will get. We did pick out the upmount sink that we wanted as well as the faucet...and those both came in without any problems. (I'm always a little worried when I buy over the web.) We also ordered the wood flooring - we purchased enough for the new addition as well as the existing house. I cannot wait to see that put in. On Black Friday we were able to purchase some carpet that we will be using in the bedrooms. I'll be picking it up from San Antonio when they are ready to install it.

There are just a few more items that Rodney and I have to pick out but we are super happy with how things are moving along.

Moving Right Along!

The framing is finished and the roofing is also completed! Everything is looking amazing. The roof looks so seamless that you can't even tell that we have added on. The electrician came out on Thursday and Friday and he has most of the house wired. We added a new breaker box inside the house and we made sure that we would have enough expansion room for the future. Darrell started taking out the old sheetrock that was the outside of the house. It's not an attractive picture but it is great to see the progress.


Monday the guys are coming to work on the air conditioning. They are going to add all of the new duct work and then tie it into the existing duct work. They are going to bring in a new larger unit that will replace the old one. I think there will be a couple of days that we will be without heat or air...but it is definitely worth it! Rodney took out the shrub that was next to the old a/c unit to make room for the new unit!

This past weekend Rodney and I went to San Antonio and we went to Greg's office to look through tile samples with Mary. We had a great time and we were able to pick out a color scheme for the master bath. After that we went to Home Depot to look at whirlpools, fans, lights and all that other stuff that we are going to have to pick out for the addition. We picked out and ordered the faucet for the shower. On Monday I ordered the whirlpool tub - but we found out that it is backordered so we picked out a different one. We still have to order the shower pan and figure out what we are going to do for the sink area, but we are excited with how things are coming together.

The progress will look slower over the next couple of months, but we are still on schedule. We hope to have the addition completed by Christmas!

Rain Delay!

So we had a bit of a rain delay this past week. Monday the framers were here bright and early and got quite a bit accomplished that day. They were able to get a few sides up. It threatened to rain on Tuesday so the framers weren't here...but they were back again on Wednesday and that's when they really got rained on. They had to stop a couple of time because it rained so hard. The contractor spoke with them towards the end of the week to find out when they were going to be done. They think they will be finished framing by Wednesday of this week and then the roofing can start. So our contractor already has the roofer ready to start. They already have the shingles in so he is prepared to start when the framing is done. We also got the windows and french doors ordered and they should be here in a couple of weeks. Today they started putting the sheeting up on the roof so it is looking more like a house!

The Framing has started!

Well I was a little disappointed on Monday because the framing didn't actually start. However, they did come out and look at it to determine the amount of lumbar, etc that they needed. They said they were going to come on Wednesday and start. Rodney and I had some homework as well - we had to get the rough out dimensions for all of the windows and the french doors. We had already picked out the style of windows, but we hadn't picked out the sizes. Monday night we got all of that information together and found that we weren't going to have to special order any! Thank heavens! Rodney also needed to re-route our data line so we wouldn't accidentally lose our internet- that would be tragic! The roofer brought the shingle samples for us to look at on Tuesday and we picked out the color for the new roof!

Wednesday morning the framers did show up and they measured and put down plumb lines and got everything square. Then they started sawing and nailing and the walls started going up quick! The first day they got two and a half of the outside walls done. As they got close to the existing house I was wondering if they were going to have to rip off all of the overhang - but they didn't! They just cut into the spot they needed and left the rest for later when they will need to take it all down. They did have to remove the guest bathroom window on Thursday - so we just have plastic over that right now but it shouldn't be that way for long. Thursday they got most of the interior walls done. We can definitely see how the rooms are going to look. I can't wait to begin putting Marissa's room together. I have to say the best part of the framing was seeing my closet! I cannot wait to be able to hang my clothes in there! I know - typical girl comment - but I haven't really had a closet since we got married...I've been using a chair. To be fair there is a closet for me to use - but we just don't seem to work well with each other. I can't see my clothes...so instead I have a pile. With the new closet everything will have its place. It's going to be interesting to see the rest of the house come together!

The Foundation has been poured!

There have been so many changes in when and what inspections and surveys that have to be done when you are adding on to a house. The foundation prep work has to be inspected before the foundation can be poured so Kelly from the bank came out of Friday to take pictures. Then bright and early Monday morning (7:00 am) the concrete trucks came in to start pouring. I think it took 3 trucks to fill it all in. They got it done extremely fast. We did have one "uh oh" - one of the trucks was backing up when the front tire sunk into a hole. Apparently the driver found an old septic tank that we didn't know was in the yard. :) But other than that the pouring went smoothly. Once they would pour the concrete they would start smoothing it out with trowels and when they had finished pouring it all they used a really long trowel. Then they let it set enough that you could stand on it and then they used these power tools to smooth it all out. After they finished smoothing it out they had to keep it moist so that it would cure properly. Rodney had to run the sprinkler on it for a little while in the evening as well. By the morning it was completely set! It looks great! They took off the forms and smoothed out the dirt around the foundation. This coming Monday the framing crew will come out and start framing the walls! Our job this weekend is to move the satellite dish so it doesn't get in there way.

Foundation Framing

I was working the other day in the office and suddenly the room got dark! I can no longer spy outside and see what is going on with the construction. The black plastic that will protect my house from getting soggy is now up. Now I have to go outside to check on the progress...which is good because I have to keep getting pictures...although I usually ask Rodney to take the pictures. Once the plastic was put up the foundation crew started trenching the areas where the pillars and beams will go. They dropped off the rebar today that they are going to use and I think they are going to pour on Monday. Now we're really getting started. The plumber also came out today to rough out the master bath!
I can't wait to see what happens next!

The wall is down!

Every day we are seeing more progress on the addition! The foundation crew came out to drill the holes for the pillars. We had to wait awhile for the driver of the drill because of Hurricane Ike. He tried to fuel up his truck and could not find diesel anywhere in the surrounding towns. He finally was able to borrow some and was able to get here to drill the holes. It was incredible to see this truck pull up onto the site and how high the drill went up. They had to drill down 12' in some areas to make sure that the foundation won't budge. Once they drilled those holes they brought in a cement truck to fill the holes a bit and put in rebarb. One of the things that the foundation crew found was that our existing foundation is about six inches higher than what they thought. Apparently the brick is usually hiding a couple of inches of the foundation but they realized ours was hiding a lot more. They came in to measure a window to the ground and found out it was much closer to the ground from the inside than from the outside. So that meant that the bricks had to come off of the side of the house a little earlier than planned so they could see where the foundation height really is. After taking off the brick and looking at them, we might be able to use the existing brick on the new addition -which will be nice because it might be harder than I thought to match the brick. This way we can mix the new and old brick together so it can blend. Now that the bricks are down, the foundation crew will have to come back and lay more fill down before they can put up the foundation frame and pour the cement. Today we should be getting some plastic that will be put on the side of the house to keep it weather proof - just in case it rains! Rodney was thinking that since the brick is down we can go ahead and tile our guest bathroom. We waited to do that since we are going to take out that window and we also knew the brick was going to come down and we were concerned that when they tried to take it down, the force could knock down the tilework on the inside. So we'll see if we are prepared to tackle that project. :)

Progress is being made!

Wow! I can't believe how quickly things are moving along! The septic is completely in and the old one is drained and filled. The air conditioning unit got moved so the foundation group could come in and get the ground ready. They had to bring in a lot of dirt / sand to fill the land to make it level. They moved so quickly we weren't able to get a picture of it in progress - the fill was all there before Rodney got home for lunch. They will be back on Monday to put in the bell shaped pillars and I think start the foundation framework. Hurricane Ike is holding us up a bit...but we'd rather wait it out then have to have them do a lot of stuff over.

From House Addition

Closing Day!

9/4/08
Closing day has finally arrived! We are so excited! We signed all of the paperwork...and it was endless. We technically have 3 days to decide that we don't want to do this project...but we've been waiting since Thansgiving of last year...so I'm pretty sure we know we want to do this. When we got home from the closing the guys were already here to start on the septic! It is so nice to actually see some work being done. It makes me think we really are going to get this addition done!

Rodney and I had been talking since we got married that if we were going to have kids we were going to need to add on to the house or move to a different house. Because the price of land is still really high and because we love our neighbors we decided to add on. Lucky for us we have a brother-in-law that is an architect! Very handy! He stopped by over the Thanksgiving holiday last year and took measurements of the house and drew up a great plan.

From House Addition

We are making our existing Master Bedroom into my office and converting what is now my office / guest bedroom into a dining room which will also be the access to the 3 new bedrooms that will be added on.

Our contractor is Darrell Parchman who makes it a point on his card to say that he returns calls. And let me tell you that was huge! Rodney contacted over 7 different contractors and most of them promised to come by and give us an estimate and never did. Darrell is great about returning phone calls and he gets the estimates to you quickly. We would have started much sooner had the bank process not taken as long. The project is only supposed to take 3-4 months...and much of that is dependent on weather and the sub contractors' schedules.