Thursday, August 14, 2008

Its Vacation Time!

THE LEE'S HAVE LEFT THE BUILDING! We are now at the point where our floors are going to be handscraped and refinished. That means we had to pack the whole house and move out all furniture, beds, decor...even curtains! We shoved eveything we could into the 3rd floor ( Clint, our builder scrambled to get the floor in ahead of time) and the 2nd floor playroom (the carpet came in damaged, so we will just lay it when the hardwoods are done and we have moved back in). So, we decided a vacation was in order! We loaded the car ( packed top to bottom) with everything from clothes to toys and scooters, baseballs and tennis raquets...and we are off to the cabin in Glorieta, New Mexico. The cabin is a very special place to Brian's family and we have not been able to visit in a while. We will be returning on the night of the 19th...we start school on the 20th! So, not only did we pack the house and pack for the trip, we ( I really should be saying I...) packed for school - uniforms, supplies, backpacks, lunchboxes, teacher gifts....all in the guest house for our return. Oh, we won't be able to spend the night there, but we can retrieve the loot for the following day.

I hope the floors will be ready for us to move back in by that weekend....Our builder has the whole week with an empty house and no kids to bug him, so I also look forward to seeing what he accomplishes as well.

All the texture on the walls is finished and the cabinets are being installed ( It took a little longer since a few of them were not made correctly and had to be rebuilt) Supposedly, we will have a kitchen by the end of August...appliances and all. We shall see...









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Sunday, July 13, 2008

If These Walls Could Talk

Drywall is going up - unfortunately we started the process on a weekend so the whole day we heard load banging of hammers and nails! We closed the doors to the family room and had Guitar Hero wars on the Wii...turned up really loud!

The trench for the gas line is dug...so hot water in the house should be on the way!

Annah Grace has a pair of stilts tat she has been practicing walking on...she htought the guys doing the sheetrock were so cool walking around the house on their stilts strapped to their feet! She wanted to try them on, but we thought 17 trips to the emergency room in her short 9 yers was plenty at this point!









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Saturday, July 12, 2008

Wake up sleepy head!

Saturday morning - 7am...the trucks started arriving. 3 huge concrete trucks with a team of ten guys to pour the driveway. They tore the driveway out yesterday and set the forms for inspection - we added about three feet to the sides of the driveway and about 4 -5 feet to the approach. Now, hopefully when we have visitors, they won't wreck their cars when entering the drive, or bust their oil pan when they leave!
It was our contractor, Clint's, birthday today - so we celebrated with donuts and sang happy birthday to him.
The guys also showed up to dig the trench for the gas line so we could have hot water back in the house. We have been showering in the backhouse which hasn't been terrible, but it does make for some creative planning for us all to get out of the house on time.
And then the drywall team showed up to install all the sheetrock. It was crazy around here - and very loud! Not to mention that when I tried to move Brians car out of the way of the concrete truck, I was so blocked in that I hit the truck behind me and it made a dent in Brians bumper. We were bound to not escape this process without some bumps and bruises. It did cross my mind to try to blame it on the college boys across the street - but I confessed.
The next team to show up was the concrete stamper/stainer crew. We did not think that we could fit the cost of staining the entire driveway into the budget because it is a lot of ground to cover - but my contractor has made friends with the concrete guy and the concrete guy is making friends with the staining guy and they were nice enough to pass the savings on to us. So, now we will get a stained and cobblestone stamped driveway! Yeah! The only worry I have is the color. I picked a brown color called walnut off the color card - but when he laid it, it is in powder form and it looks like terracotta red. My hope is that when he comes back on Monday to wash the powder away and put the sealer on, that will will darken the color a bit. He did say that he would go back over it with a really dark brown in some areas to help it as well. So, we will see.
So, by middle of next week, we should have A/C throughout the house, drywall installed, driveway replaced with a gate, and hot water back in the main house. The following week - they start to tape, bed, and texture the walls, and the flooring can be tied in at that point.
We got more done in one saturday than we could get done in a month! It's all about timing!
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Catching up on Pictures!





Our old roof came down and the new one went up! For those of you that fretted with me a year ago over what color to paint my house (it had been painted mauve and country blue and because of the roof , shades of white and gray were the only colors that would work...believe me, we tried everything!) you know what this means...new trim colors! Anyone up for a trip on the color wheel?

PhotobucketThis is the view of the "floor" third floor. It is going to be my studio space until the kiddos take over! The next pixture is of the huge truck trying depserately to remove a dumpster and replace another empty in our skinny driveway ( remember the last driver they sent knocked down our basketball goal!) We got some news today about that driveway...good news is that we can remove it all and replace it with a sloped entry and we can add 3 feet to its width. Bad news is...the estimate came in triple of what we had budgeted. oops!

What About That Party?

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I have some catching up to do - so you will notice several blogs published with the same date! When you are trying to work from an offsite computer, it gets a little harder to keep up. Here is the update...
We had my sisters shower here a couple of weekends ago and it was great! I can't wait to post some pictures because it was so funny what we had to work with! We placed a big canvas drop cloth on the dumpster out front with Welcome spray painted on it. I dressed up the walkway with some iron stands I use for wedding and swedish ivys with little blue bows. The front porch had chunks of tiles missing right in front along with parts of the house address (missing!) so I got cheap striped rugs from Target and used carpet tape to tack them down into a runner right up to the front door. When you walk in, the areas to the right is boarded up with plywood ( that is the gutted kitchen behind the plywood) so we painted it with chalkboard paint and wrote scripture on it. The food had to go on the table in the family room, so to make more room for people, we moved a lot of the furniture from that room out onto the lawn. Then we strung a clothsline from the tree outside to the side of the new part of the house ( it was a disaster in more than half of the backyard area) and we hung cute polka dot curtains to block the disaster. I have always heard "define your space!"...so that is exactly what we did. I covered some extra tables with the same fabric and tucked chairs around them. Then I grabbed anything and evrything around the house the had birds or nests on it and used them for centerpieces. (the invites had a nest and bird on them and it said "come see who just flew in!")
Clint brought this power AC untit for outside - it actually felt pretty nice out there with his extra efforts. And with the help of my mom, my aunt and my intern - the party came off without a hitch. Everyone enjoyed seeing baby Will and everyone was so gracious to "overlook" the disaster. So, no more excuses ladies...you can have people over no matter what state your house is in! Just work with it!

This is where it gets uncomfortable!


ok. We knew it had to come sometime and here it is. We are hot. And uncomfortable. And to top it all off, with the power on and off, wiring here and there and everywhere, well, we have had a few hiccups. The other day, they got us enough power ot at least have lights upstairs ( we try to get up there for necessities and out as fast as we can because it is reaching 112 degrees up there!) So, it helps to have lights and not have to spend any more time searching for items. So, as we were applauding their efforts, we could smell something burning. Here it goes again, or should I say off again! Now, here is the kicker...when they got it all worked out (1 1930's home completely rewired!) we realized that that burning smell was the computer! The monitor came on but nothing else...it fried in the power surge. Geek guy confirmed the news and I was off to Frys Electronics in Arlington, because apparantly they are the only ones who carry an "external harddrive case with usb port...40 pins" Its all I can do to take the pictures on my camera and download them to the computer, so what you are thinking is correct...I have no backup! I was burning them to cd's until the cd burner went out about a year ago. Really, its no love lost on the computer. We had big plans for an upgrade in the near future. I think our computer was actually celebrating its 112th birthday this month in computer years. But...I have to have my pictures! So I spent $40 in gas to drive out to get the case, 2 hours on the cell phone with the "free" tech support (yes, folks, our home phone was through our computer internet...also fried)
to finally get instructions on how to import my pictures from the old harddrive to the laptop...SUCCESS! Yea! All pictures accounted for. However, now I can't get them to downlod to my blogs when I publish posts. I have written before now and tried to post pics, but it erases all my work. So, until the bugs are worked out - my lengthy verbage will have to do.
So, this is officially the worst week of our project. It should go up from here.
The picture was taken of the driveway (looking out the window of the third floor) after we had already filled 2 dumpsters!






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Monday, June 16, 2008

The Messy Part!

It has been a very busy few weeks! We have been without power for 2 weeks and then when they turned the power back on, our compressor for the upstairs AC went out. So we are still waiting for AC...we have a little downstairs, so we are all sleeping on the pull out couches in the living room. The first few nights it was an adventure but now we are getting to the point where the kids are fighting over where they are going to sleep and then someone is up until 11:30 every night crying. It is definitely true that we all do better on a schedule!
The framers came to begin framing...this process took forever! It was fun to see the space take shape...first the walls, then the windows...then enclosing everything including the roof. Now they are working on all that needs to go in between the walls - electrical, plumbing, ductwork, and wires for media speakers. Next will be inside walls and trim. Clint is making the door for the back since we could not find what I wanted in our price range. He is going to turn it into a dutch door. I thought I was being so original, but the past few magazines I have gotten have them in every article! On the back door, the front proch french doors, and the front door, Clint is going to build them out of wood, stained dark, and then he will weld iron pieces is a criss cross pattern to the front of the glass portion of the door.
Take a look at a few of the pictures of what a mess we have been in the past few weeks! No worries, we have before and after shots!




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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

New Face!

By the way...did you notice how cute my page was? I found this great designer who worked on it (and she is currently working on my other 2 blogs) Her name is Jenny and her company is Pink Armchair Designs...look her up! She is very reasonable and fast. I guess I figure that even if I am not that great of a writer (the only person who really reads this consistently is my Gramma in Oklahoma...hi Gramma!) - at least I can look good in the process!
XOXO

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

I never knew the prep work before framing could take so long! The plumbing was a major ordeal...I had to decide where EXACTLY each sink and ice machine, etc would go before the space is laid out at all. I did kind of nose my way into the conversation...they all love it when they catch me at home! Before long we were moving windows and sinks and all kinds of stuff. And of course, all that requires city approval, so Clint threatened to send ME to the city to wait in the 2 hour line for a permit!
On my last blog, I asked for ideas for the double hung pully window...well it just so happens that it matches the size of another window in the kitchen so we are going to reinstall the original window in a new location. To open up elbow room between the sink and Range, we are moving the sink from under one window to between two windows, giving more room and counter space near the appliances. I guess I will start looking for a cool mirror or something great to go above the sink (in between the windows)...come to think of it, I may already have one hanging on a wall that will be taken out next week anyway....I will post a picture of it.
The plumbers we are using brought a camera to snake all the pipes under our house and make sure everything was looking good. It was cool ( and kind of yucky) to see how it all flows under the house. They are connecting PVC pipe to the old cast iron pipes. Thank goodness everything looks pretty good - no major issues. They are going to snake it all and clean out any roots that have grown in between the fittings of the pipes. It is just a peace of mind to know that it will look good from above AND below ground.
Today we WAITED a good portion of the day for the concrete guys to come install the rebar that lays under the concrete. They got here just in time for it to pour down rain...but they finished. Now we get one more inspection tomorrow before the concrete...pray for no rain!
We went today to look at options for sound and media stuff. All the wires for that have to be installed while they have the walls of the house open...more decisions that have to be made BEFORE you actually have the space to look at.
On Friday, I am going to a few showrooms to look at marble and tile, lighting and appliances, etc. I am excited! I am pretty sure of what I want, but it will be nice to see all the options that are out there to help confirm my decisions...decisions, decisions, decisions!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Taking Shape

Yesterday the framers came to set the forms for the space we will add on to the back of the house. And they set the forms for the front porch. The front porch does make me nervous - doing anything to the front of the house makes me nervous. Hopefully on Monday, the inspectors and surveyors will show so we can get the house framed in the next 2 weeks. It will be exciting to see it all take shape.
I will check in again when we have made some head way!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Smores, anyone?



Yippee!!! The fireplace and the back patio are finished. The team we used was great - very gracious as I handpicked each stone and gave them scores of magazine pictures to show what I liked about each one, but not wanting to just copy any of them. None of the guys spoke very much english, but were all very polite and pleasant to be around. The kids and I enjoyed bringing back treats from the store for them after school - cookies from a mexican bakery just outside out neighborhood, coca-cola...lots of coca cola! We actually miss not having them around. They will be back when the project is wrapping up to do the grill and outdoor kitchen. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but our fireplace and stairs are mixed with brick, arkansas moss stone and flagstone. The bricks we pulled up from the driveway and placed them in like we had chipped away the stone to find the brick underneath. We blended the two with exposed mortar - just slapped on and smeared. The only thing missing at this point is the mantle, which Clint is fitting over the the two stones that are sticking out.
We spend so much time in backhouse now, that it will be so nice to enjoy the patio as well. Since we are facing the opposite direction, you can kind of forget that behind you it looks like a war zone! The framers should be here tomorrow to place the forms for the back of the house so we can get it inspected and re-surveyed. THEN, we can start the building on the back. The countdown is on - I am hosting my sisters baby shower here on June 14th...we probably won't have a kitchen yet, but i am hoping to use the outside. Only time will tell. We might have to get creative to cover up the dumpster!
Clint pulled out a window from the part of the kitchen we tore down...he said this house was built well - they had installed "high dollar windows" for the time - double hung with pully weights on the top AND the bottom. I hate to throw the window away, but it so bulky...does anyone have any creative ideas?

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Waiting Game

The backhouse is finished with the exception of the cabinet to cover the small refrigerator and the lights on the outside. We dug the 2 ft. trench to lay the electric lines (actually Clint dug the trench! - digging by hand thru the underground sidewalk we didn't account for!) and Clint rented a bobcat to pull up the back patio and steps. He was so great to give the kids rides on the bobcat...he even let them drive! They loved it! What a fun memory to have.
So, the inspector came to inspect the trench before TXU came and decided that it needed to be dug 2 inches deeper. SO, all the pipe and wire that had been laid had to come out and the digging started again. Then, the waiting game began...waiting on TXU to come in the midst of storm restoration. The days turned into weeks until finally we decided to go ahead and start the back patio and fireplace.
Fun! This actually something tangible that will be finished in a couple of weeks. I went to meet the landscaper at the stone place and tagged the exact stone that I wanted. Since I didn't want anything copied from a picture - we had to draw out what I wanted....a mix of Arkansas moss stone with old bricks pulled up from the driveway and exposed mortar. I also asked for an inset arch of bricks to hang a cross and a rustic piece of wood for the mantle...oh, and a hearth!
I am so thrilled at how it turned out. The guys working on the project are really talented - it was amazing to watch them pull it all together.
I came home yesterday to check in and Clint said he found my mantle when he went out for lunch. It looks so neat - its actually a rail road tie with a stake driven through the middle. The wood seperates quite a bit so we can grow moss in the cracks. Clint and I want to try a recipe we have heard about for growing moss - I will let you know if it works! The masonary guys placed 2 stones sticking out to place the mantle on. Clint is going to notch out the wood and place the mantlr flush with the stones.
We have gone round and round on where we would put the grill and what that would look like.
So, we have decided to wait until the pergola is built and the house is finished so we can make a better decision. It would be nice to have it for the summer, but it is an expensive mistake to make if we don't get it right. And it would be nice ot actually buy the grill on sale after the season. Plus ,the original spot we had maked for the grill is now going to be my outdoor bed! I woke up inthe middle of the night dreaming about this cool bed we could have outside by the fireplace...I hope I can pull it off! I haven't gottent eh courage up to ask Clint if he will make the bed. Maybe he will read my blog and offer!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

One Thing at a Time



So, Clint has single handedly taken down every wall of the garage/guest house, re-leveled the entire structure, and jack hammered the old garage floor....all into the dumpster! Now we have a new - LEVEL garage floor with out cracks ( not just cracks...sink holes big enough to lose a child in!) All the siding has been replaced and a new interior has begun! We realized that the ceiling on the guest house could be left open and so we designed a sleeping loft with a set of stairs/ladder. We used galvanized pipe for the railings. The floor was inspired by a conversation I had with Clint (and the fact that he CAN make anything!0 and one thing led to another....and he found himself cutting 1'x1' squares for 3 days straight! He called in the troops and his cousin, Scott, came to assist. After all, we were planning to move our temporary kitchen to this back house space until the house was finished. So Scott and Clint cut and sanded hundreds of wooden squares, stained them, dry brushed half of them, installed them (with hand cut square head nails that Clint found for me...he knew I just had to have them!) and then stained over them again before they sealed them! I love it!!!!! I walked around with a smile on my face for days. Instead of installing drywall, I asked Clint to make a bead board ceiling and clapboard style walls...yes, that meant more cutting and sanding - but it turned out great!
Here's another cool story: I had been looking for a farmhouse sink - the new ones were too expensive to put in the back house, the old ones were either too rusted or already sold.....I needed a sink! So one day, Scott, who lives in another historic neighborhood around the corner, found an add from a lady who lived by him "FOR SALE - 1920's farmhouse large basin tall back sink - $40" The next day, I got a call from Clint with total excitement in his voice..."I found you a sink and your gonna love it! And by the way, it only cost 40 bucks!"
He took it home with him that weekend and refinished it, along with our original pedestal sink from the bathroom we tore out - and now its installed, looking just how I had imagined! YIPPEE!
We took the old cabinets from our kitchen, painted them, changed the hardware and cut them to fit the back house. The counter top was made by Clint (of course!) and we stained it to match the dry brushed floors and the ladder. Next, he installed the open shelving with the brackets I got at Hobby Lobby for $3 each(1/2 price). Oh, and by the way, the hardware...also Hobby Lobby - 1/2 price for $1 each....I am hoping to have enough left over for the real kitchen!

We are now fully using it as our kitchen...old fridge and stove don't really do the space justice, but it works well for now! My plan is to have a super comfy pull out couch and small table for guests (or for me to escape to when things get too rowdy around here!) I already love doing my quite time in there. We put the TV upstairs for the kids to watch movies...they are dying for a sleep over! If anyone has an extra twin mattress they want to let go of- let me know! I think I will put it upstairs in the back house without a bed frame...just pile on comfy bedding and pillows.
Its busy everyday around here - I will check in with more updates soon.
hugs and kisses!

In Need of TLC

Poor garage! What an eyesore. When we first read about our house on the web, it stated "charming little guest house out back" How exciting!- I thought. Until I saw it ...Yuck! Mold growing up the walls, a resident racoon, and plumbing, yes...but no toilet to sit on! I would not have let my worst enemy spend the night there.

And really, if we are going to do the garage, we might as well add a much needed laundry room/mudroom to the back of the house....and if we are going to do that, we might as well update the kitchen, and what about that space on top of the laundry room...playroom? And since its cheaper to go up, why not build out the attic (after all, more square footage = better appraisal!) And since they are tearing up the backyard anyways, it would be great to have a pergola and patio...and to top it all off, we definitely need a front porch to watch the kids playing with the neighbors!
Wheeew! Now comes time for appraisal...and luckily our neighborhood has not been hit by the mortgage crisis as hard as other areas. We made it..it all fits into the budget.

So, who is going to do all this fabulous work? Well, God allowed us to meet a wonderful builder who has been patiently guiding us through this process from the beginnning. His name is Clint Wright and his company is IEC (Interior Exterior Construction) His company name says it all...and he does it all!
Most people, from what we have heard, don't have anything nice to say about their contractor. Alot of the guys out there are dishonest, harsh, they never complete a job...you name it and we have heard it! But God protected us in this area - the hardest thing about getting our project started has been from the detail side (city inpections, variances, construction loans needing surveys, etc.)
While the architect was drawing and Clint was measuring and the city was inspecting, we got to painting! The house was a beautiful shade of mauve with baby blue trim when we bought it. The roof (which we thought was real slate...its not!) is a mix of colors. We tried all kinds of color combinations, but the one we got locked into was charcoal and white...not too exciting, but it will do. It is definitely better than what it was. There was also an overgrown "english garden" with rosemary roots down to China! We took most of that out and replaced it with grass.
We are excited to get things going!