When we decided to move to Alabama, we spent several days looking at houses with our very patient realtor. We had several things we wanted-a playroom/bonus room, a flat yard, close proximity to John's work, and we communicated these to our relator. She did a great job showing us many houses that we liked. We also had asked about a couple of new developments. She set up meetings with these builders for us. In the end, we decided to build a house on a flat lot with a bonus room to use as the playroom and that was close to John's work...basically if we built, we could get all of the things on our wish list...the only downside was that we would first have to move into a rental house during the build. This was worth it in order to get to pick out everything we wanted in our house. This was especially fun for us since in our last house we did lots of renovations, but many times in renovations you have to select things that go best with what you already have to work with (which is fun), but this time we were starting from scratch so we could pick everything we wanted. We were both very excited about this!
When the kids and I were still in Tennessee John walked several lots and facetimed with me, and we were able to select our lot this way. Shortly thereafter the kids and I moved down to Alabama and the building process really began!
We were fortunate to have rented a house just a mile away from our construction site, so we could visit the construction daily (at least!).
Selecting our lot.
Progress-they paved our street in front of our house and poured our curb!
Our lot!
They started constructing the frame for the slab.
And finished the frame for the slab.
Everyone loves the machinery when we visit the house.
Progress has been made.
Our street has street lights now!
I don't know if you can see it or not, but this picture even looks hot to me! It has been SO hot (100 degree days)! But even so they've continued to make progress!
And our in ground storm shelter was delivered!!!!
Gravel in the form.
They prepared the site for the storm shelter.
Then put the storm shelter in the ground!
Then poured the slab!!
It just so happened that the very day they poured our slab, Lolly was in town visiting us so she got to see it with us for the first time!
You can tell its still wet concrete!
Then in August (on a day that it felt like 2 million degrees) we decided to have a Pizza Party on the slab. What a fun memory this will be.
Wood delivered for framing!
Framing begins!
And continues.
Beginning the upstairs.
Then they started wrapping it.
We all thought it was fun to go upstairs in our house before it was fully framed in...Great view of the lake behind/between us in this pic.
Very windy upstairs with no walls!
More wrapping.
They all take turns wearing the construction hat when we visit the house!
It's looking more like a house!
On a very, very hot Saturday they started the roof.
Brick delivered!
View of the back of the house.
Windows installed!
Lots of things began being delivered...including tubs!
It was so exciting to see the items/designs/etc we selected start arriving!
So cool! Now you can really tell where the rooms are.
We spent a few hours covering all the air vents one Sunday afternoon after it was installed...we just didn't want all the construction dust setting in the duct work.
Front door delivered! Eek!
I'm so excited about our front door!
We had seen the door (it also has a ledge and will be a different color from this picture) in another neighborhood and we were able to track it down to order.
We decided it was time for another pizza party in the house.
This time we ate inside the framed house and then wrote scripture on the framework.
I took pictures of all we wrote because I want to remember what's beneath the sheetrock.
The above verse is in NK's bathroom.
This is above the mantle.
Family room.
NK wrote her name in her room.
Dawson in his room
Playroom
At the top of the stairs to the bonus room.
Near the door
Family Room
Here we all are writing scripture and our names and some sneaky child snuck into the upstairs bathroom and wrote poop...actually make that POOOP (extra O). I'm hoping the workers got a kick out of this.
Foyer
Bathroom of one of the kids
Master bedroom
Carter's name where you go into his room
Family room
Kitchen
Floor of Dawson and Carter's room...they wrote this obviously.
Pizza party at the house when it's framed in and we were writing on the beams.
Entryway into the office
Family Room
This was what we put on the wall of the office which is now our homeschooling office.
Also in the office
Over the front door
Now on to more progress...master bath tub in place!
Showers in the kids' bathrooms set in place and faucets begin being installed.
With this being our first home to have a true open floor plan, we thought it would be wise to add some extra interior insulation on the kids' bedroom walls for noise. Here is the additional insulation as it was going in.
Progress in the master bedroom
FINALLY! We had been looking forward to the day they would start bricking....
and here it is!
Brick going up!
The forms for the sidewalks and driveway were made.
form for driveway
checking out the duct work
and now we have a sidewalk!
and driveway!
Sheetrock work going on inside
and now we have our sidewalk by the road!
And we sat our shrubbery out where we wanted it planted.
It was delivered on a super cold morning and we got the call to come place it so they could dig and plant it that COLD morning.
Trim work being done inside.
There is a lot of trim in our house between the crown mouldings and baseboards etc. One of the guys doing it told me how many thousand cuts it was exactly, and I, of course, cannot remember now but it was in the THOUSANDS! I was very impressed by their work!
SO excited for these! French doors hung to the office. Ready to be painted.
SOD delivery!
laundry room tile laid
Stairs being built
Farmhouse sink installed!
Cabinets in...waiting on countertops.
Lots of trim work being done.
This is in the office.
Hardwood being laid!
Wow how different this makes everything look!
Tile going down in the master bath.
Tile going up on the backsplash.
We have siding on an upper north facing portion of the house. The shaker siding going up.
tile work being done around the tub in the master.
light fixtures being installed.
shelving in pantry
countertops being installed in the kitchen
master shower floor tiled.
appliances being installed...we are getting close!!!
CARPET! We wanted carpet in the bedrooms and bonus room.
Exterior can lights installed.
Master bathroom coming together
Master shower starting to come together
The workers were still working and cleaning, but I was excited to see that my hooks were going up by the garage door...so I didn't even bother to move their vacuum out of the pic.
GARAGE DOORS! Yippee!
And it's complete!
I need to finish the follow up post to this with the pictures of the house now that we have gotten in and gotten settled, unpacked, and decorated!
No comments:
Post a Comment