House Progress: August-September

I have a feeling our builder won't finish our house by contract date (December 2) since a) our front and balcony doors won't arrive from China until December 6, and b) Braklow Homes has advised us not to lock in a rate yet even with a 4-month window, putting us possibly even into a late January move-in... big bummer. 

But we have finally seen some more progress on "Longbottom," so I thought I'd at least post an update because I'd love to look back on our home in progress. So, here's what happened in August and September, according to my iPhone.

Back in late July/early August, our house looked like this:

We were super excited about our front courtyard being poured. We've always loved to hang out in the front of our home to watch neighbors walk by and picnic. I think this spot's going to get a lot of use.

Here's the skylight hole we added to our bedroom. We debated about whether to hang a fan from the center on some cross beams, but decided we like the simple look of light streaming in and stars twinkling over us at night.

Both the kids have lofts in their rooms, also with skylights so they can sleep up there and gaze at the stars.

The balcony went in, which is our other favorite hangout. We have a view of the entire neighborhood, and Gryffin said he feels like a "king of the neighborhood" up there. :)

View from the corner. The builder ordered the wrong roof color (thankfully, I caught it), then told us the roof we wanted was no longer being produced and we'd have to settle for a different color. So I called the manufacturer and local distributors, and it turns out our roof color (Tamko Heritage Black Walnut) was still being produced and available all over town. Phew. 

We wanted windows with black frames on both the outside and inside, and were thrilled with how they turned out when we pulled up and saw them installed one day. I love black windows.

We watched all the "guts" of the house go in which is mind-boggling to me: HVAC, plumbing, and right now we're at the electrical phase before the "stuffing" (insulation) and drywall. Mark and I got the "ok" from our builder to wire surround sound ourselves, so we've been working on the house a lot in the evenings when the workers are gone. 

A view into our kitchen from the great room. They had to push these transom windows out toward the walls because of the "nook" area over our stovetop, and we'll have open shelves beneath the transoms. I'm so excited about this kitchen since I spend so much time cooking, and so does Lorelei who is our resident baker and wants to open a bakery in the Cotswolds or Scotland or France.

Another look into Lorelei's loft. She'll have a ladder to climb up there, and Gryffin has a rock wall and a ladder into his as well.

This was part of the TV wall, but the framers built it to the old plan and it was too small.

The builder was going to charge us extra to fix it even though it was their mistake, but gave us permission to just expand it ourselves. Never thought we'd be building our own house, but we've put a lot of sweat into this place and it's actually been pretty rewarding and fun.

And we were super thrilled when they started putting the siding up. We wanted a very specific width for the boards and battens, which will be painted charcoal gray (Benjamin Moore Iron Mountain), and the horizontal lap siding areas will be stained like cedar-colored wood, to give it the modern transitional look we're after. The flower box, pillars on the balcony, and halfway up the garage areas will be done in stone. Can't wait to see it come together!

And that's a wrap for August-September progress. Hoping to be at drywall stage soon!