Lots of changes this week

We were gone for most of the week and a lot of things have changed! It was our first stop once we got back into town, we didn't even go home first! (Well, maybe we did, in a way!)

No garage door yet, but the other exterior doors and windows are all in. The roof and all of the siding is complete. They started drywalling Thursday. When we visited today (Sunday) the drywalling looks finished.

The living room, kitchen, front entry, and Shannon is standing in the hallway looking into the coat closet.

Camille's room. Her closet (huge!) is to the right. The door at the back leads to the hallway.

Master bathroom. I tried taking pictures of the master bedroom, but there just isn't anything to really see, except lots of doorways. I also took a pic of the garage, but I can't get the whole garage into the picture and I figure you're tired of reading about it anyway!

Judging by the house next door, we should have a drywall inspection in the next day or two. Then they'll tape over the windows and spray spackle, then paint. Then clean up, smooth the floor, and get ready to start laying flooring.

Our walk-through is now just 5 weeks away! Then closing is a week later. We'll be giving notice to our landlord pretty soon. I can't believe we're getting so close.

Bathtubs, electicity, ducting, Oh My!

Visited today and saw lots of "little" changes. We're at a stage where they're working hard, but the changes are harder to see. Since the other day, all of the plumbing is installed, the electrical work looks mostly finished, the gas line is in, and the duct work in the attic is complete. We also have a front door and side door now. Judging by the house next door (same model, 1 week ahead of us) our's is ready for insulation. Then drywall!!

Camille peaking from the hallway. She's looking toward the kitchen.

Oddly, when they install the tubs, they fill them with water. From wandering through other houses, we know they don't empty the tub until the house is complete. They get pretty dirty with sawdust and whatnot. Our's so far look like a water & sawdust soup. Not too bad yet!

Master bathroom. Through the wall, you can see Camille's bathroom. I asked her if she'd like to take a bath today. She said "No! It's full of sawdust!"

The roof is almost complete. That's really nice since it started raining today. The inside of the house was completely dry except for one spot where there's a hole through the roof still.

We have bathtubs!

We visited the house too late tonight to take pictures, but we did see that we have bathtubs! I don't know why, but they fill them with water, so the bathtubs have water and a bunch of sawdust in them.

We also have seen our neighbors a couple of times now. They'll live in the house that's about 10 feet away (literally!) so we hope to really get along with them. They're about our age I think. I said "Hi" but next time we see them, I plan to go over and introduce myself.

Roof!

We have a roof! This is a relief because the rains are supposed to start again next week. At the rate they're going, they'll probably have the shingles on before the rain starts.

The garage is, of course, of great interest to us. Nearly twice as long as a standard garage, it will give our little company some room to grow. Perhaps for fun I can post pics of our current "warehouse" so you can see why we need so much space!

Some of our neighborhood

I thought I'd share a couple of photos of our new neighborhood. These are both taken from standing in our driveway.
This is to the southwest. None of these houses are completed yet, but the one on the farthest right (the dark one) is almost done. It'll be finished this week probably.

This is to the souteast. The foundation across the street is on our street. The other houses are all on the cross street. None of them are finished yet. All together, there are about 15-16 houses in various stages, from barely started up to nearly complete. Most are sold already to first-time homeowners wanting the tax rebate.

We have walls!

We skipped yesterday's visit, so today we were delighted to see, for the first time, WALLS! All of the exterior walls and almost all of the interior walls are framed in. Most of the siding is on and some of the windows are in. Yay!!

Our front porch (paid extra for that!) and doorway. To the right is the kitchen window. To the left is the smallest bedroom's window.

Standing near the kitchen looking to the back of the house. On the right will be our dining area and toward the back, near the patio door, is the living room.

Standing near the kitchen looking into the 3rd bedroom and beyond. If I had cute little arrows, I could point them all over to show the 2nd bedroom, master, and if we squint, some of the bathroom.

It was raining today and when we drove past this morning, there was a small crew working. They were dripping wet but managed to still put up all of our walls. Tomorrow if they're there, we might take coffee and hot chocolate. We went back this evening when everyone was gone. That way we can wander all over, in and out of houses, etc. We got very muddy but it was such fun to see the house starting to take shape.

Making progress

Visited tonight and found the garage, front porch, and back porch are all in. They've put the plumbing and electrical conduits under the house. Our favorite part: they've delivered stacks and stacks of wood for building the floor, walls, and roof. The windows have been delivered and are waiting at the curb.

Camille and Shannon looking under the house. In the background you see several pallets of lumber.

Our ginormous garage. 2 1/2 cars wide, 8 feet longer than usual.

Garage Floor & Back Patio poured

Drove past today and there were workers everywhere on all the houses. Looks like they've laid the plumbing and other piping in the crawlspace under the house. They've also poured the concrete for the garage and back patio! And probably front step...I didn't see that but they probably did that too. We may go back tonight so we can get out and look around. Probably no pictures unless they've done something spectacular, otherwise it looks mostly the same as before!