Week 17

Well we travelled down on Saturday morning and invited our friends Jim and Allie Worman to the house for a tour this past Saturday.  I think they really liked it!  Jim has been a friend of mine for nearly 20 years and will soon be a neighbor of only about 3/4 of a mile distance.  We're looking forward to it!

I didn't snap too many pictures.  1 actually.  As I mentioned at the 16.5 week update, the cabinets and trim work are being installed.  The painters have been hard at work staining the trim cherry.  If I understood the process correctly there is 1 coat of stain, a light sanding, and two coats of a varnish or clear coat.  Holly and I both laughed a bit that they added trim to the garage.  Our current one isn't even painted.

I think painting will begin after the trim.  The front retaining wall brick was begun last week and will likely be complete when we go to the house this weekend.

Mike has updated our schedule and we now have completion of the house around the second week of April.

Mantle and cabinets installed in Living Room.  The fireplace will be the same stone on the front of the house and will have a raised hearth.

Week 16.5 - A rare midweek update

We had an afternoon meeting at the home with Mike today.  We discussed the boot lockers and stain with the trim carpenter (Joe) and did a closet walk through (with Brian from Godby) to review where and how high we want shelves and towel bars.

As I mentioned last week, the cabinets and trim had been delivered.  As you can see below, they are busy installing them for the last three days.  Painting starts tomorrow.

Kitchen

Powder Bath downstairs

Upstairs hall bathroom sinks

Kitchen

Holly's sink

Block wall is complete awaiting brick on the front

Side is just about complete.  Will leave only the front incomplete.

Week 16

The heat is on....it's on the street.  The heat is, the heat is...on.  Yes I'm a child of the 80s!

Well with that done the walls were able to be primed and the ceilings textured.  Exterior stone and brick continue.  Holly and I had dinner on Saturday evening at the home of some old friends that will be less than a mile from us and stopped by to capture these photos.

With heat on, the home has been locked and we have our own key.  Cabinets and trim have been delivered and are in the garage.  Wall painting should start on Monday along with stain and interior trim work.



Living room from entry/dining room opening



Back door looking at stairs

Holly at back porch/doorway

The horizontal line just below the window will be the final height of the stone on the side of the house.  Brick above.

Front retaining wall is complete.  Will be faced with brick.

Don't send us mail here yet.

Stone on the garage side is complete.

Week 15

We're at week 15 of what was to be a 20 week process.  Time has really flown!

Well apparently Vectren finally was able to do something; the gas line was ran from the street, however they still didn't get the line tapped into the main.  I mentioned in the last post that there would be a front retaining wall.  The block was laid this week.  Next week it will be poured with concrete and will then be ready to have the brick front added.

The drywall has been skimmed and taped, and they are ready to texture the ceiling, but the heat (gas) must be turned on first.  The brick is 2/3 completed and the stone is well under way.  Holly and I are really liking how the stone, brick and the two exterior colors blend.  We're particularly happy with the finish of the stone.  As I have discussed in a previous post, we looked at homes all over Indianapolis before we found it and it was worth the trips!

Plan for the coming week is to finish the drywall and prime the interior walls and to deliver the cabinets and interior trim.  Home should be locked this week so no more neighbors can tour the inside.

 Also this week we got our current home on the market.  First house on the street this season!

We're getting awefully close to those two trees.  They are beautiful trees and I'm sincerely hoping they  make it through this build.

The front walk will be backfilled up to where the block and stone meet on the house.  The curving retaining wall will be filled with concrete and faced with the same brick as is on the rear of the house.

Holly and Xavier showing the mudded walls.

Holly and Xavier show the stone at the garage and friends entrance.

I thought this looked like some interesting brick work and wanted to post a photo of it.  Too bad some of the other bricks are cracked.

Week 14 - late

Sorry for my lateness on the update week 14.  Even worse news, no pictures.  Holly and I weren't able to make it down this past weekend so all of this information is from an update from Mike.

Sewer and water are plumbed.  Gas was supposed to go in last week.  Then maybe this week.  It appears that Vectren (the gas company and "a proud sponsor of the Indianapolis Colts") let some permit expire that allows them to do gas line work in Johnson County.  Don't you think that would be a rather important ingredient to being a gas company?  Just saying.

The garage doors have been hung and additional gravel has been dumped on the top portion of the driveway.  From the looks of the photo below, the original gravel is about a foot below the floor of the garage so I'm expecting a bunch was put down.

Holly and I authorized Mike to build a retaining wall in the front yard that will start just to the right of the entrance come out about 20 feet and then turn toward the driveway and garage.  The wall will have a 24inch deep footer, be made of concrete blocks with rebar and concrete-poured cores and faced with the same brick on the house.  The feeling I got is that it will be about 6 feet or so high around the two trees.

Drywall taping has begun but I'm unsure if actual mudding has.  Mike said that mudding would require the heat to be on and as I've already mentioned, the gas company is not very good at gas company type things.

We finally chose the interior colors.  All from Sherwin Williams.  I won't bore you with details on them but I think there's like 9 or so of them.  The dining room remains red and I couldn't be happier that I'm not the one painting it!  If you had not heard, our current dining room has 6 or 7 coats of paint.  I learned much after the fact that one is to prime a room for red paint by using grey.  Who would have guessed?

I had the thought last week as we entered February that we're likely only about 6-8 weeks from completion!  It seems odd that we're so close.  When this whole thing started, 5 months to build the home seemed like forever.  Its really flown by though.