Excavators and No Painters...again. - Day 112

The excavators are here laying the rest of our downspout / curtain drains. They underestimated the amount of pipe they needed by a lot, so we are were not anticipating our bill... However he worked with us to make it right. Good business. They fixed the leaky spot in the basement where they put our lines in with hydraulic cement so hopefully that won't be an issue again!

Painters didn't show up again. Son had to go to the hospital. 

Excavators & No Painters Day 111

Our excavators came and laid downspouts / tile around the perimeter of our house all the way to the creek. Our boys had fun watching them work!

A drywall guy came and fixed the cracks in all of the sunroom seams and peaks. He said our field manager was going to fix the one in the great room by the foyer. It requires scaffolding. 

Painters didn't show up today. We were mad at first but what's another day at this point? 

Pictures - Day 110

About those stickers..... (They got removed)

Finished siding, stone, and shakes. 

Walkout. Does this look like December in Ohio? Our entire family was outside in sweatshirts.

Drywallers, Sunroom cracks, and Basement Cleaning - Day 109

Our field manager stopped by today to check out the mud in the basement and address our cracking sunroom seams with the drywall crew. The drywall guys said they painted too soon, which is why the seams cracked the way that they did.

We chatted about this and a laundry list of other issues with our FM. He asked that we create lists for the different subcontractors so when they come they can fix everything all at once. We plan on putting this together today. 

We offered to clean the muddy basement in lieu of ServePro coming out. This will get us a credit and some exercise. It's beautiful outside!

Painters, Heat Pump, & Applicances - Day 108

The painters worked all day today sanding the nail holes our carpenter crew created. We weren't impressed with the carpenters attention to detail or with the amount of nail holes they created, and neither were the painters. They said our house was one of the worst they had seen and it caused them a lot of extra time & effort. Our little guys made them some cookies and drew them a card since they were home playing with their Christmas goodies.

We talked with our site foreman and our new anticipated date to close is January 17th. We knew this was coming.
Monday, 12/30 - Painters will be painting trim. Foreman will be stopping by to make sure things are running smoothly.

• Tuesday, 12/31 - Painters are painting walls
• Wednesdsay 1/1 - Happy 2014!
• Thursday 1/2 - ?
• Friday 1/3 - Electricians will be here working on final electric
• Tuesday 1/7 - Hard Floors
• Wednesday 1/8 - Hard Floors
• Thursday 1/9 - Plumbers
• Friday 1/10 - Plumbers
• Monday 1/13 - Carpet
• Tuesday 1/14 - Carpet
• Friday 1/17 - Tentative Closing

Correct Shakes and Gutters - Day 104

The siding crew came back today and installed the correct shake siding color, as well as the gutters. They also removed the wrong color shakes.

 It looks great! We did notice, however, they ran out of siding and covered our dormer with the shakes instead. 

The framers also forgot to remove the stickers from the interior of the dormer, so they will have to come back and remove those as well. The stickers are on the INSIDE!

The missing column on the left is supposed to be here & installed next week. 

Water, water, everywhere! - Day 103

Before the crazy rain 

Before the crazy rain 

Before the crazy rain 

Finished fireplace - Day 102

Fireplace and Christmas Music - Day 102

Not sure why it looks like I have a Christmas filter on my camera, but Webken Masonry started the fireplace this morning and is moving fast! 

Child labor - we had our kids sweep. 

From master porch looking at master bath window

They put up the soffit. Can't wait to enjoy this over the summer with a nice fan!

Craftsman trim and missing column. It is coming together so nicely! 

Absolutely adore the stone columns!

Beautiful - Day 101

Loving the look of our columns!

These color shakes are starting to grow own me as a contrast with the roof color. We originally picked a brown. We are loving the look from the driveway!

Our sweet columns. Neither of us thought they would be this big, but they are awesome. They did, however, forget to order the one on the far left that you can't see. Ooops. ;)

 

Lightrail installed! We were worried our cabinets were going to be too plain, but we absolutely love them. They are Spring Valley Maple Chiffon and we went ahead and upgraded to dovetail / slow close drawers. We also have fancy pull outs in our base cabinets. We didn't even ask for them.... they came standard with this type of cabinet. Fancy!

Over the commode shelf in kids' bathroom - This was a splurge and we're not sure it was worth it, but we like it and it will be really nice when our boys grow up.

 

They still need to install both medicine cabinets. Those were also not included, but weren't very expensive either.

 

 

Fireplace and mantel before stone. Good job hubby! I will be so happy he can put this behind him and be able to sleep at night. We are thanking our lucky stars our fireplace drama is over. WE WISH we would have just put in a WH woodburning fireplace (a cheap unit) and then put our insert in... it would have probably cost the same amount and saved everyone a lot of headache. We thought doing our own insert (Purchased from Kerns Fireplace in Lima, Ohio) would save us some time, money and headache but we were wrong. The good thing? It's going to be worth it!

A long day for the carpenters! - Day 100

No pictures today, but the carpenters worked until about 10:45 or 11:00 pm today! We actually went to bed before they left. Our eight-year-old had a politeness meal for scouts, so he took them out some Christmas cookies and had a quick chat. This makes us super happy because he is normally so shy, but the different crews being here have helped him branch out. Most all of them were very nice and down to earth! :)

Lots of progress was made today... Lots of small mistakes too. All of the trim, jamb, case, doors, cabinets, granite kitchen sink, counters, and wood 1/2 capped walls are done. 2/3 of the beautiful craftsman columns are installed. It looks like a home and it is very evident that a lot of time was spent at our house the last few days. We are loving the progress.

There are a few mistakes our FM is addressing. They include: 

1. Re-building one area of the island because it wasn't long enough

2. Ordering the last porch column. Oops! 

3. Ordering new side splashes - they ordered the reversed side splash on accident

4. Ordering the lightrail molding in our kitchen

5. Fixing the main bath door

6. Removing and reinstalling the correct color of Shake siding

These seem like a lot, but building a house is complicated! This won't affect us much in the big picture, so we aren't stressing. Our site foreman seems like he's on top of the mistakes too, as he pointed some of them out to us. 

Today could be the day our fireplace stone is installed and our shake siding is fixed. I am not sure what else to expect so it will be my Christmas surprise when I get home! :) Happy Friday!  

Day 99 and Lookin' Fine

The carpenters showed up today and worked like animals, so coming home to my surprises today was MUCH BETTER than yesterday.

Before they left!! ((Loving our kitchen)) 

After they left! Love our counters... And our views! 

Crown - will still add light rail molding below

From the sunroom 

From the living area - we had no light

Den doors

Creepy pic from the foyer

From the dining room 

Master vanity

Trim cut in our primed bedroom

Main bath vanity with no filler strip we had a half hour phone call about with our temporary color girl

Eat ledge with a sharp corner... We wish we would have angled this for our kids' sakes. It is eye socket level. Ouch.

My island drawers and trash bins

Base molding started! 

Kids' closet doors not installed yet

So far, everything looks good. We have a few concerns with cabinets and my husband says he isn't so sure about how the end product was going to be due to some odd spots where things weren't flush or level.

They installed a hollow core door on our main bath, but we paid to upgrade the main bath door to solid wood due to wear and tear. This will be fixed.

Those are small things. It looks fantastic!

Can't wait for tomorrow. It will be our 100th day of the building process and I think the carpenters will be done! 

They started casing and jambing