They Broke Ground!!!
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They Broke Ground!!!
They broke ground for our house yesterday afternoon!!! We've had some very warm weather lately (like in the 50's and 60's, even hitting 70 a few times) so they've been able to do things they normally wouldn't this time of year. Hopefully it will stay warm enough for them to get the hole dug and the cement poured. They have the wood scheduled to be delivered by January 15 and us scheduled to do our frame walk February 15. At that rate they'll have our house done by April! We're supposed to close June 2nd, but I have a feeling we'll be closing in May. We pick colors tomorrow. This is too cool.  Just sharing my excitment.
How exciting!
Of course we expect progress updates (pictures would be nice, but no pressure, no pressure...  ).
Woo Hoo!!!!! Picking out all those things will be so much fun!
How exciting!!! Best of luck!
Hooray!
How exciting!!!
Remember, things tend to look like they are moving quickly at first, but it's all the little finish work/odd jobs that take the time.
Are you keeping a photo journal!! How exciting we get to come along on your house building journey!
I was going to say the same thing as Breann. When we built, things at the beginning went so fast I just knew that we would be in early. No! They just finished with one day to spare!! LOL It will be framed and under roof within a couple of weeks, but don't let that fool you one bit!! LOL
Well, I'll be the 3rd party pooper. lol Ours took a month longer than expected... With rain, freezing cold, and then the brickers went on strike, the builder didnt listen to dh a couple of times and had to have guys come back and re- do things, the guy that stained the wood floors- screwed up the color and at this point I began to cry over everything. LOL I was about 8 mos pregnant and stressed to the max. Needing to get out of old house because buyers were wanting to move in, needing to finish up new house, ready to have new baby... ugh
I did SO many things in this house I would never do again too!!! Like, I hate my tile, I must have been preggo when I picked out wallpaper- I hate wallpaper now... didnt have them texture walls underneath wallpaper so now when i pull it down i have to pay too have someone come texture, lots of bdrms and tiny living room?? yadda yadda yadda.... lol
Please take pics!!! And share as you build!
I am SO JEALOUS of you!
We tried to sell our house this past year, but couldn't. (Remember, we live about 2 blocks from the Alpine Ave Meijer store?) Our neighborhood is older, our house is about 50 years old or so, and could use some updating, but we really want to leave so that we can be closer to our family in Hastings. The anxiety and anticipation has been driving me crazy. I prayed and prayed, but apparently it isn't meant to be this time around.
To add to the misery, the house that we were trying to buy in Hastings has now sold, so we have to start from scratch. We may look around for an existing home, but our first choice is to pick another lot and build another new one.
Well, girl, I am happy for you. I hope everything goes smoothly! Just think, by this time next year, you will be having the Holidays at your brand new house! WOW!
I am taking pictures and will share. We're also excited because there's already a house next door (we're a corner lot) and they just put a fence up a couple weeks ago. There was 1/4 our yard fenced (we'll pay 1/2, but we won't have to do it). Today I drove by on the way to pick friends up to go to a movie and the house behind us was putting up their fence!!! There's another 1/4 or our yard done! So we'll only have to put up the 1/4 on the side and the front. It's the little things that make us happy.
Lisa, I hope you guys get to move soon. I have a cousin that lives down 28th street (near Brenton Rd, I think). They love where they are. Their house was also probably built in the 50's or so. She's done amazing things with it. I know you want to be in Hastings, though.
Conni, we're picking out tile tomorrow. Wish us luck. We've already got a pretty good idea of what we're going to get. Just a little nervous about the $$$.
I was just talking to my friend that lives two streets away from our new house about how quickly things are moving and she told me the same thing you all are. She said there's SO much that goes on after the frame is up that it will slow down. This particular company does have a rep of really moving things along though, so we're probably still looking at May. That's okay. We'll put our current house on the market in either March or April. Hopefully it won't take too long to sell. We don't want it to sell too quickly, either. We don't want to be homeless!
WOOHOOOOOO!! Cat
I can't wait to see the pictures!
That's so fun. We are going through that process soon too. We just looked at blueprints today. I think we will break ground in March.
We got all our colors picked. I can't wait to see them in the house! We stayed pretty close to our budget. The girl asked us when we were done if it'd been exciting or stressful. I told her a little of both. We got pretty standard tile in the kitchen/nook,entry, main floor bath and kids bath, but higher end stuff in our bathroom. We also got a pretty good carpet and upgraded pad. It's going to look really nice in there. It was neat how things just really seemed to fall into place. All our choices just seemed to "go" with everything else. I guess our taste is pretty consistant! Now we have to decide if we want any extra wiring (alarm, stereo, extra cable/phone jacks, etc) because that guy will need to know soon after the frame is up. I'd love to have stereo wired throughout the house. We'll see...
Congratulations, Cat. How exciting for you. I would suggest getting the wiring done when you build if you have the money. It costs so much more to do it later. Our current house wasn't wired for an alarm. When dh started traveling during the week, I checked into having one put in. It is just ridiculous.
Definitely get all the wiring done while it's being built. Extra electrical outlets, cable and phone outlets, etc. will be much easier to have done now. Also, make sure you have enough amperage/wattage - whatever it is - in areas like kitchen and bathrooms where things like blow dryers, and microwaves will be in use. That is where we have a HUGE problem in our house! We have a treadmill and have to get some electrical work done because it trips the breakers - not enough power....
Debbie, that's one reason we'd like to go ahead and do it. I do know someone that does wiring for a living (I'm going to take care of his son while he has custody from Feb-May) so I know we can always do it later, but I don't want them having to tear holes in my walls! What we really want is a chime on the doors when they open. That way I know when little munchkins are trying to escape! lol We'll have to decide soon (and see if it's in our budget!).
I am so jealous! :P
Congratulations! My husband and I say that our next house will be one that we will build from the ground up. It's just picking which state to move to. New Jersey is getting to be way too expensive to live in. Best of luck to you!
Cat- we did fork over the money for the alarm when we built this house. I have never regretted it. Especially since the kids and I alone alot. We did like you are saying when Blake was little and set the doors leading to the outside, to beep when they were opened. I am sure with your daycare kids this would be nice for you and you would not regret it.
Definitely have the wiring done for surround sound AND have a little sound proofing in that room done as well. I had to help dh do the wiring/install speakers in the wall and it was a MESS. We were so cranky by the time we got done too. grrr Our bdrm is off the living rm and I get so irritated when he watches a movie late and I am in bed trying to sleep and the surround sound is rumbling all the walls...
As for stereo thru the house. I 2nd that! lol I hate having an ugly radio sitting on my bathroom counter- but we both listen to the radio the whole time we get ready in the morning. We have often commented on how we wish we had it built in. We'd also like to have had speakers on our deck so we could have music when we have parties out there or when we are swimming.
If you have 3 levels- get the intercom too. I am sure they have an intercom/stereo pkg of some sort?
One thing we *did* do. We actually did do something smart. lol We ran ethernet? Or whatever you call it... All the computers are on a network or are networked together however you say that? Its all controlled in the room under our stairs. I thought it sounded really dumb when my dh started insisting we have a set up like this. But it has been really nice and I am so glad he did this. We only had 1 PC when we built the house. Now we have 5. (well 2 I am ready to toss in the dumpster tho! grrr)
The other thing he did that has been good. (although I was mad at him about it when we were building. lol) We were suppose to have a side entry garage- which I really wanted. Dh had them turn it to the front and he had them make it extra tall and extra long... I cant tell you how many times that has come in handy...
What colors did you pick?? Did you do the same color thru the whole house?
The carpet is the same throughout the house. It's a cut berber, base color is brown, and it's got lots of other colors blended in (different browns/tans, some orange, blue and pink--it really blends well, though). It's got a life time stain warrenty!!! I like that. (it's the simple things! lol) The tile floors on the main floor are all the same (line of sight thing) and the counters are the same in the kitchen and 1/2 bath. Upstairs the kids bathroom has an almost white tile floor, white sink, tub and toilet, white grout (except on the floor--it matches the tile there) and bone tile in the tub with a row of ultra white diamonds about 5 1/2 feet up. We figured with it being a small room we'd go with light colors. In the master suite we got a very light tan tile with a really neat embossed deco strip across the back of the counters, around the tub and at 5 1/2 feet in the shower. The only tile floor in there is the toilet closet (my mom gets the biggest kick out of that phrase! lol). The rest is carpeted. Here's a pic of what our fire place will look like. The tile in the bathroom is about the same as the lightest color in the mosaic trim around the fire place.
That pic was taken from one of the model homes. We just really liked it so that's what we got! Here's a pic of the colors we picked for the stucco and rocks.
That house is several blocks away, but we really liked the colors. On our house the garage doors will match the stucco instead of the trim color. Also, our big fire place in the family room will have the same rocks. That's going to be too cool! Of course all the walls will be builder off-white. I'll have to decide what to do with them. Dh wants to get wood blinds for all the windows. I don't have a problem with that as long as they're a light wood. Oh, our cabinets (kitchen and baths) are a honey oak. Can you tell we're into natural colors??? I wish we'd taken a camera with us yesterday. It would have been nice to get pictures of everything we chose. Oh well. I could go back and dig through all the choices to find them again. lol Or, we could just wait 5 months and see what it looks like!
Looks amazing. It is so exciting building a home.
I can feel your excitement Cat It all sounds really wonderful! DH and I are looking forward to building our own home once we know where we're going to settle.
Ditto Conni on the stereo throughout and the extra long garage if possible. Our old home had both of these. The length of the garage - you don't even know how handy that it, and stereo throughout is just a real luxury!
I'm really happy for you!
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