Photo Update

The trim carpenters have arrived and they're working on installing the cabinetry as I write. I'll update on the project later, but here are some recent photos of the kitchen and kids' bathroom, plus pics of tile/countertops/cabinetry/paint that I've selected. I hope you enjoy!

Kids' bathroom and guest bathrom

Master bathroom floor (with gray dot) and kitchen tile. The master bathroom will also feature these subway tiles in slightly different colors.

Mudroom bench and kids' bathroom cabinets

Coffee nook, space for future refrigerator and pantry opening

Future breakfast nook and stairs to sub-level



Kitchen island and range wall

Kitchen overview

Practicing What You Preach is Tough

The first resident

No more mud!

A sampling of our haul

Front with porch cavity

Once the stone and brick were completed last week, the yard was littered with mounds of unused concrete, brick pieces, and stone chunks. Instead of having it all go in the dumpster or being mixed in with the dirt that will be used to grade the yard, we decided that it would be a much better idea to put it in the cavity of our front porch.

The mason finished the outside wall of our front porch last week, but the cavity hasn't yet been filled with dirt and finished with concrete. The mason had thrown into the cavity a few used buckets and empty bottles, which I pulled out, but it gave us the idea of filling it in with more substantial matter. We collectively hauled to the front porch what probably amounted to about 800 pounds of concrete, brick, and stone pieces, plus a huge piece of bent rebar that's been rusting in the yard for two months that was too big to put in Patrick's truck for recycling.

We've tried hard to make the house as sustainable as we can afford, so it made sense to reuse these materials. First, we've already paid for them, so why not use the materials to their fullest extent instead of throwing them in the dumpster? Second, the concrete, brick, and stone will add considerable strength to the front porch. Third, diverting the waste stream to a usable space means that we use fewer raw materials, saving money and natural resources. It was backbreaking work and we were all exhausted when we finished, but it feels really good to be able to put ideas on sustainability to work, even when building a fairly "conventional" house.

I've said before that we go to the house each weekend to clean up the messes that the workers leave. We find not just construction waste such as nails, wood, drywall, etc. but also drink cups/lids/straws, discarded banana peels, food wrappers and such. Yesterday, we spent hours sweeping up drywall and plaster dust and getting plaster blobs off the floor. We also found that about a cup of unshelled sunflower seeds along with other trash had fallen in the gap that is the base of our kitchen island. It blows my mind that people working on a new house would be so careless as to throw their trash all over the place or leave it where it falls. Building a house is, of course, a huge financial undertaking and it's disturbing to see that people treat our future home with such disrespect. The sunflower seeds-if they weren't removed by us-would spend the life of our house rotting and attracting rodents and insects. And we wonder why our indoor air quality is worse than outside air quality?

On a much lighter note, I picked out the tile for the bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry room this week. Fun stuff! I fell in love with one particular tile as soon as I walked in store and ended up designing the kitchen around it. When I got home that night, I realized that the tile is in the same pattern on our dog's collar--hilarious! I guess I'm fairly consistent in my taste. I could pick tile all day!!

I also got all the paint colors nailed down (seven, plus trim). All that's left to pick is the door and cabinetry hardware.

I can hardly believe that we're getting so close to completion now. I know it's another two months until we're in, but still, it's hard to contain our excitement at this point. Patrick is always sad to leave the house after cleaning and is trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it really won't be much longer now. The trim carpenter will be there this week and will hang interior doors, install cabinetry, and make bookshelves and a mudroom bench. The driveway, back porch, and part of the sidewalk are poured and curing. The back deck should begin this week. There's no denying it's coming together now. And we are happy!

Putting on a Pretty Face

After seeing nothing but concrete and framing for so long, it feels good to watch the house finally take shape. On Friday the painter started putting the exterior paint and trim on the house and today the masons began installing the stone, with the brick to follow in a few days.

The driveway should be poured next week when the masons are done (or done with the section near the garage anyway). Apparently the price of concrete goes up on November 1 by $5/sf due to the need for a "winter mix". We should definitely get the driveway in by that time and are hoping to have the sidewalk poured, but at least the largest remaining concrete expense will be covered.

The blown-in cellulose is in, except for the attic/ceiling space, which will be done right at the end so that the drywall has time to properly cure. The GC says this will give the ceiling plenty of time dry, which should keep it from sagging. Sounds good to me.

The plumbing nightmare continues. We still have no selections, nor do we know the price of anything except the initial Kohler request. I keep asking, as does the GC, but still nothing. Who needs plumbing anyway?

However, we do have the geothermal wells and pumps in now! It's an open loop system so we have one well in the front and one in the back, but it can also be used for irrigation and is non-potable! With the geothermal system, as soon as we have permanent power we can start heating the house. I'm so happy we went with the geothermal. I hope it really delivers the projected savings.

What else? I picked out the countertops last week. I picked out granite for the kitchen and master bath. The guest bath has a gorgeous travertine, which is more fragile than the granite but since the space won't be used as much as the "lived in" rooms, I'm hoping it will hold up well. In the kids' bath we put in quartz since I fully expect them to leave toothpaste squeezed on the counter and myriad other staining materials. And, hey, the countertops were only $56 over budget!!!

I ordered the last of the lights this week (Yea, holding out for another sale actually worked!) and am so excited to think about how this is all coming together. Check out the photos and tell me what you think.

The Selection Sprint

The past few weeks have truly been a whirlwind. After getting the cabinetry just right, we moved on to selecting flooring. Because Patrick loves it, we've selected a prefinished handscraped Golden Teak for the main level. Personally, I'm not crazy about the handscraped finish, but he really had his heart set on it. I'm sure I'll come to like it in once I've lived on it. For the basement, we've selected a bamboo. I really wanted to install cork in the basement, but it was prohibitively expensive. It's not that cork is badly priced, but we had initially wanted stained concrete in the basement, but that was when we were laying radiant heat. Without the warm radiant heat underfoot, the concrete wasn't at all appealing. Cork was. But the budget was a mere $3K. I actually found a cork on sale that would've come in on budget, but it was nearly black and with our tan-colored dog with long toenails, it didn't seem like the best combination. After much back and forth, we found a bamboo that comes in under budget (at least until you consider installation, but it'll still be close). However, we did put cork in the master bedroom closet because that'll feel nice and warm on cold winter days. Besides, it's the sale cork.

I think I spent about 30 hours online last week looking at plumbing fixtures. The plumbing game seems to be a complete racket. They don't tell you what you have for a budget and have this arrangement where everything requires a change order. Why do we need a change order when nothing has been changed, I wonder? Just to bump up the cost?? Anyway, you go down to the supplier and spend hours selecting your products, keeping your fingers crossed that you'll end up on budget. Quelle surprise when you don't.

After finding very little that I even liked (on budget, that is) at the showroom and feeling overwhelmed by the cost of it all, I spent a day-plus on the Kohler website picking out the faucets, shower sets, tub sets, toilets, sinks, and kitchen faucet and sink that I want. I received the quote today and it's high--at least I think it is since I don't actually have a budget number from the plumber. The thought of going through all this again makes me feel a little ill, but if I find out I'm horribly over, I'll probably take another stab at it. I did manage to find a cast iron claw foot tub for just over $1K, which if you've been looking you'll know that's an incredible steal. Really. I'm sure it'll require a change order since I'm not going through the local supplier.

What else? I've ordered ceiling fans for the master bedroom and living room and am looking at fans for the kids' rooms and the deck. I figured I'd let the kids have one that they want instead of me choosing a plain one. Hey, it's their house, too.

I did the electrical walk-through last Friday. It was such a crazy week last week that I was completely unprepared for the walk-through. Thankfully, it was Friday afternoon so I had the weekend to think about it some more. I sent my GC an email with about 20 changes on Sunday night and ended up taking my Sharpie to the house early Monday morning to make changes before the electrical crew started. BTW, it killed the electrician that I wouldn't let him put a recessed can in the guest room, which I found pretty amusing.

Other things: the fireplace has been installed. The plumbing has been laid. Insulation should go in later this week, and I'm hoping that we'll have a front door very soon. What's next? Tile and countertops.

So much happening now!

Even though it seemed that the framing was taking forever, there were so many decisions being made that now the house is progressing very quickly. As the photos show, we now have a complete roof (woo hoo!!) and the windows are being installed. Patrick and I have been working hard to keep the subfloor and construction materials dry by cleaning up the site frequently and standing the wood up against the walls so the floor won't stay wet too long, so it'll be very, very nice to have a roof, windows, and doors.

One thing that's been great about the framing coming to an end is that we can now see where our front porch and back deck will be. Looking at the third photo in the list, that entire eave space will be our L-shaped deck. After having seven to eight months of cold weather in Vermont, we're looking forward to enjoying some outside time on the spacious deck.

For those of you reading from Vermont and New Hampshire, Patrick reminded me yesterday that at this time last year, this is exactly what we were doing in Manchester (this explains the weird, out-of-place final photo). We were replacing the roof, windows, removing the vinyl siding, and repairing the cedar siding underneath. Remember the lovely green paint beneath the vinyl and how it became pockmarked with white during repair? I think the whole town thought we were nuts.

...

So, what else is going on? Well, we've finally selected the kitchen cabinetry!! It was waaay more difficult than I expected it to be--largely because of budget. If everything were truly custom, there would've been no real issues, but as custom means big $$$, we had problems. We've finally found a design I love and I believe the cabinetry will very nice.

The bathrooms, too, have been problematic. Fitting a design into a pre-determined size is not very easy, especially when you're as particular about the design as I am. The kids' bathroom ended up being the easiest, though that wasn't simple and I'm still working out stain details b/c what I want isn't available in the door style I picked. The guest bath is finally near-perfect, but it astonishes me that making a nice toe kick that runs the full extension versus 1/3 extension could add $400 to the price. How is that possible?

Now, the master bath. Oh, boy, talk about difficult. The width for the master bath vanity is 80 inches, which seems huge, right? Apparently not. We decided to go ahead and get dual sinks b/c that seems to be what everyone wants, though we really could care less. Spitting toothpaste in each other's hair during the morning rush has never occurred and we've always shared the space nicely. But, because we are realists and don't expect to live here forever, we're taking into account what other people might want. So, fitting two distinct sink chests with drawers into 80 inches is not possible. At least not in a style that I like and that's compatible with the rest of the house design. So it's a double vanity, most of which I find hideous and without any pretense of function or style. I've tried four different cabinet makers/installers and have not hit upon a solution yet. I'm getting close and remain cautiously optimistic, but it's been weeks and weeks of looking and drawing and reworking, and still we don't have a design.

However, all others areas of construction are moving along nicely now. The HVAC crew showed up today to begin working on installing the geothermal system. The plumber, electrician, and audio/security tech all come this week or next. The GC estimates that we'll begin blowing insulation during the first week of October. After that, it's time for the drywall!

Now I need to select plumbing fixtures and flooring. We're thinking about bamboo on the main floor and cork on the sub-level. Both are rapidly renewable resources and relatively inexpensive. Dare I think we may come under budget on this? If we do, that'll help cover the certain overages in the plumbing department! I'll keep you posted.

Still framing...

Although the framing is continuing, it still seems very slow. We are hoping to make up time once framing is complete and we can have different subs working at the same time, but in the interim, we've been slowed down significantly by the holiday weekend and sporadic rain (including the remains of Hermine yesterday). While work on the house has been progressing, we've turned our attention to selecting a front door and cabinetry.

We are spec'd for a fiberglass door, but I'm a strong believer in making the entry welcoming (this also is why we'll have a nicely sized front patio), so we're going with a wood door. Of course, it will exceed the budgeted amount.

For the cabinetry, we're looking at a few different suppliers, one of whom is a former installer. While the installer can see the different possibilities in the kitchen and bathrooms, he's not very forthcoming with design suggestions. The result so far has been fairly boring, IMHO. Last Saturday, we happened by a kitchen design center and talked with the owner. He seems to have a good handle on what we're looking for, so he's working on a plan and estimate for our bathrooms and kitchen. Hopefully his designs will be more inspired. This, too, will exceed the budget, but even the installer's estimate exceeded the builder's budget.

Thankfully, Patrick and I came into this knowing that we would blow the budget in certain areas. We've spent many, many hours and lots of money renovating our last two houses and upgrading builder-grade materials, so we came into this determined to make it the way we want it from the start. We've agreed that at some point we'll put an end to construction and finish the remainder ourselves so we don't end up with a mortgage that makes us uncomfortable. That likely means I'll be painting the entire interior and Patrick will be building cabinetry for the laundry room. It may also mean that the basement is only roughed for now. We've discussed these possibilities with our contractor so he's aware that we may pull the plug before completion. The good news in all this is that Patrick and I enjoy home improvement projects, so we're not upset by the possibility of finishing it ourselves. Besides, we'll be able to enjoy the house from Day One instead of looking to future changes and wishing we'd done things differently.

It's starting to feel like a home

Today, for the first time, when I walked under the installed roof trusses it felt like a home. It's amazing the difference a roof makes, even when it's not yet keeping the elements at bay. Having the roof on gave me a better and deeper understanding of how the floorplan will translate into actual living space in a few short months.

The framers worked until nearly 6 p.m. last night in high winds. It was amazing to feel 35-40 mph gusts and see them staying steady on the roof. As the photo and video show, the first floor is almost fully framed, and I saw this morning that more OSB has arrived, so I'm assuming we will have exterior walls by the end of the week. Very exciting stuff!

...Quick update...
When we stopped by this evening, we were thrilled to see that they've started installing Zip System wall panels on the exterior. This will eliminate the need for Tyvek wrapping and should still provide a good air barrier and moisture control, plus it gets us LEED points should we decide to go for LEED for Homes.

Our GC expects the roof and exterior walls to be fully installed no later than next Friday--a week and a half away. He says that we're running about two weeks behind because of all the hot weather we've had, but hopes we'll be able to make some of that up in the next five or six weeks. I need to get busy ordering materials again so that I'm not holding them up. The windows may be in as soon as this Friday, but we still haven't heard a quote on the front door. At least the GC is up on it and is bearing down on the vendor. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one sweating the details.

Framing continues

I haven't posted lately because I feel like it's been moving at a near glacial speed over the last week or so, but as I look back at these photos that Patrick took last week, I realize that there's been a steady hum of activity as the walls progress around the perimeter and the rooms within are finally beginning to take shape. I'll have to get some more photos soon.

We stopped by a house in our neighborhood that's being built by a different builder over the weekend and were astonished by the difference in quality. We had initially considered this builder, but pulled out of the deal at the last minute because of a mold clause they had in the contract. Basically, the clause freed the builder from any liability should mold appear--even if it was the result of builder error. While I believe that we probably could've negotiated this clause out of the contract, I strongly feel that any builder that would put a clause like that in their contract probably isn't going to deliver the kind of quality we want, so we bailed. And I'm so glad we did, too. We noticed the difference immediately--from the squeaky, bouncy subfloor to the rickety and steep stairs from the garage inside to the debris everywhere. You never know for sure how things will turn out, of course, but at least we feel like we made a good decision going with our builder. We are definitely pleased with the work completed to date.

And here's yet another window update: we went with the Marvin Infinity, which is a fiberglass and not vinyl window. It's basically in between the wood and vinyl options. Apparently, around here, wood is seen as bad. According to the GC, about 15-20 years ago, the wood window manufacturers had to change their sealer to meet new EPA guidelines, but the long term effects of the sealer weren't fully tested. The wood windows that were installed around here during that time frame have had considerable problems with dry rot, so the public perception is that wood windows are bad. So, it's fiberglass for us. We were really happy with the Marvin Integrity windows we installed on our last home and are hopeful that these will be very similar in quality.

We've started ordering some light fixtures for the house and have gone outside the recommended lighting vendor. Rejuvenation had a 25% off sale on certain fixtures so we jumped on it and now have fixtures for our pantry, bathrooms, laundry room, and MBR closet. I'm not quite sure where we'll store all the boxes, but so what?! We love their stuff!! If you haven't been there--check it out. If you like anything from Victorian to mid-Century, you'll love their period fixtures, although you may not like their prices. Now, we just need a chandelier, island lights, exterior lights, (and possibly kitchen table light). I'll try to get some images uploaded of the lights as they come in.

Lots of activity now

I didn't post last week because we were out of town for a quick mini-vacation before the return to school. Since my last post, the foundation and garage floors have been poured and the framing begun. The basement level is nicely framed now and they're working on the main level. They've also poured concrete on the ceiling of the safe room. Seeing that made me realize we need to talk to our builder about air flow in there. The whole point of the safe room, of course, is to provide protection during tornadoes, but if the worst happens and the house falls around us, we'll certainly need to a supply of air, otherwise our concrete bunker would quickly become a tomb. Not good. I'm sure he's thought of it, but I'm going to ask the question just in case.

Patrick and I have decided to buy the inexpensive vinyl windows instead of the beautiful Marvin Ultimates. No, I'm not particularly thrilled about it, but we believes that it makes financial sense. Here's why. First, all of the windows in the neighborhood are vinyl, so it doesn't seem like it's much of an aesthetic issue for most people. Should we sell in the future, it's unlikely that Marvin windows would be appreciated (or perhaps even noticed), making it hard to recoup our costs.

Second, in discussions with our builder to "green" the house, we have decided that it's worth the additional money to install a geothermal system and think our construction dollars are better spent here. The federal government is still offering significant incentives for installation and with the projected savings on the monthly electricity bill, we should achieve payoff in about three short years. The change in system should take our a/c from 13 SEER to 32 SEER, a tremendous jump in efficiency!

BTW-as an update on the insulation issue, I was grossly mistaken on our wall R-value according to plan. Although we had discussed adding insulation with our builder, not much had come of it and he had only bumped the attic insulation from R-29 to R-34, but the walls were still rated R-15. We sat down and talked last Monday and have now ensured that the attic will be R-46 and the walls R-19. Luckily, we addressed this before framing began, negating the need for costly change orders. For the walls, we had to plan for 2x6 walls to provide room for the added insulation.

We are also discussing adding Solatubes (http://www.solatube.com/) to some spaces on the main level. For those of you unfamiliar, Solatubes are similar to skylights, but have minimal heat gain and are shaped like a tube, rather than a flat rectangle or square. The cost of Solatubes is minimal (I believe it's something like $65 each), but installation can be tricky. I've only seen them on commercial facilities, but our builder recently installed some on a nearby home so he's given us the address to drive by and take a look.

With all of these efficiency improvements, we thought it seemed best to let the Marvin Ultimates go--particularly because so few people seem to really care about having nice windows. It's a mystery to me, but this is--after all--an investment and ROI and not exploding our budget are both critical to its success.

Out with the new; in with the old

Although we are sorely disappointed, we've arrived at the necessary conclusion that we should not do the kitchen and baths in a Modern style. We have been discussing it at length and finally have admitted to ourselves that we really need to keep style consistent throughout the house. On the one hand, we're disappointed that we don't get to play with some very cool designs for kitchen and bath. On the other, it does make some decisions much simpler.

We'd been struggling with how to keep the kitchen and bathrooms Modern, yet have them fit seamlessly with the rest of the traditionally-styled suburban house. Although we had some ideas for accomplishing this, we realized that the Modern kitchen and baths would also affect our window, flooring, and door choices, which truly need to fit with the modified Ranch and integrating even a hint of Modern design into the front door and windows would make the house feel hodge-podge. Besides, even though we're building the house for us, we were still concerned about potential resale issues in this very conservative market. Basically, we didn't feel it made design or financial sense to corrupt the design and ignore its inherent qualities.

The good news in all of this is that it should be cheaper because we can specify some materials that are more "common" and therefore less difficult to come by. Also, since we're going with a style that's more Prairie/Shaker, we're already familiar with many products that fall into that complement and can use some preferred vendors (like www.rejuvenation.com) and make decisions expeditiously.

Although we're disappointed, we definitely feel that this is the right way to go. There's always the next house...

Before it gets too hot tomorrow morning we plan to go out to the site to pick up debris for recycling and trash. The guys who've been doing the site work are not the tidiest and have left probably 500-750 nails and lots of plastic bottles, food remains, and other non-recyclable items. I found a recycling facility in downtown Wichita, so we'll take the nails, rebar, plastic, etc. down there on Tuesday; they only accept recyclables three days a week. We'll aim to get the space as clean as possible to keep the debris from getting permanently entombed in the concrete floors this week. Seems like we shouldn't have to be doing this, but at least it's getting done--and we know we'll do it well.

House is waterproofed, garage is filled

As promised, here are the images of our appliances. You'll notice that we didn't go all stainless. Personally, I'm a little tired of all stainless appliances (and brushed nickles accessories), so I thought a black and stainless combo would work for us. We opted to get a cheap microwave that we'll tuck inside the island instead of doing a combo oven/micro that would--can you believe it?--cost more than double ovens. Looking at our cooking style, we decided that a gas range would work for us instead of a range top and wall oven, but we really wanted one with a griddle b/c we make lots of weekend pancakes, quesadillas, etc. Besides, having a small second oven will be great for making roasts, carnitas, oven stews, among other things. Clearly, the range is our splurge, but we figured we're allowed one special item in our favorite room!

Back to the homebuilding...
It's exciting to see the foundation nearly complete. The waterproof coating has been applied this week and perimeter drains installed on both the inside and outside. Yesterday, we watched the dump trucks deliver loads of sand to fill in the exterior perimeter drain and the garage. Some of the dirt from the excavation was mixed with the sand for filler, but a nice sand base is needed on the top layer to fill in the air pockets the help the concrete floor lay flat when it's poured next week. Our builder was on site when Patrick stopped by yesterday afternoon, and he expects the garage and basement floors to be poured on Monday and Tuesday. He said that the weather should be perfect for it next week--low 90s--for pouring. If it's too hot when it's curing, the flat surfaces will form cracks, he says. Lucky for us we're scheduled for a cool down soon. The temperature has been in the 100s this week, so it'll be great to be a little cooler.

Many thanks to those of you who've been offering suggestions for improving efficiency and ways to incorporate sustainability in our new home. It's greatly appreciated and we're taking your suggestions seriously, so keep them coming!

Exterior elevation

As we enter Week Three of construction, I've been made aware that I haven't yet posted images of the exterior, and will remedy that now. I've been reticent to post images partly because we haven't settled on a final design, but also because I don't feel that it accurately represents me and my interest in sustainabiltiy. This house is truly for Patrick and the kids and not what I'd envision, but as I said in the first post, we're working with what we have and are making the best of it.

For those of you who know me well, you understand that I'm committed to sustainable living. I try to buy local and organic vegetables and eggs and non-CAFO meats. In our former house, we put in low-flow toilets, used low-VOC paints for the interior, added insulation, used CFLs, and kept off the lights whenever possible. Instead of burning tons and tons of heating oil, we put in an efficient fireplace insert (that spewed far fewer particulates than a traditional fireplace) and kept it burning from dawn until after bedtime from October through April, allowing us to keep the temperature in the house at a frosty 58 degrees in the day and 56 at night, but at least we had one warm room. We try to use as few toxic chemicals as possible, and I drive a reasonably efficient car. I don't do these things to be obnoxious and claim bragging rights, but because I truly believe that it's the right thing to do for our health, children, and future.

Why am I saying all this? It's because I've been having a hard time coming to terms with the conventional method of building we've fallen into. Wichita is sorely lacking in green alternatives, be they building methods or organic farmers' markets. I'm discussing sustainable strategies with our GC, but it's not easy going so far. I would've preferred to hire an architect to design a LEED-rated home, but we were limited by time and school district. Since we never intended to build a home right now, we were forced to make some fast decisions and ended up in a subdivision that, by default, must define the look and feel of our home's exterior. It also determined the size, which I feel is excessive. We're more than doubling the sf of our last home, which was a 1959 Cape and therefore small, but the size and layout worked well, apart from the lack of a master bathroom and the fact that our son had to bunk on the first floor. This 4000 sf house is much more than we need and want, but anything smaller and we'll stand out as being "too" small, should we want to sell in the future.

To counter these "negatives", we've asked our GC to beef up the insulation and we've purchased Energy Star appliances. We're looking at adding photovoltaics or a micro-turbine and either a solar heater, tankless heater, or hybrid heater (GE). I've also requested low or no-VOC stains, paints, and finishes, and we're looking for formaldehyde-free cabinetry. Patrick and I are discussing the benefit of low-flow fixtures for the baths and kitchen, and considering touch-free faucets in the kids' bathroom and kitchen as well as occupancy sensors in the kids' rooms and family room in the basement. We'll use low-e, argon-filled windows to minimize solar gain--surely a big issue here, where it's nearly as sunny as Honolulu. Plus, we're installing ceiling fans in the bedrooms and great room and will add insulated garage doors to lower the heat load.

These are some of the technologies we're hoping to use to make our house as efficient as possible. If any of you have ideas for improving the design or efficiency of our new home, please feel free to voice an opinion. It would be appreciated.

On a side note: for those of you eager for a little eye candy, my sister-in-law has requested images of our new appliances. I'll be sure to include them in the next post for your viewing pleasure.

Floor plans

Good morning,

I've had a request to see the floor plans in SketchUp to help with visualization. At present, these 2D plans are the best that I have, but I'm working on getting a SketchUp version ready. I'll keep you posted.

As a side note, it would be helpful if you all would post comments directly to the blog. It'll be much easier for me to follow up if they're in one location. Thanks!

The beginnings of walls

Today, we drove by and saw no activity on the lot. Thinking "uh oh", we got out of the car to be certain and--to our joyful surprise--saw that the forms have been filled with beautiful, smooth concrete! The extremely warm Kansas summer is surely helping to cure the concrete quickly. What you're seeing in the photos below is before and after images of the forms and the channels that occur. The one to the left is the "after" with the concrete filled in, while below is the empty "before" image. At the bottom is the back end of our house with the forthcoming "guest suite" at the far end.

Things have been quiet with the GC since last weekend. He's out of town this week, so it's nice to see that substantial progress is still being made in his absence.

For the interior planning, I've been spending a lot of time trying to think through the layout of the kitchen and bathrooms, focusing mostly on the kitchen currently b/c I have to order materials soon. As I've mentioned before, we'd like to go quite Modern in the styling of the kitchen, but right now I'm working on determining a layout that will make it highly functional. As it is on the floorplan, we're showing a wall with a bank of
cabinetry and the stove/hood; an island with a sink and dishwasher; a second island with towers to the ceiling that serve as a break/focal point/connector to the great room; and finally a second, but unconnected, wall to the left of the "galley" section. with the refrigerator, pantry door, and small bank of cabinets. We also have a breakfast nook to the right and by the rear windows. My thinking now is that we should probably eliminate the second island and make the one larger. While it may be nice to have a visual break b/n the two rooms, I'm unsure that it'll really be used enough to warrant the cost and space. I think I'd rather focus on making the rest work for us.

Do any of you have thoughts on this configuration? Any kitchen nightmares or successes you want to share? If so, I'm listening...

Too close for comfort?

I had a nearly sleepless night last Thursday as I worried that the angle of the house wasn't what we had wanted. We're on a big lot, but in my half-awake state, I felt certain that the house was too close to the road and to our neighbor's house. In my mind, it was only about 7 feet away from our neighbor. Coming from a house in the middle of four acres, that was much too close for my comfort. I kept waking up worried that we'd have to redo the excavation and repour the footings, but once I finally made it to the site again two days later (no work was done over the weekend, so I didn't get there as quickly as I should've) and reviewed the engineer's drawings, I realized that it had indeed been placed where we asked. The problem and my reason for overreacting was that we really should've asked again to see the final placement, but let that ball drop in our eagerness to finally get underway. Huge lesson learned there. The position on the lot is not as close to road and neighbor as I feared, but still, we would've preferred that it be rotated about 10 degrees more to the north. However, I'm certain that it will work out well where placed.