Down to the Finish Working

The last week and a half have been very busy. Every night after work is spent at the house working on something. But progress has been made aside from a very tired girl!!
I have done most of the painting, well me and my mom. We have painted all of the rooms in the house, I just have some cut in work to be done. Which I am told needs to be done by tomorrow, not sure I will get all of it done but we will see!! I have gotten to the point where, I do not even care if all the paint comes off in the shower because I know there will be more paint on me in a matter of time.
They started laying our tile. We have tile in both bathrooms and in the entry hall. The hallway and the masterbath have been done.
This is the hallway!!

This is the Master bath

We have kitchen cabinets!! Terry and Lisa, our wonderful friends came and helped us or I should say helped Matthew hand the cabinets. We still have to do the trim and we are waiting on countertops (2 weeks) but the cabinets look great!! They are an antique white with a dark glaze around the wood work. Here are some pictures of the cabinets, it was hard to get good pictures because there was so much stuff on them due to the fact we were trying to get everything off the floor for flooring.




Finally, We have light fixtures!!! Matthew and I hung 7 light fixtures last night. When he was ready to start the 8th after midnight, I said "I can not do another one tonight!!" So we quit for the night!! Matthew found it fun to quiz me over the wires and what each one was called.... I told him, I didn't need to know because I had him :-) My uncle is here working away at the electrical. So today, we should have power to our light fixtures and hopefully air conditioning!! Here is one picture of the seven that we hung. This one is in our master bedroom.

Hopefully, they will start the rest of the flooring, tomorrow!! Matthew and I are going to lay the flooring in the spare bedrooms.... Another, skill, I will learn how to do. Then after the flooring will come the trim work and just odds and end of stuff!! It is hard to believe that less than 4 months ago it looked like this

And now we have a house!! God has definately blessed us and guided us along the way to find the right workers and help and materials. We are soo excited!!!

Painting, Oh Painting!!

Monday started painting the ceilings and priming the walls. Yesterday, Matthew and I bought paint for the living room, hallway, master bedroom, and the hall bathroom. Picking colors we agreed on was quite the process. I think dark floors lighter color walls, he thinks hunter green would be good for anything. I think we already have our bedspread so lets pick a color that goes with that, he thinks hunter green would be the best color. After lots of thought and conversations we picked colors. We painting the living room and hallway last night and both agreed we really like the color we chose. Whether we like it because it looks good or like it because we both wanted the color it doesn't matter :-) We like it!! I have pictures but it was really late when I took them and I do not think it really shows what color it is.

Hallway


The siding is almost done and we got a garage door!! In the picture you will have to disregard all the trash and misc stuff in the front of the house!!



The rest of this week, will be spent painting, painting, and painting. They will start the flooring on Tues. We will start tile work as soon as we are done painting. Cabinets come on Thur.
Move in date is getting so close that, I can't really believe it!! We are so thankful for everything that God has provided us. We are now looking for a great interest rate on a mortgage which now is the time to do it.... We have found.

Taking time to get away and still the house gets worked on

After, a crazy summer of non stop madness and barely a few minutes to spend time with each other in a day, we decided to go to Tennessee and visit Matthew's family. It was so great to get away!! Even though we were gone, alot happen back in Rocky Mount. I had no idea the show would go on without the check writers present :-)

The insulation guy has came and gone, finishing the whole house in just 2 days.


The drywall has started and they should be done by Friday!!


The vinyl siding guy is here and should be done this week!!


We are ALMOST done with rock work in the front. You want to work on your relationship skills with your spouse or even as a team building activity then do a tedious project like rock work.


This is the finished deck upstairs. The guy did awesome decorative post for me. The railings are high for our future children to have no chance of falling over the deck :-)


My uncle has pretty much finished the electrical, now we just have to wait for the drywall to be done to put the fixtures up. We are going to look at paint colors, flooring, and tile all this week. It looks like after I have now painted my sister and my mom's house, next week I will finally be painting MY house.

The house is looking more like a house. Everytime I go into the house or even think about it, I think how blessed I am. I am so grateful God provides and has been orchestrating the details of this house!!

Rock and Time

We have now began to do the rock work on the front of the house ourselves. We have to figure out where to put what piece where. When we first started we had to figure out what was the best way and of course Matthew and I had completely different ways of what was the best way. We had to stop and talk out the best way and come in to aggreement. After that everything went great and the time consuming project is coming along. We have a long way to go but have a great start. Here is a picture of our progress.


Matthew and I orginally did not think to put a deck upstairs and the house was already framed. Someone gave us the idea and that was it, I thought it was an amazing idea. We got a really awesome bid on it and decided a deck would be the best idea. Now, the deck is done and we have one upstairs and one down stairs. Here are pictures of the deck.


We bought cabinets and countertops!!! What a relief to have that done!!
My uncle is finishing up the electrical next week!!


Camp is over but we are still extremely busy with retreats and cleaning up from camp. Everything is going well and still extremely busy trying to juggle the house, marriage, and the camp.

Summer is almost over

Even now as a grown adult with no children, the thought of school supplies taking the place summer fun at Walmart is just as sad today as it was 10 years ago. There is only one week of camp left, a few weeks left till school starts, and only couple months of warm weather left :-( The goods new is our house is almost half done.

The roof has black paper on all of it and shingles on half of it. I didn't want to walk to the back of the
house to take a picture of the completed shingles so here is the front with black paper.


The next picture you may ask, why in the world did you take that....Well there is a reason and that is to show that the plumbers have came.

The plumbers asked me question like what size is your double vanity, my reply was that it was not bought yet. I said plumb it for a standard double vanity and his reply was there is no standard! Goal to not spend a fortune on a double vanity and find one soon!!

The next picture is Matthew's handywork as he is trying to frame in the jacuzzi tub and make it perfect for me!!


The last picture is this metal netting I nailed in by myself that is for the rock work.


We have framed in the fireplace. The heating and cooling people are coming this week. Then my uncle is coming the end of the week to start on electrical. We are also working on cabinets.

It finally has started feeling like a home. I got ancy and ordered pots and pans, a toaster, and a steam mop online from Macys with wedding and birthday gift cards.

Time goes so fast, summer is almost over, and fall will be here and over before we know it. I am trying to savor every day before it gets away from me.

Top Reasons you know we are building a house

1. I have become very knowledgeable in construction lingo. I now know Trusses are like the framed wood on the roof. I know osb boards are the wood that gets nailed up after you frame on the outside. I understand words like dried in and finish work.

2. Instead of buying clothes or even decorative house items, we are buying nails and nail guns. Instead of buying furniture we are buying showers and bathtubs. Our latest purchase is a front door.

3. I spend more time talking to subcontractors than I do to my friends and family. How long do you want your cabinets, how many cabinets, do you want rock work on the front of the house, do you want a left or right swinging door, and the list goes on.

4. Matthew and I's dates consist of dinner and doing something like going to lowe's and picking out bathtubs or going to Meeks and picking out shingles. Both were dates we went on recently, so romantic I know your jealous?

5. Every conversation Matthew and I have always includes at some point the house. e.g. We are walking along and talking about the weather or something not related to the house and then we see beautiful rock work and begin to discuss how we are going to do our rock work. Or we are discussing what we need to get done in the house or bids we have gotten.

6. I am now learning how to use power tools. After work and on the weekends, you do not see me laying out but you see me at the house working. You may find me using a saw (which I can use quite well, if I do say so myself), measuring and marking things, or trying to place osb boards.

7. The only places we have credit is Meek and Herman lumber (well, and the bank)!!

8. Matthew and I have started asking other people that are remodeling and building there house where they got things or who they used. And people are coming to us, asking us about our construction and who we use and where we purchased materials.

Finally
9. You know we are building a house because a great big house is being built! We are so thankful how God provided, and how he also has been supplying wonderful subcontractors and amazing deals on materials.

Progress on the house is coming along, the trusses were put up on Wednesday. They have worked on putting the osb boards on the roof even in the terrible heat. Wednesday they will start to put shingles up! I am still working on cabinet qoutes. Now I will post some pictures.

Pictures of the trusses






This is a picture of Matthew and Jordan working on the house, and I would saw the pieces while they nailed them in.

Progress on house, almost ready for Black paper, then shingles




Our Front Door!!!

No TV... takes away from resell value??

Almost 7 months ago, only engaged and still long distance, I was on the nightly phone chat with Matthew and as we were discussing our home, I made the statement, "I would rather not have a tv in our house." He had a stunned reaction like that is unbelievable. I explained to him my concern of how tv replaces conversation and quality time. When children are in the family it steals their innocence, teaches them bitter ugly attitudes, and robs their imagination because they are too busy watching tv than to play!! Matthew still thinking it was crazy agreed with my concerns and said we would work out a deal. Then my uncle the electrician tells me that we have to have cable hookups for resell value. Not only in the family room, every bedroom, but the kitchem, bathroom, and any other knook and cranny. About a week ago, Matthew says he has something to tell me. A little hesitant tells me that he bought a tv!! I said I have lots of thoughts 1. How could you make such a big purchase without consulting your life mate 2. I thought we decided we were not going to have a tv in a living room. His reply was oh no this is for the bathroom!! You can imagine my response the BATHROOM. What happened to having limited tv's in our home!! That is still up for debate as to where the tv will be located. But here is the tv still in the box.

The Plumbers are finishing up the house. The electrical starts tomorrow. The roof is just about done.The windows come tomorrow and they will set the windows and doors But the big project for the week was they poured our driveway and our approach!! Here is a picture of the driveway and approach after it was poured.

Now, I need opinions. Matthew has come up with an idea that benefits me completely but we haven't completely decided. He came up with the idea since our laundry room is awfully small to move it downstairs. Then expand my closet to make it over 100 square feet. I would have a bigger laundry room and a huge closet. Downside laundry room is downstairs. Upside added exercise in my day. So that is the big question of the week, what should we do?
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