Ground Breaking News!!!

Did you hear it?? 

The loudest, happiest, big ol' Hallelujah!!

On Tuesday, the pad crew came to start the pad!! 

We are thrilled to just be actually getting started with this.  

First they came in, and flattened out the dirt to make a road to the house, and then measured, and staked off, the dimensions of the house, and marked it with these orange stakes.  I think they measure a few feet over, just for safe measures, and to help the concrete crew have more room to work with. 

Here we are checking everything out Tuesday Night!!

We are measuring here to find out how big the yard will be, to find out where the gravel for the road will need to be, to find out how much gravel they need to bring. 

Thursday, they started hauling in the crushed rock to do the pad.  We went and checked it out on Thursday night. 

This picture looking straight on, would be the sidewalk from the orange stick up to the front door. 

Front of the house again. The house is angled a little off the road.  We did this in hopes that our backyard would be blocked a little from the setting sun in the summer time. 

This picture is taken from the very back corner of the patio looking towards the front of the house. 

They are supposed to haul more materials again today, and then finish up the road to the house, and then they are done. 

Choices

We've just been out and about making NO final choices at all, still just looking and starting to process more decisions!! 

Jason decided we needed to go look at flooring for our house. We told VR what we wanted, and we have our estimate, but Jason really wanted to see if he was pretty close to being right or how far under budget he might be. 

We went to 2 floor stores this morning, and then on the way home stopped at Budget Blinds to see how much shutters cost. Most builders do not include blinds or shutters in the estimate of the house. 

But, I'm also discovering or learning or being educated, that it takes about 5 to 6 weeks, sometimes 8 weeks to order what you want and ship them here, whether it be shutters, bricks, floors, and I'm sure other things that will come up.  So, it's not a bad idea to look at this stuff now, and be better prepared. 

Let me just say there are 1,754,893 color choices out there for engineered hand scarped wood floors.  Ahhh, but seriously, there are SO many. Each store had about 6 or 7 different companies they order the type of wood floors we want, and each company has about 30 or 40 different color shades of wood. It is just really daunting. Jason loves the DARK wood floors; I worry about the dust and dirty foot prints, so I like the medium colors.

I had also really wanted travertine floors in my kitchen and breakfast nook, and a few other areas, but those few other areas included the pantry, hall, laundry room, mud area, powder bathroom, and Jason's desk area. It has ended up being quite a bit square footage for travertine, but that is what VR budgeted it in for, and he never said anything about it being not a good idea. 

These are a type of travertine floors. 

The lady at the store acted real surprised when I said we were putting on floors; she said no one has ever ordered travertine for their floors, and that sometimes they use it for the backsplash.  She said it was very porous and had to be re-sealed every few years, and it might chip or crack easily if something is dropped.  She suggested getting porcelain tile that looks like stone for half the price.  Jason was all on board for that!! :)

I am actually leaning towards porcelain today, but hoping I can find some porcelain that I really like. 

I just really like the look of travertine. Have any of you ever seen it in someone's house or know of someone that had it? Was it good, pretty, or hard to deal with? 

Brick and Rock, Rock and Brick

Maggie and I have gone to two different brick companies this week in town. 

I guess we will find out for sure, but I'm going to say that the choice of brick and rock are the most "up in the air".  I don't have a definite answer to what kind of brick I like. And, this might be the BIGGEST and most important decision. 

Below, is the brick I like, but at times it scares me.  I don't know if it's because the picture I found on Houzz reminds me of the layout of our back porch, with the windows along the back, but I love it!

I just really like the way it looks. The builder says this is an "reclaimed old chicago", and when I told that to VR he said, "I really hope you don't want reclaimed old chicago!!" :) I said, "I don't care what it is I just want it to look like this", and he laughed and said "good, we can do that!!"  Whatever all that meant I don't know!! 

Well, the 2 places I went to don't really have anything that looks remotely like this.  Also, the picture shows that they kind of smeared the mortar over the top of the bricks and didn't clean it off real good. That part kind of scares me, but then again, I like it. 

So, right now, we may be looking at going to Midland to see some houses with a particular brick on it, and maybe to Lubbock or Dallas. I have to call next week. Crazy to think you will drive that far just to see brick on someone's house!!

And the rock, is a whole different story, but I think we will probably end of going with some sort of white rock. Jason likes that better than the yellow rock. The picture above has white rock used with the bricks as well!!

Doors RE-Decided

I'm really having a lot of fun with the picking out stage. I'm sure I will be tired of it, but it's just started and I LOVE it!

We got the price back on our front door that I liked, and it was going to be custom set of front doors, and the price was more than we wanted to pay for just front doors. Which Jason was nice, he was like, if that's what you just really want we can make it work, but if not, let's go pick something else out.  Well, I wasn't just die hard on them, I just knew I wanted something like them. 

We went back, and they had a brand new set of custom front doors in their store that they ordered, and the person couldn't pay for them, and he was willing to sell them to us for less than 1/2 of what they cost!! 

They are basically the same of what I had just a minor detail change, instead of having a curve wood piece at the bottom of the windows like these,

they will look more like these, with the windows curved at the top.  The whole door is not curved, just the windows. And I actually think they are curved more than in this picture!!

Only problem, I am kind of worried about is the glass is see through, meaning it is not foggy or anything.  I think living out here in the country it won't matter as much.... Has me a little worried. I will just have to have wreaths on the front doors always to block the view inside our messy house!! :)

And the back doors on the patio will look something like these. 

Doors Decided.....

We decided on doors today, but not totally. I made a fool of myself in front of VR again, but oh well... :)

Front doors that we showed them and they are going to order.... Went with wood!! I think these will also be off the back porch as well. I think the wreaths and flower pots make it look so pretty too!! 

Interior Doors kind of like this.... They will be stain grade, but probably not as dark, but similar style!!

And windows, I never really look at on houses I guess because I didn't have a clue about clear glass, or having the grid in them, or another newer style with a line around the edge of the window. 

We went with the traditional grid windows like this, since the front door had panes on it....

In other news, Jason and them are working on laying the pipe from the water well way younder in the middle of the field to the road, then cross over, and come towards the house.  It's quite a bit of work, and the weather is weirdly cold, so it's been slower going, but I'm sure they will be done by Friday.  

Also, on the list for the house pad to be done. Things are moving forward slowly; might start looking at brick and rock in the next couple weeks!

Doors and Windows

We are going in the morning to pick out doors and windows!! I am so excited, and all along I thought I knew what I wanted, and now, I am second guessing myself. 

Should I go with an iron front door?



Or a wood front door?



Or now I'm thinking I might mix the two, for some of the exterior doors??

Should ALL the windows be curved, or I'm thinking I might just do two in the front??



Decision Time!!!

Layout....

A friend last night, asked when I was going to post the plans of the house, and I would have posted them earlier, but I didn't know if I was allowed to, or if I really wanted them on the world wide web....but alas, here they are.

These are the plans with of course my horrible coloring skills to show the grass, concrete, and gravel for the road. 

The gray colored concrete shows a side walk up the front doors with a small porch in the front, and then concrete again around the back with a porch and sidewalk. The white gaps drawn around the house were supposed to represent some sort of flower beds, again I am a bad artist. And those brown things with a scalloped flower looking thing on top, are trees. :)

When you walk through the front doors.....

on the left side, we have 3 bedrooms (with 3 closets) with 2 bathrooms, one of the being a Jack and Jill bath for the girls and Jaxon having his one bathroom, that I think guest will use too.

When you walk through the front doors.....

directly to your right is a formal dining and straight ahead is the Living Room with a fireplace in the corner. 

As you come around the Living Room to the right, there are doors to go on the back porch, a breakfast nook in the corner of the kitchen, and the kitchen itself.  

The kitchen has a long, raised, island down the middle with bar stools along one side, and a sink on the other, with close relations to the cook top and refrigerator.  If you keep going through the kitchen (Back towards the front of the house), there is a pantry, and a walk through to the formal dining room.  In the Dining Room, there is a built-in Butlers Pantry with a counter top, glass cabinets above, and cabinets below, and in the very corner there, is a small storage closet. 

As you continue to walk towards the right side of the house, there is a room with double doors that opens off the kitchen, this is the kids playroom. 

Keep going to the right and then take a right, and you will find the longest hall in the house which goes to our bedroom; built-in on the hall is a small broom closet and a small desk with cabinets.  Our bedroom is the one when looking at the front of the house it sticks out more and there are two jag things. The master bath is at the front of the house as well, on the right; it leads into the master closet. It's big, but we are sharing. :)

The coolest thing in the house, is there is a door out of the master closet coming into the laundry room.

If you are back in the kitchen again, and walk towards the right of the house, there is a station with cubbies, and opening to get in the laundry room, and a powder room.  It is all kind of close together and hard to see. 

As you continue to go towards the garage, there is a open area for a desk to the left, and then farther in there is a small craft room.

Now, the picture also shows a breezeway with an attached garage on the far right.  I don't know if we are doing this right now or not.