Houston, WE HAVE WALLS!!!!!

Yes, it's true. The house now has walls. And WOW! I thought it looked and sounded different with the insulation - that was nothing compared to this. The main room looks absolutely AMAZING. I can't wait until it's all finished. I'm loving my closet. I'm so excited about the kitchen. Hell, who am I kidding? I AM SO EXCITED TO HAVE WALLS IN THE WHOLE HOUSE!!!!!

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Can you say wet bar???

Living Room

Living Room / Dining Room

Jay's mom was able to move most of her stuff back in to her house today, and made the phone call to have her furniture delivered. She is absolutely thrilled, as you can probably imagine. They're still doing some tile work, so she's not able to use her kitchen or shower, but when we were there today she was so excited about being able to sleep in her own bed in her house tonight. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a smidgen jealous, but I'm so happy for her. My turn will come soon...

Insulation and Flooding

The insulation in the house went up this week. As you saw in the previous post, what a different house it is! It's very weird. For the past almost eight months we've been able to see through the walls in our house, and now, we can't. That's not a bad thing whatsoever, it's just very strange. However, it means progress, and I can't complain about that.

Sheetrock was also delivered this past week, and will begin to go up on Monday. I've had many people ask if the sheetrock is from China, and no, I'm happy to report, it's not. It's made in the good 'ol U S of A! They'll float it on Tuesday and apply the texture Wednesday and Thursday. If all goes as planned (and we know how lucky we've been about that with this house, ha ha), we should be able to start painting this weekend. Please keep your fingers crossed!



On another note, we have had some pretty nasty weather the last couple of days, with an insane amount of rainfall. Many areas around here flooded, including parts of our little island, and I have to admit that it brought back some not-so-good memories for me. I was having flashbacks of Ike, and a minor panic attack. Nothing major, but let's just say I'm glad to see the sunshine today! Here are some pictures from what the National Weather Service is calling "an amazing rainfall event."

It's beginning to look a lot like a house!

Now that I've got you all singing a Christmas song in your head, here is the latest on the house.

I promised you pictures of the new roof, so here you go.




The plumbing finally passed inspection today, and the insulation went up, so this means walls are next. Music to my ears! Materials are being delivered on Thursday, and the sheetrock will begin to go up Monday! Yippee! I picked out ceiling and wall textures today (a decision that you literally have to live with, unless you're made of money and can change it after you get tired of it), which means we're going to have to get serious about paint colors. Which means we're going to have to get serious about tile. But I digress... here are some photos of the insulation. Yes, I cried (sorry PB, couldn't help myself!).



In other good news, Jay's mom gets to move back in to her place on Monday. We had dinner with her tonight for her birthday, and she is beyond excited. And I'm excited for her. A little jealous, because I'd like to be moving into my house on Monday, but my time will come soon enough.

Last DRC closes today

This probably means nothing to most of you, but for those of us who are still trying to rebuild our lives after Hurricane Ike, this is a benchmark. The last Disaster Recover Center (DRC) closes today. It happens to be the one that Jay and I frequented the most. It's at the Community Center on Galveston Island. We went there way more than we ever thought we would, and as you all know got zero assistance, but I won't go there now. I'm sure that this particular DRC, and the many others, were able to provide assistance to many families - just not us. I just thought it was worth mentioning that seven months after the storm, the largest - and most visited - DRC is closing its doors.

On another note, the new roof is on the house! It's been inspected, and it passed, so we get the coveted WPI-8 certificate that is oh-so-important if we want windstorm in the future. Which, we do, because, well, we don't have a choice.

Here's what it looked like in the process. I'll post pictures of what it looks like now when I take them. (Yes, I'm a little behind, as usual. Sorry!)

Happy Easter to all of you! I hope you have a blessed weekend!

Moving right along

Things at the house are moving along nicely. The shingles for the roof were delivered today. The plumber came back out to fix the broken line, add lines for the wet bar, and install the water heater. The rest of the siding went in, as did the second round of windows in the office and guest bedroom. And, Jay's new front door and hardware got installed. So he's a happy camper.

Crema Bordeaux

These words are music to my ears. What is Crema Bordeaux, you ask? Well, that just happens to be the color of OUR NEW GRANITE!!!!!! Yippee!!! This is one of the slabs that we're getting. This will be the main counter in the kitchen.


This just might be my favorite part of the new house, even more than the vaulted ceilings, new appliances, bigger pantry, french doors and expanded master walk-in closet. All I kept saying today was it's gorgeous, I love it... it's gorgeous, I love it. I almost cried.

Now, let me tell you the story about how we found this granite. About a month ago, right before Spring Break, our contractor told us that we really needed to start making some decisions about granite, tile, paint, lights, etc. So my thought was that a lot of these things were going to be dependent upon the granite, so we decided to start there. We got in the truck and literally drove up and down I-45 and stopped at every granite / tile place we saw. I would find a slab I liked, but Jay didn't like it. He would find something he liked, and I didn't like it. This went on for several hours, and was a bit frustrating.

Then, we came upon Crema Bordeaux, and we both heard angels singing. We both fell in love with it, and we knew that was the one. Of course, as you know, every piece / slab of granite is different, so now that we had found this one, we had to see if our contractor could find a piece that was a little less expensive. If not, I was going to bust out the Spanish and start wheeling and dealing with manager at the place where we found it! Luckily, I didn't have to do that. The guy that our contractor had planned to use to do the countertops in our house just happened to have two slabs at his shop (more on that in a sec), so we went out there today to take a look. And they were even MORE BEAUTIFUL than the piece we fell in love with.

So, we have our granite. Unfortunately, to do the kitchen, wet bar (yes, we're adding a wet bar in the dining room) and two bathrooms, we have to get two pieces, but I wasn't about to do part of the house in this and the other in something else. And, we can get the big countertop in the kitchen out of one slab, so there won't be a seam!

Ok, now to the story about the two slabs of granite. Apparently Joe (that's the granite / countertop guy's name) was working on a house in Shoreacres (that's where Jay's mom lives, about 10 miles up 146 from us, for those of you not from around here). The homeowners had fallen in love with this granite, like us, and had purchased a couple slabs. Well, with the way that the homeowners wanted Joe to do the cuts (totally against the grain), they needed a few more slabs. So, they ordered more, and ended up not using these two. But the homeowners were hanging on to them to make sure they didn't want them for anything else. Joe called us on Friday and said that he had the two slabs from the homeowners, and wanted to know when we could come look at them. The rest is history! Like I said, these two pieces are even more gorgeous than the first piece we saw, and I am so, so happy. I even got a sample so I can start finding tile, backsplash and paint. Wahoo!!!

Nothing else major really going on at the house. The roof was supposed to go up on Monday, but something happened with the materials getting delivered, so we're not sure when the roof is happening.

The electrical and mechanical passed city inspections. The plumber has to come out to do a couple more things (include fix a nick in the hot water line that one of the guys installing the electrical did), but as soon as that's complete, the walls can start going on! Although, I'm so used to just walking right through the studs to get from one room to another, I'm not sure we're going to know what to do when we actually have to walk around and through actual doors to get into a room. :)

And, speaking of doors, we now have all of the interior and exterior doors and hardware. I still have to get a few more lights and bath fixtures, but not too much more. The flooring, paint and tile for the floors, tub surround and kitchen backsplash are really the major things left.

Have a great rest of the weekend!!!