We have a house!

Well, at least it's starting to look like a house.  The house was "dried-in" by December 22, and we stopped by on Dec 23 to have a look.  Most of the interior framing is also complete, and you can start to see how everything is going to lay out.  We did find a few glitches, which should be easily remedied - two barrel niches that were supposed to be arches, a pair of windows not aligned to one another, and the sill between the walk-in shower and garden bath tub in the master framed too low.

 The room with the bay window will be David's study. You can see the mis-aligned windows on the right on the front porch- the bottoms are framed about 6 inches different from each other.

 The back porch off the Great Room and Master Bedroom.  The patio will be under that pile of rubble, and the pool just beyond that.

 Mackenzie on the porch outside of  Ginny's office.  This is at the very back of the house, around the corner from the main back porch and patio.

 The Great Room corner fireplace.  That square-shaped niche on the right is one of the spaces that should have been framed as an arch.  The ceiling will have a two-step "pop-up" - you can see the framing for this at the top of the picture.

 The Kitchen....well at least the framing for the counter which will have the sink and dishwasher and face into the Great Room.  The cabinets with the oven and range will be on the wall to the left in this picture, and the refrigerator will be on the wall you see on the right. The Pantry is in the center back of the room, around the corner behind the refrigerator wall. I love this floor plan, as it has the Kitchen at the very heart of the home.

The Master Bedroom - view to the back porch (will have french doors).  You can see that same pile of rubble that marks where the patio will be.  The ceiling will have a curved pop-up.

We also had some floor stains to review, but we didn't like any of the test swatches, so it's back to the drawing, or should I say "staining", board on that.

This week:  finalizing all the design details, including picking out the granite slab for the kitchen counters and designing the tile work for the kitchen and master bath.

Experiment in pictures

This is the chandelier for our new dining room.  I am checking to see if I can import the pic from here to Polyvore.

No time like the present for a firm foundation

The forms for the foundation started to go up today. Somehow the house seems smaller now that it's footprint can be seen.










The house has a fairly simple layout - with a center front porch, a side entry garage, the master suite on the east (left as you enter the house), the other bedrooms and utility on the west behind the garage, the dining room and kitchen in the center of the house, and the great room in the back. There are two back porches - one off the great room and master suite, and the other off the very back bedroom.

Friday is finishing the cabinet plans and picking out light fixtures.

And away we go

Got all 120+ pages of documents reviewed and 50+ signatures affixed last Thursday. The title company did us the kindness of binding all into a tome for posterity. Not quite an inch thick, but nearly. Whew.

So, today, the clearing began, and our beautiful oak in front got a protective orange barrier.

Away we go!!!!!!!!

The Joys of Legal Documents

Today was supposed to be closing day for the construction contract/note. Got the package of 50 different documents totaling 119 pages late on Wednesday. Spent yesterday reading said documents, which are of course all set to cover the Lender's backside only. By end of day, knew that there was at least one big discrepancy in terms of the fulfillment of Texas statutes, and one minor. Against us, of course, and our rights under Texas law. Canceled closing for today while we get legal counsel. Luckily, the lawyer says it should not be a big deal to get them to amend the docs to comply with the requirement to document that all the bills have been paid at the end of construction, which is the biggest "hole" we found. Would be a nice thing to know, don't ya think?

So, closing early next week. Hopefully.

In the beginning

...was the lot.  And the lot was good.  Flat.  Clear in the center, with gracious oaks and elms shading the western side.  One-and-a-half acres of Central Texas lovely.

Jimmy Jacobs was happy to sell us this slice of heaven, and the lot was claimed. Good news followed as soil tests showed feet of black dirt on top of limestone. That's right, folks, feet, not inches. And yes, we are west of IH35. Who knew there was dirt in them thar hills?