Plumbing Fixuters - DONE

After several rounds of emails and phone conversations, we finally agreed on the plumbing fixtures. We nixed 2 of the $315 shower heads which immediately cut our overages (and I love the internet - $205 versus $315 - I will take 2!).

Electrical Walk Through

One thing Jo Nel and I agreed on for our next home is that we wanted to be careful on our placement of our electrical outlets, switches, etc. Tonight we had our walk through with the electrical contractor. One thing quickly became apparent - we may have been too efficient with our use of space in our floor plan. Since the kitchen, dining and great room areas are a contiguous space, there are not many walls to place light switches on. Andy, the electrician, was very good at giving us some ideas. We also seem to have a lot of recessed lighting in the house. Again, not a bad thing, just a ton of can lights.

Shingles and Windows

Here is a view after the roof has been shingled and the windows have been put in.

A Front View

Here is a front view after the plywood has been put on the roof.

Mia

Mia the construction foredog. She is always at the site with the crew. When she gets cold, she will stand by the pickup door until they let her in. When she is ready to come out again, she will bark. Too bad they can't teach her to fetch their tools!

Setting the Roof

Today they set the roof trusses. Watching them guide the structure in to place was absolutely fascinating. It is actually starting to look like a house!

Exterior View

Here are a couple of shots showing the exterior. The first one is looking at rear of the house (the 3-seasons porch in the structure not wrapped in Tyvek. The other picture is looking at the east side of the house with the garage.

Granite

The quotes just keep comin'. The granite quote was high - but we had been prepared for it. Heather's ballpark was pretty close. Now we need to decide how much we like granite!

An Inside Look

Here are a couple of pictures from the inside. Using your imagination, the first picture is taken from the great room looking toward the kitchen and master suite. The second shot was taken from the kitchen, looking toward the great room and then toward the two bedrooms.

The Rock Shop

One of the things we have always wanted is granite counter tops. We have also heard the horror stories on how much it cost, etc. We decided to at least explore this option for our new home. The worst thing that could happen is we faint over the price, pick ourselves off the floor and forget about using granite. Tonight we met with Heather from the Rock Shop. Having absolutely no idea about what to look for in granite, we started to wonder about looking at all of these slabs of rock. We saw a couple we liked and Heather dug them about the store so we could see how they looked in natural light and against our wood flooring, cabinet, and trim samples. She was very patient with us - she just let us work through the process. We all finally settled on a couple of darker pieces that would compliment our birch cabinetry. She gave us a rough idea of cost - notice we are still standing upright - but would give us a formal estimate in a few days.