Building Vandy - Frame Up!

The house is framed! Yay! So very exciting! On Saturday morning we headed over to check it out. I took a lot of pictures but it's probably a little difficult to tell what everything is, but I will try anyways :)

Here is is! The left side is obviously the garage, and on the top of that is the playroom. On the right bottom (it actually sticks out further than the rest of the house) you are looking at my office. 

It's amazing how fast they get the frame up!

This is taken from standing outside of the house at the entry way - Ryan is where the door will be. As you can see, you will be able to see all the way into the backyard from the entry. 

And here we have the office..aka my craft room! yay!

This is taken standing in the office...Ryan was having fun hiding under the stairs! The space in between is a closet. 

Moving along...

After you walk in you will pass the entry, mudroom (on right) then you come to the dining room (also on right). 

And this is taken standing in the dining room - the courtyard (which is on the left side). There will be three sets of french doors which will keep the area very open.

A little further is the kitchen and great room. 

Kitchen above - sink will be where window is and an island with the range will be where that pipe is sticking out of the ground. The larger window is the eating area and will have built in benches. 

This is a picture of the living room taken from the kitchen area. In the middle will be the fireplace and we will have built-ins on each side. The walls on each side will be french doors (again...letting lots of light in). 

Heading upstairs...

 Walking up the stairs the first room is the gameroom. Standing here, the right is the front of the house and there will be a small balcony, and the left wall is facing the courtyard (there will be two large windows there). I am so excited about this space and can't wait to get it all set up for the boys!

Here is another picture from the game room looking towards the courtyard. 

Looking out the game room window you can see downstairs into the living room. On the 2nd floor, across is the master suite. 

This is taken at the front of the house (upstairs) looking towards the back. Down the right side are three bedrooms (Ryan, Grayson & guest room) and the left is lined with windows that open up to the courtyard. In very back is a foyer for the master suite. 

I guess that's where I stopped taking pictures - nothing of the master area....perhaps next time!

Last pic is Daddy and Grayson hanging out in the game room!

Building Vandy

It has been about a month since my last update - demo day! There has been a lot going on since then, but nothing too exciting (if you ask me). Basically all the ground work for preparing to lay the foundation - so lots of plumbers, electricians and other contractors getting everything ready.  Oh and we also had to close on the construction portion of the lot. We have had quite a few closings but our title company is really close and since we have gotten to know them so well it wasn't that odd when I nursed Grayson while signing the documents! lol! (I am telling you, nursing is a whole different ballgame this time around...I don't have time to sit at home and do it so wherever we are has to work!) 

We are doing a pier and slab foundation - it's like a hybrid of the of pier & beam and regular slab. When the team came in to do the piers they were able to complete all of them except one in the back - they came across and object and it caused a delay. When Kevin told me there was an object buried 6 feet under that had to be extracted I immediately thought...oh dear what is it?? A grave? Is that weird that that is what I thought? Well, it wasn't a grave or anything creepy. It was a cistern - and it was pretty large. About 8x10 and it was at least 6 feet under, so that actually caused a little bit of a delay getting that taken care of. It pushed things back about a week but Jeff (our builder) thinks we should be able to make that time up as we move along.

Yesterday they poured the cement for the slab - Yay! So fun! I took Ryan by and he thought all the trucks were pretty cool! It takes about 30 days for the slab to dry 100% but they can actually start building long before so we should see the frame going up pretty quickly!

We have also been working with Ryan (Jeff's partner) on selecting the plumbing fixtures over the past two weeks. During Grayson's night feedings I have been perusing Houzz.com and pinning ideas for the house - it's a great way to pass time! Ryan checks out my pins and then selects 2-3 options for each category which makes it (somewhat) easy for us to decide. They have a great portal that we log into and can make all our final selections. It keeps everything nice and neat and I like it.

I won't bore you with all the fixtures we selected but here are some sneak peaks to what we are going for in a couple of areas.

Kitchen:
A mix of white and gray - stainless steel appliances and a farmhouse sink!

Master bath:

Again with the mix of white and gray - stand alone tub and fun chandelier.

Guest bathroom:

While most of the house is going to be white/gray we decided to do something a little different in the guest bathroom. I found this picture online and really love it - the dark wood, light countertops, and lighting. Hoping to create something like this for the downstairs bathroom.

Building A Home

I have been meaning to start a more consistent post dedicated to the fun yet (I hear) stressful process of building a new house but clearly haven't done it yet. It's a long process and I think pretty interesting....hope you do too!

I was trying to come up with a cute name for these posts but that hasn't happened yet (open to suggestions) so I will keep thinking on that....until then I will catch everyone up!

Taking you back...

We had always planned to stay in our current house (which we LOVE)  for five years and then knew we would probably need more space. This past January we reevaluated our five year plan and changed it to four :) With the baby on the way and the space already closing in with all of Ryan's toys we figured why not. We decided we could at least get our house on the market and see what was out there.  We took the months of January & February to get it ready to go on the market. After finding a realtor we put it on the market early March.

So the house was listed and we had showings - now to see what was out there. We did a lot of looking online so we knew what existing homes were available but we also wanted to see some of the new construction that was going up. It really only took that one day of looking around for us to realize what we wanted to do - and that was to build.  There just wasn't anything we loved and we felt that at the price point we were looking at it was worth more to us to create something that we loved versus settling on something that was already existing.

We always considered building as an option and actually even knew who we wanted to use as our builder. After looking at some new builds around and getting a sense of some of the other builders in the area it made our decision even easier.  We met with Jeff Baron of Jeff Baron Homes and knew he would be the perfect builder for us.  He actually built our neighbors house and we really have loved everything else of his that we have seen. Everyone who has used him only has wonderful things to say about him and the building experience. He does everything completely custom and really listens to what you want. Sold.

So the first step was actually to find a lot to build on. Easier said than done I might add - there isn't much land available in the area where we want to be so our options were limited. Luckily our realtor had the inside scoop on an awesome lot that actually happens to be only three blocks down from Kevin's sisters family. We have always loved their street...and the fact that the lots are HUGE were a major plus. It wasn't so easy though...it took about two months of going back and forth to finally secure it. Let's just say the owner wasn't as excited about having to sell it.

Oh and did I mention that there is an existing house on that lot? Yup - and a renter. So now we are landlords. When we closed on May 30th we gave the renter a 90-day notice to terminate the lease - so he has until August 31st to relocate. We actually needed those 90 days to 'create' a house to build - so timing worked out perfectly.

Once we finally closed on the lot we began working with our builder on plans for the house. In our planning meeting with Jeff we discussed the total budget, square footage, needs/wants, and overall style of the house. Kevin and I had been looking around and one of the styles that popped for us is Hill Country Modern. What does that mean? Well, we love the Texas Hill Country stone, layouts (not a cookie-cutter box on box type floor plan) as well as the warmth it portrays, but also enjoy some of the more modern clean lines and neutral colors...but nothing too sterile or cold. It's really what you want to make of it I think. Heck, I probably will mix in a few other styles...but that is the overall feel we were going for. Once he had everything he needed Jeff took everything to the architect to create to preliminary sketches for us. It took about two weeks to get the first concept and from there we tweaked until we got exactly what we wanted.  I think there were a total of about five revisions. Once we agreed on the final floor plan (early August) our builder took about two weeks to bid out the jobs - basically building the budget.

Below are the initial sketches....we really loved the overall concept (and have stuck with it) but A LOT has changed since these were drawn. I haven't decided if I want to post the finalized plans yet...maybe at a later date.

                                  

Where we are NOW

So on August 12th we meet with the Jeff & Ryan to discuss how everything netted out. This meeting was long and very detailed. Again, it doesn't include the final final costs for everything since there are no final decisions on materials, hardware, flooring, fixtures, ect - Jeff had to used average costs. Some things we will probably spend less on and some things we will probably spend more on but for now there is just an estimated place holder so that we have something to take to the bank.

It took about a week for us to digest it all and make sure there weren't any major changes we needed to make before we approved it. Once we approved it, it was submitted to the bank for approval. And that's where it is now :)  This process is expected to take about three weeks.

In the meantime Jeff has already scheduled demolition of the current 'Vandy' (nickname for new house) house to occur between the 7th and 15th of September. I hope it happens on a morning where I can take Ryan over there to watch - I think he would love to see all the cool construction trucks working!

Although we don't have official approval from the bank we did have to make one of our first house design decisions last week - the windows!  Our house has A LOT of them. I believe we have FORTY-EIGHT windows and NINE exterior doors - talk about some natural light. Makes me excited. Usually it doesn't happen this way but the window company was running a sale and it saved us a substantial amount of money to go ahead and buy now versus waiting until later.

Anyhow, makes things real when you have to decide on style and color for windows...before you officially decide on exterior colors/materials. We have an idea of the colors and materials we want to use for the exterior so we feel pretty confident in our window decisions...we ended up deciding on windows that are very similar to the house below (also one of Jeff's builds).  The pattern on the windows is called Prairie and the color is Chestnut Bronze. Doesn't really sound hill country or modern, huh? lol

So that's where we are for now. Hoping to hear back from the bank in a few weeks and if all goes as planned we should be breaking ground around September 24th! Lot's more decisions to make a long the way so I will keep everyone updated!