Eternal Summer Slacking

That's my excuse for not updating the blog in the last 10 days. Eternal summer slacking. Is there anything better? It sounds nice, but truthfully with pool passes, amusement park passes, 2-3x weekly drive-bys at the new place, and our current house to prepare for sale - oh yeah, and work:) - I feel  like I haven't sat down in weeks. Exhaustion is wearing on me....but not for the crew on lot 15!!! Holy cow so much has happened in the last 10 days, I can't believe my eyes sometimes. This is a pic heavy post, so prepare yourselves. I'll start with last week and work up to this evening. Here goes.

Early last week - we were worried spotty showers/thunderstorms would delay pouring the concrete floor, but they got it done.

Looking down into the basement from the south side of the morning room.

Garage floor not yet poured.

Pipe.

Front porch.

I'm still - 10 days later - not entirely sure whats happening here. It looks like a paint tray filled with gravel was dropped onto the cement?

Fast forward a week - county inspections were done and not much else, until this past Monday when our lumber was delivered!

Isn't it good Norwegian Wood? (no. probably not, but I love the Beatles, so there.)

Lower left corner - 2 fiberglass tub/shower surrounds. one for the upstairs/kids bath, one for the basement. directly behind them in cardboard boxes are the master bath shower floor and garden tub.

Jump ahead a few rainy days - pull around the corner and whoa! whats up first floor?! from the back of the lot.

Front of the house - from the left - living room window, front door, dining room window.

Front of garage - now featuring a fresh concrete floor!

windows & stairs

office and south side of morning room.

north side of morning room - sliding glass door. site of future deck.

large triangles.

and perhaps the most perplexing find of the day...a crumpled up map of the state of Ohio.

not even kidding by afternoon the next day....hello there 2nd floor!

from the back of the house.

From this evening - the hubs did a drive-by (Friday 6 pm, crew still there working) - and we have a blingy, silver-wrapped house. Check out that front porch coming together so nicely. Have I mentioned my love of a front porch? Well, you know now - I freakin loooove a front porch. I foresee many afternoon/evenings sitting and watching my kiddos play in the cul-de-sac.

and the morning room has a roof!

Its all happening!!!! What a week this has been - in 10 days we went from a hole in the ground with a concrete floor to a silver, two-story skeleton of our dream house. Its a beautiful thing.

Concrete Jungle

Big, big happenings over at Lot 15 this week!! Foundation is poured and waterproofing Geo-mat is in place. All underground plumbing for the basement is in place and the concrete floor is due to be poured on Thursday, weather permitting. Moving right along!! Some pictures in random, iPhone Blogger app order.

Trampled Underfoot...ers?

 I have been MIA for a week now - there wasn't much new to report besides some deeper digging to the giant hole. And between the 4th Holiday and being backed up, the county was running behind on inspections, so the crew had to wait for that. Not to mention I came down with a case of strep throat that struck me like it had a death wish. Utter misery. So I hadn't been out to the site and not too much was happening....until today.

Footers around the garage

That is what's in these pictures, yes? The footers? I previously mentioned I am an absolute novice at this housebuilding business and knowing what's what. At any rate, some concrete was poured today and I'm assuming this is what they meant by "footers". Because its footers first, then foundations? Gah! I am terrible, but still - its very exciting!

What an attractive front porch

Stonehenge. No, wait. RyanHomeshenge. Triolahenge?

I was right! That large hill of gravel IS the temporary driveway.

PM left a voicemail on the hubs phone the other day saying its concrete, concrete, waterproofing, then framing in about 2 weeks....what?! Crazy! Its all happening!!! Stay tuned.....

Update: some new pics from our rockin sales person - in random Blogger app order She must have been at the site not long after we were. And is clearly much braver or was wearing a hard hat because she got some up-close shots of Triolahenge. Thanks "E"!

Down In A Hole

Yesterday I closed with a promise of some giant hole pictures, and since I aim to please...enjoy.

The notch straight ahead is the area that will sit directly under the morning room.

Our future tornado - or derecho - shelter.  Also, please admire my expert iphone camera technique of including my fingertip in the picture.

In the not too distant future, this space will be covered with toy kitchens, a train table, plastic dinosaurs in a variety of sizes, Barbies, Squinkies(grrrrr tiny squinkies!!!!), and a large doll house. Which is fine, because you know what that means? The rest of my living space will NOT be covered with these things:)

Eliza can't help herself - camera comes out, she must be a part of it! And as an aside, what are the chances that piece of machinery in the background has AC? Because crikey it is hotter than Hades in SW OH right now. Hats off to the crews working outside in this misery.

Soon to be temporary driveway? 

Very exciting all this dirt moving, non? Who knew I would be so tickled by a giant hole. Obviously not much work going on tomorrow with the holiday, but I'll check back closer to the weekend - I know you'll all be on the edge of your seats with anticipation:) Stay tuned.....

Can You Dig It?

Well, the big pre construction meeting was this afternoon - very informative, very thorough. Our pm knows his stuff - I feel like we're in good hands! Went over the "blueprints" with a fine toothed comb and gave us a tentative closing date of 9/24. But the best part about the meeting....finding out they're breaking ground tomorrow!!!! Holy crap! And, since there's only 27 homes going up in our community, they expect it to be complete in a year. Wow! We went over to the lot (no model home in our comm, meeting is at a nearby model home) after the meeting to get a better feel for how the house will sit, and our pm explained to me how the stakes were layed out. I was confused before. Doesn't take much.

We were a little disappointed to learn that there are no sidewalks in the cul-de-sac or on our side of the street like we were originally told, but no biggie. There's a 10ft easement at the front of the property should they decide to put them in someday. Also a bummer? Apparently the HOA has final say about fences and sheds - all have to be submitted for approval - and it's pretty much a given that any sheds will be denied no matter what. Fences have to meet certain criteria, which - of course. I expect that. But no sheds? At all?! Yikes. I guess the original developer wants to preserve the aesthetic integrity of the community. I'm hoping as time goes on they'll do away with that by-law, because otherwise one of us is going to be parking in the driveway so our garage can hold all our lawn stuff!

See, the story with our community is that it was originally intended for high, high end homes. Well, about 10 homes were sold and built and then the housing market fell out. Fast forward a few years, original developer can't move anymore homes and RH steps in with a more affordable product - with stipulations upheld by the original developer and homeowners. Only certain models and elevations were made available, brick front standard, hardy plank siding standard, among other things. I AM happy to be on the receiving end of those standards - but no sheds at all?! Really?!

So I'll be driving by the lot tomorrow after work. Stay tuned for pics of a giant hole....