Finally an update...

Hopefully - I still have a few readers out there, sorry for the delays... life got busy and things were a bit slow going at the house - hence the lack of updates, but here are quite a few of what has been going on at the house!

Lighting:
I had some time off before starting my new job, so I used this time to finalize our selections for the lighting throughout the house...luckily I had my mom to help during the week and an iphone to send Brian pictures while looking to get his thoughts - here are some of the selections:

Dining Room - this proved to be a difficult one to choose because of the ceiling height in the house and also finding one that both Brian and I could agree on... luckily, we found one that we both like and was the right height for the room:

Master Bathroom Lighting - these are the ones that will be over our sinks, we did the 2 light one in this same design for over my vanity and the single light for the water closet... the master bathroom has been another space where I had a bit of a hard time finding what I wanted for this space... I don't know why, but I just couldn't find much that I really liked. When I saw this one, I felt like it was simple and also included the crystal that look like some of the original knobs that are being used in the house...

Light for the Foyer - Another one that I hadn't really thought about because we were not originally planning on having the opening in the foyer and without an opening with low ceilings - there was not going to be much needed in that space... luckily, immediately when I saw this one I liked it and Brian agreed...

Breakfast Room - this was one we selected a long time ago, when we originally chose a lot of the lighting... I am excited about it and love the "retro" feel:

Kitchen Pendants - Again, another one I immediately knew that I wanted and I have now seen these in numerous showrooms and love them every time I see them:

Fans - The fans in the secondary bedrooms will be your standard fade away into the ceiling white ones... but for the play room - I chose this one, I am also thinking for our bedroom - we may go with it too - but that has not been fully decided, Brian and I both like it,

Patio Lighting - Again sticking with the industrial/retro lighting, we choose these for the courtyard area:

Front Door Lighting - When I found these... I knew they were a good fit for the house... the right size and mixed both the colors of the house and the current rails on the steps coming up to the front door...

Electrical:
Much of what has been going on at the house was the electrical wiring throughout the house... so that all my lights I chose can be installed in the future... and now this week the alarm system. Here are a few pics of them getting started on some of the wiring... now they are done and the electrical inspection will be this week (if it has not already happened) - everything actually looks much neater, but unfortunately, I haven't taken any pics of it since these first few:

And a picture of the back door being installed... Love the way everything is slowly coming together:

The Awning:
As I think I have mentioned before, Brian really wanted to not only add depth to the house, but also wanted to make sure if you come visit our home and it is raining, you don't have to stand out in the rain... so we added the awning. Here is a picture of it almost completed:

They added the trim to the wood on the awning... but we aren't sure we like the way it looks... for now, we are going to see if we both still don't like it once it is painted/stained... what do you think?

Outside Paint Color Debate:
Speaking of painting... one of the things I also did while off of work was look for paint selections that I could bring home for Brian... we went through quite a bit of debate and Brian got a few samples and put it up in the courtyard... which do you like?

We decided to go with the light brown and are still debating which white for the trim... leaning toward the more cream one. Thoughts?

The Sunroom:
Our contractor really didn't like this room... which really wasn't supposed to have that much done to it - but he decided to pull the sheet rock from the ceiling... I actually think it looks pretty cool exposed...think this will be a very fun space when completed!

E loves visiting the house and playing in there... I hope she likes it as much when the walls are up and as progress continues to be made... I know she is going to miss the pink wood though. The previous owner had an amazing doll house, that at closing, told us she was leaving it for E to have. It is old and needs some TLC, but a lot of the little people still remain. When we were there a few times ago, I gave E 2 dolls to play with and she had a blast with them... she would strategiclly place them throughout the house in different rooms and spaces. Here are some that I got pics of that I thought were funny:

I think she was playing hide and seek from the doll:

E told me that this was a bed and the dolly went night night... good thing it was only a box and not an electrical outlet yet:

This past week E thought everything was a little too slow going the past few weeks, so she decided to move things along in her own way:

And at the end of the all hard work... she moved the top of a box around the room and decided to take a rest on it... afterall, remodeling a house is hard work:

E wanted to show her good friend from GA her house... we had fun showing his parents around and both kids had fun playing:

Thanks for coming over G - hopefully next time you come visit you can stay at our new house!

So as you can see... there has been progress at the house. This week, they are wiring for the alarm system and prepping the outside to paint the exterior... which again, will change the whole look of the house. They may start on insulation on Thursday and then more next week... in a few weeks the dry wall should be up and then it will really start looking like our home! Will continue to share as updates happen!!

Up On the Roof

We have been having the most amazing weather this week, which has been perfect for this step in the process... roofing!!! They have been busy removing the old roof and replacing it with a new one. I cannot believe how quickly this process goes. Because I have had a week off of work, I have been spending a lot of time on house stuff and making daily visits to see what has been going on. Here are some pictures of the roofing from the past few days:

On the first day, they started in the back of the house on the car port/workshop/sun room area removing and replacing the roof:

Then the next day they started on the front of the house. I pulled up just as they were putting the paper down to lay the shingles:

E and I spent the day together, so she was with me when we drove by the house, she thought it was pretty cool to see the men up on the roof - although she really just wanted to go in the "hooouse":

And by the next morning when I went by the house - we had a new roof in the front of the house:

And by Wednesday afternoon, they also had finished the court yard:

And when I went by late in the day, they were working on removing the old roof and replacing it:

Here is a picture where you can tell just how steep the roof on the house is... this portion was the last part for them to do (which they did today):

Today when I went by - they were getting close to complete, they had even put the shingles onto the awning - which gives it a totally different look:

Here is a picture of the side they were working on late in the day yesterday, which is now completed:

And the last time I went by the house, almost all of the old roof was removed and I assume they were moving on to laying the paper and the shingles. They last time I was there today was around 3 o'clock, if I had to guess and the speed they were going, they finished putting the shingles down (or will in the morning):

Today when I was talking to our contractor - who really had been quite amazing - we were talking about where we were in the process and he stated that we were almost 1/2 done. WHOA... really - I am so excited. Cannot wait for the insulation and dry wall to go in because then it will really start looking like a house!! I have been really trying to nail down finishes and selections for the house this week while I have time off. Pretty sure I have all the lighting selected. I think I have pictures of almost everything and will post that in a bit.

Chutes and Ladders

They are finished putting all of the HVAC system into the house... and the silver spaghetti throughout the house looks pretty cool...or in my mind like a life size version of what the game Chutes and Ladders (mind you there still were ladders in the house when I took these pictures) would look like. Now that all the a/c and plumbing is in, the framing crew also has framed where the runs and pipes had to go in the closets/ceilings, etc. -- starting to really begin to see what things are going to look like. They also finished the insulation under the house and closed up the floor boards that were still open in the kitchen, front of the house and playroom. Another few step closer to completion!

Thought this was a cool view of the a/c and plumbing you see when looking up at the opening at the front of the house:

Board game... picture of Houston highways or our Master bedroom:

A/C runs, plus view of second floor from our bedroom:

Ever wonder how they get a/c from the attic to the first floor... I am not sure I ever thought about it prior, but a good thing we planned to have a really large shower in our bathroom, because the back of it has now been used to bring the a/c to the first floor:

A view of the insulation that went under the house... the house is pier and beam and this is supposed to help because heat rises... and well... H Town is hot:

And the floor boards now closed up in the kitchen:

A view of the front of the house from the kitchen... I love how open it looks... obviously it will still be open as there are not that many walls, but it will be interesting to see the view once the dry wall goes up:

When we were at the house on Saturday E had a great time running around the house... between her new found freedom and less openings in the floor... she had fun exploring:

We now have a study with a/c and lights... guess Brian could set up his office at the new place now:

E is moving on to inspecting the next room.... she loves sneaking through the openings in the framing... hope she will still love coming to the "hooussse" once the walls go in and there is not pink all over:

We now have exterior doors at the house:

View of court yard with new brick work completed and new beams on porch:

And a picture of the front of the house with the new over hang... don't worry the shutters and dormers will not be the colors they are currently shown!

Today at the house they did a lot of work on the outside of the house... removed and replaced the roofing in the car port area of the house and cleared out the landscaping in the front of the house. I was unsuccessful in my trip to pick out slabs of granite and marble. Who knew that every piece of marble and granite would already be tagged or have a fracture in it... argh. Hopefully in a few weeks (just in time for me to be busy at my new job) when they get more in, it will not be so picked over and I can quickly make my selections! There was a lot of variation in the Carrera Marble and the pieces left to choose from either were really grey, had tons of etching already or discoloration marks in the marble... all of the honed granite had fractures in it, so selecting that was out too. It was fun to look at everything, but quite a process... it is not like you can just flip through the slabs as they are huge and heavy (weighing well over 1000 lbs... yes we asked), but since natural stone, obviously each piece looks different so you want to see as many as possible... so to make the selection, they have to bring over a machine to move each piece. Let's just say, it is not a super fast process. 2 hours later and all I had tagged was the one piece of granite - that I am not even convinced on for secondary bathrooms. Hoping to finalize a lot more house stuff this week while I have the time!