Drywall near completion.... 10 weeks to go???

Hey guys!  It has been a week since my last post.  The drywall was started this past weekend and as of today is 90% complete.  The fence was finished except installing the gate.  It has been an experience watching the drywall go up.  They slap the long pieces of sheetrock lengthwise on the walls covering doorways and openings and then cut them out.  Looked pretty crappy at first, then amaingly I come in the next day and corners are finished, tape and bedding, and floating are all happening.  What a transformation.  It is beginning to be easier to imagine how each room is going to look.  The stucco is finally set to begin this weekend and should take about a week to be complete. The outside should be complete in 2 weeks.   Also, the pool will be started to be dug this week. In fact, James with ACH said that completion date would be 10 weeks barring any delays!!!!  Thats only 2 1/2 months.  Probably be more like 3 1/2 but that still puts us in by Christmas.  What a grand Christmas present to ourselves.  But that means no Christmas Lights this year... sorry Greenhill Park. 

Since there are so many pictures with this blog, I will just label them below.  I took pictures of a good deal of the rooms to show an idea of what they will be like. I think when everything is finished, I will take a narrated video and post it.

Entry Fence Completed

Faux Wood Shingles Awaiting Paint

Corner of Garage with Stairs to Storage

Upstairs Storage - Very Dark!

Pet Room - Awaiting Doggie Door

Mud Room/Entry from Garage

One of the Guest Bedrooms

Pantry

Wine Room

Game/Media Room

Kitchen

Great Room

Look Toward Front Door

Dining Room with Butler's Pantry

Study - Wiring Accidentally Cut Awaiting Repair

A Look from the Front Door to the Back Door

Hallway

Utility Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Master Closet

Master Shower

Hall Coat and Linen Closets

Abby's Bedroom

Abby's Bath with Closet Beyond

A Look Out the Garage

Pre-Drywall Walkthrough....

 The drywall starts going up this week.  I will catch you up to what has been happening the past week.  James says we are halfway done now. 

This is the outdoor closet on the porch.  It turned out to be bigger than expected which is great.  Lots of room for outside stuff and pool gadgets. 

 This is the initial framing for the outdoor kitchen.  The plumbing has been done and the wiring complete for the appliances.  The gas lines have been run.  Can't wait to have some outdoor entertaining when it gets cooler of course.

The backporch posts are up.  The bottom sections will have stone but they already look great. 

 The electrical has been put in place.  Bunches of switches, outlets, etc.  So many to keep track of.  Come to think of it, a big electricity bill too!

Most of the house lighting will be accomplished with our ceiling fans and lots of recessed lighting as seen in place here above the kitchen bar. 

 All the TV cables and Internet wiring have been put into place and all come out in the closet off the Butler's Pantry which we will dub our server closet.  Thanks to Michael Tucker for all the advice on what we need.  And thanks in advance for setting it all up for us! :)

The insulation went up this week.  We are going with blown in insulation on the exterior walls to give extra R factor ratings to reduce utility expenses.  All the interior walls have soundproofing battes.  The attic insulation will be one of the last things to go in in case we need any changes to wiring etc.
This is an example of a blown in wall.

 This is the insulation in the interior walls.  We need to get the electricity and lighting going soon because it is dark in the house now with no open walls.  We passed all the initial inspections by the city this week and the breaker boxes can be installed so it should not be too long before there is light.

The sheetrock has been delivered and is waiting in each room for installation.  It really will look different in the next week with actual walls in place.  Getting really exciting but will slow down from here.  After drywall, we have to wait until cabinets are ready.  Then comes trim,floors, etc.

 The HVAC guys are essentially done.  Looks like a space-age maze in the attic.  There will need to be some fine-tuning when it all gets going to push air into all the right places. 

This is a really dark picture even with flash because the room is almot all closed in.  This is the upstairs climate-controlled storage area.  The picture shows about half the room Nice and big for all the Christmas stuff and of course junk.  Probably wont take long for us to fill it up.

 The showers are getting their waterproof liners.  After drywall,the tiles will be installed.  All our fixtures are finalized as well as flooring. 

And finally, we are so excited to see the front entrance being finished up.  This stone and grout will be the same used on parts of the exterior house, outside kitchen, indoor fireplace, and gameroom bar. 

Probably will be next week before another blog post as they will just be putting up drywall.  Will start doing individual room shots soon. 

The Stone is Laying and the Power is coming......

 Even though it is 106 outside and a Sunday, the work continues.  They started putting the stone on the fence today.  They have started at one end, and it is a slow process but working their way down the fence row. 

 The stone is being put into place at this time.  After it is all in place the grout will be piped in the cervices.  We have chosen a color called Buff which is sand mixed with white to give a tan or ecru appearance.  We liked that color better for the grout than gray.

 We met with the stone and trim guys on Friday.  All the plans are in place for mouldings and doors.  This is a sample of the stucco that will be going up soon.  The color is called Birch as it is close to the color of a Birch tree.  It is a light tan with a hint of yellow.

The masonry guys have been busy.  They have to put up a metal mesh around the entire house to attach the stucco and stone to.  This is the front porch today where it appears the mesh is complete.  We should see stone and/or stucco start to appear on the house this coming week. 



 Even in the heat, we managed to do a little work on the house today.  The electrician is starting next week.  We spent the afternoon going through every room and marking where we wanted electrical outlets, telephone jacks, cable outlets, and network connections.  This is the floor in the study.  We have floor outlets that will be under the desk.  This will help hide all the power and computer wiring.

 We took the plans and initially marked down everything then walked around with the plans in hand.  Hopefully doing it that way will help us to not forget anything.  One thing we made sure not to forget is a plug in the mantle itself.  This is a picture where we are reminding them about the plug in the mantle and the necessary outlets for the TV above the fireplace.

Similarly, this is the area in the game room where the big TV will go.  Luckily, there is a closet behind here.  It should be easy to put these outlets in the closet and house all of the equipment in there.  We will see.

This is the game room bar.  We marked up the plugs here, but also drew out some plans about the shelving behind the bar.  Because there is space limitation, we are going to cut out a portion of the wall and make the shelving unit built in open into the wine room behind.  We hope to have glass shelves here for liquors and glassware with lighting to accent it all.  Being open, you will be able to see the wine racks which should be cool.  In theory it seems pretty cool.  We will see what our builder thinks.  He doesn't know our idea yet...... what do ya'll think?

Air Conditioners deflinitely needed nowadays....

 The HVAC guy has been hard at work this week.  After the vents were put in place, the units began being placed.  This is one of the 5 ton units.  There will be two of them.  One on each end of the house.  The ducts should go in later this week. A/C is definitely needed with the 110 degree days this week.

 This is either a heater unit or the smaller A/C unit for the storage area.  I couldn't tell which one.  The otuside units have not been delivered yet.

 The plumber has continued to work.  This is the plumbing for the kitchen sink.  It is interesting to see the kitchen lines are going in.  They run under the the slab and up the back wall of the kitchen.  There are lines for both the main sink area and the island. 

The workers continue to frame in the fireplace area.  The third A/C unit is seen in the floor awaiting placement.  By tonight the unit had already been put in place. 


Now we are waiting on the stone to be delivered and the electrician to start wiring.