We passed... And a Few Other Updates.

We passed the plumbing inspection...and we were the first house in our neighborhood to pass with PEX plumbing! How so, you wonder, well the building code updates went into affect on January 1, 2013 to approve the use of PEX plumbing in houses and we elected to use it. And now, on the first inspection - we passed! No delays because of plumbing.

Working on putting in plumbing in laundry room:

Ready for inspection with insulation on the piping:

Some other plumbing pics from throughout the house (just a few because really - while interesting - let's be honest, they all sort of look the same):

Also happening at the house was the update/replacement of the balcony:

Yesterday, Brian texted me that the awning on the house was going up... here is a picture of it being put up:

And a picture from the end of the day of what it lookes like - from the get-go, Brian had a major concern of visitors who came to our house in the rainy weather would have to stand at our frount door and get wet because there was no awning/porch/overhang off the front door.... well now, you can all visit the new house in the rain and not have to fear that you will be soaking wet by time we answer the door:

Things continue to move forward with the house and progress is happening on a daily basis! We are both very pleased with how everything is turning out. Next up... perhaps some photoshop fun as I try and figure out what colors to paint the outside of the house and maybe some photos of fixture/lighting/carpet selections as I finalize these in the coming weeks.

Is our house falling down?

As I mentioned in my last post, I was pretty convinced something horrible had happened when they were replacing the "facia" for the roof which in my mind, since there was now a gap between the brick and the roof caused the brick on the house to buckle and therefore the house was going to fall down. Ok... so in hindsight, I knew the hosue was not going to fall down, but seeing the house with a bunch of brick messed up on the front made me really nervous. Perhaps I should have thought of the 3 little pigs because the brick house could not be blown down... but at this moment in time - I thought the big bad wolf (or the horrible weather that was coming) could surely blow our house down. Before I share pictures... let me say that the mason has now fixed a lot of the issues with the brick and it was all done by tools and people who knew what they were doing!

Last week Brian had a busy week with work and travel, so he didn't get to do his normal daily visits to the house (and with the updates he had given me, he never mentioned the mason coming by). I went by the house on Wednesday after work... arriving after the crew had left... and in the pouring rain. I had an umbrella - so I got out to get pics of our crumbling house...

Notice the siding on the top of the 1939 house had been pulled down as well... this was the last part becuase the dumpster had to be moved for them to get to it... and all the brick work mess in this photo:

At the very edge you can see what I was talking about above with the separation between the roof and the brick... again - in hindsight not sure how it could have caused brick issues, but in my mind it fully did!

I was nervous after seeing the front of the house and how bad it looked... but when I walked around the side - I notice that some of that brick was missing too... now if I was logically thinking - the brick clearly looks removed and like it was done by someonoe skilled in brick work, but it was raining and I was at the house alone... so that was not exactly my thought...Also, I remembered Brian commenting on how good the brick looked that they had "saw cut" to put in the new windows... so now that the brick was taken out - I thought something had happened...

More on the side that I noticed:

And then... as I walked to the court yard... I knew that when they were doing work back there a few weeks ago some of the brick had basically just fallen out and this was not how it looked (Yes - I did go back and look at pics of it) and a lot of the brick in the court yard was now falling down:

Another court yard picture - but in this one you can see the facia being replaced... and the holes in the roof from all the work, good thing we are getting a new roof:

Like I said- this has all now been fixed (or at least started to be fixed) and was not a major cause for concern... but in my mind it potentially was something really bad. I guess this is why Brian is in charge of construction and I am in charge of blogging and picking out finishes. Back to our regularlly scheduled house 'duties'.

Still more pics from last week coming... and hopefully some more exciting stuff happening this week. My goal is to get all of our selections finished!!

E's House Adventures...

A lot of the new pics this week - don't show many changes, but that doesn't mean there has not been a lot going on at the house... the mason was there working on the brick (and since Brian was out of town I went to see the house... when I showed up to the house in the pouring rain - I was pretty convinced the house was going to fall down because the brick appeared cracked and there were tons of "stair steps" that looked horrible, luckily Brian assured me the mason was there and I shouldn't be concerned), framers finishing up details and siding and the plumber has been busy finishing up plumbing... I believe tomorrow morning is the first plumbing inspection....

For now here were E's house adventures this weekend...

First when we went to check out carpet to make the selection for the upstairs carpet... She had her own opinion and was very busy walking all over the store... she had a blast!
Hmmmm... I think I like this one...

or maybe this one would look good in my room..

Next we went to the house because Brian needed to mark off where the cable/cat wiring and other outlets needed to go in each room... E just started walking and she was very busy all over the house. With her new found independence she was not very interested in holding either of our hands while exploring the house, which was a bit difficult because there is a lot of uneven ground and things that are not super safe for a 19 month old.

She was busy giving her Daddy advice while he was on the ladder checking to see if the water heaters were in:

Showing off a piece of the pipe she found in the house:

Going in and out of her closet... and loving the pink walls...

Next up she decided she would check out her bathtub in her new bathroom:

Now on to the next room...

And down the hall to see Mommy and Daddy's room:

Helping Daddy as he confirms the location of the electrical outlets:

And the "old" built in, in the master bedroom:

To get her to leave the piece of pipe she had carried all over the house, Daddy gave her some leftover red and blue pipes:

Thanks Daddy - these are a lot of fun... E has carried them all over and has had fun playing with the pipes!

Next up... will upload some real pics from this past week. Electrical and other fun this week to come!!

Slowly, but Surely!!

On Saturday after we met with someone about the built-ins, we did our Saturday walk through. A lot of times when I drop by after work, I have E with me... so I don't really look at much with detail and go quickly through while she is wanting to "walk" all over and see the "pink" wood.

I think I have maybe posted this picture a few times - or at least one that is pretty close. This is from the front entry way looking into the kitchen, every time I walk in - I am so happy that it is now so much more open than it was before:

Here is the new window in the stair way -- so much light comes into the house from this window:

The 4th bedroom now has the window installed:

And the windows are installed in our bathroom.

The siding in the court yard is now complete and I am so happy with the way it looks:

Finish the dormer windows in the courtyard and framing them in:

Here is a view of both of dormer windows now completed (these are in our bathroom) -- you can also see where they added on to the roof line in 1980:

Another court yard view:

Tons of progress has been made to the west side of the house - the siding is now almost complete:

And the sun room (west side):

The balcony is also being worked on and here is the progress on that:

All and all I am so happy with all the updates that have been (and continue to be) made at the house. I thought roofing was supposed to start this week - but the weather forecast calls for a lot of rain, so I am not sure about that. I also think they are going to be working on electrical... we will see.

Who knew....

Did you know there are about a million different options for toliets... I mean come on! I have already picked out the toliets for the master bath and the powder room, but the secondary toliets are really stressing me out... all I want is a plain jane toliet that has simple lines and does not break the bank. Is this so complicated?

Not only are there color options (that one is easy - a white toliet), but there are height differences, shape differences, depth differences, etc.

Argh... Isn't it just a potty!!! I figured there would be options, but I never knew it would be difficult to find a simple one.

This week at the house has been plumbing, siding and finishing up the windows.

The plumber brought over the secondary bath tubs... So in case you need a bath... We now have 2 of them:

Lots of plumbing pieces in the house:

And rough plumbing is in....

As you can tell from the first bit of this post about my toilet rant... We have also been trying to finalize our plumbing selections this week. We have selected almost everything, but those pesky secondary toilets!!!

Most of the windows have now been installed (I think the only 2 not in our in our bedroom) and we are pleased with the way they look. These are the windows in our living room:

And a view from outside of one of the new windows... Notice we had to saw cut the brick - we wanted all the windows to match the largest in the area:

Other than plumbing and windows, they have been busy replacing all the siding on the house. Much of it was rotted out and rather than just replacing the bad, we are replacing it all. Here is a before picture of the west side of the house, which they started on this week:

And some pictures of the progress made on that side this week:
NOTE: The color of the siding is the "unfinished" color -- we have not yet decided what color we will paint it. Check back to see in the future!

And here is the progress on the court yard, with windows and almost finished siding.

The crew will continue to work on the siding today and make a little more progress... Brian and I are off to meet with a trim carpenter about cabinets and hopefully make it to the granite/marble place to select our slabs. Hoping for a productive Saturday!