Christmas Update

Merry Christmas!!!

It's Christmas Eve, and I'm waiting for the kids to get sleepy, so I'll update a bit.  The brick layers started on the far wall of the house and it is looking fabulous. The roof is on.  The electrical boxes are going in.  The upstairs 3rd floor bonus room is framed up as well as the new stairwell.  Yay!  Most of the windows are in, except Ramsi Kate's picture window and the back big window in the master bedroom.   They were ordered the wrong size and have been reordered.   Here's a few updated pics!

Ramsi Kate's little tub

Here's the roof!

The doors to the back porch off of the great room

These are the dining room windows

The keeping room windows and doors

Brick!!!!!!!!!

Kaleb and Chandler in the 3rd floor bonus room

New stairs leading to 3rd floor

Here's the 3rd floor bonus room...  It will be a game/TV room for the kiddos.

To you and yours....

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November was full of rain, storms, and slow work

The roof and trim being finished so that it can be shingled.   There's also plumbing going in.

This is the space above Ty's room/bathroom that will become the 3rd floor bonus room!

Standing in our bedroom, where the ceiling will remain vaulted, looking up into the attic. That door up there is in Ty's closet, which will be the attic access.

Our first window is in! That's the upper window in the great room.

Yay for plumbing! That's upstairs plumping going in.

Laundry room plumbing

tubs and windows to go in stashed under garage. The dormer above is Kaleb's big window

Front...almost ready to roof

back of house... with the great room window in, and Chandler's window in

Here, you can see the first floor dining room, the second floor Ty's room, and the bonus room area for the 3rd floor

This is Kaleb's room. It has the oddest shaped ceiling, but it is going to be so cool when it's done.

This is the area that was supposed to be a small attic space. It will now be a walk through closet that joins Kaleb's room to Chandler's bathroom.

The 3rd floor bonus room will be right there where the peak is. I am on a ladder in the stairwell where the stairs will come up.

You can't see them in the picture, but I was trying to get a picture of the deer in the yard behind the house. lol

Ty's view from his bedroom window. He's got the best view in the entire house.

We are adding a third floor!

Well, I haven't blogged in a while, because I felt like nothing really was happening.  But now that I look at the last time I blogged, a lot has happened!!   The boys rooms are finished framing, and the room is done being framed also.   (Actually, the roofers have it half shingled now, but I don't have any pictures yet, so that will be my next blog.) 

Our loan officer told us from the beginning that if there were better ways to utilize space once the house started getting framed in, to take advantage of them. So far, we've enlarged Ty's closet, and we've make a walk-through shared closed between Kaleb's room and Chandler's bathroom that would have been a small attic space. We still have three "attic" areas, over RK's bedroom and our bathroom/closet area and the areas beside Chandler's room and Kaleb's room. Well, the roof is now being put on, and there is a HUGE space above the boys' bedrooms that we would just be closing up and losing access to. We really don't need more attic space, and we talked with the builders about extending the staircase and framing in a bonus room up there, and they said, "We were wondering when you were going to ask about that!" lol So the staircase will just go up one more floor, and the boys will have a nice 17x20 room to hang out in. I'm going to put the Wii up there, their guitars and drum set, and a futon for extra sleeping room for guests. We already have the left over materials lying around, so for just the cost of the extra labor to install the stairs and frame it up, we'll be adding about $15K +/- to the total worth of the home.

Here's pics:

Roof taking shape and fireplaces going in

The roof is being framed up, and I am starting to see what the house is going to really look like on the outside!   The bricks are in and the fireplaces are going up.  The one in the keeping room is finished and the great room fireplace should be started this week.

I love the little decorative kick out in the brick at the top.  :)

From the garage side.... Kaleb's room in front, Chandler's room in back.   That's Chandler's bathroom window in that side gable.

Keeping room fireplace.   There will be built in cabinets on either side... with windows above them.

From the front of the house

Sometimes, I am just still in shock that this is really happening.  We will soon be in our dream home!!!   Thank God for all our blessings, and thank my dear sweet husband for providing for us!

The boys' upstairs retreat is almost complete!

Whew!   Been a while since I updated, but the upstairs rooms are getting worked on!   Ty's room is completely framed up, and his adjoining bathroom with Kaleb is completed.  Chandler's room is framed, but the bathroom isn't complete yet.  The hall areas are done, and Kaleb's room was started on today.  Here's some pictures:

Here is the stairwell.  It comes off into the kitchen/great room area and has a large "under the stairwell" closet behind it.  There was supposed to be only a railing between the first and second flights of stairs, but I had them do an entire wall.  The house plan is so open that there is relatively no place to hang family portraits, so the walls in the staircase are going to be covered with them!

This is upstairs where the balcony will be.  I am standing in the great room.

Entrance to Chandler's room

Chandler's entrance to his bathroom.

Now I am standing on the balcony looking down into the great room.

This is Ty's bedroom.  He is the only person in the house who gets the awesome pond view!  He has three windows.   Two in his bedroom and one in his bathroom vanity area.

Ty's closet.   The entrance to the largest part of the attic is in Ty's closet.  Ty already had a walk in, but I asked the builders if they could use as much space as possible so that we could have a full size door to the attic area.   Umm... now Ty's closet is about 10ft x 10ft.   lol   Well, I really did need a place to store that drum set!

Kaleb and Ty share a bathroom, and it is similar to a Jack and Jill, but a tad different.  Each boy has his own en suite vanity area and private sink.  As a matter of fact, there are six bathroom sinks in this house.  Now no one can blame toothpaste on anyone else.   If it's in your sink, it's YOURS!!!   lol  The shared toilet/tub area is in the middle of the two vanity areas, but they aren't straight like a Jack/Jill.   In other words, you cannot see from one boys' room into the other.

Kaleb's room has a side dormer type area off of it.   The window there is going to be gorgeous!

I added an upstairs laundry to this plan.  Our current washer and dryer are full size stackable and they will be moved to this closet area off of Kaleb's room upstairs.   Yay for no toting clothes back and forth from downstairs!  Kaleb's closet was able to be pushed into the attic space up there.   There are attic entrances from inside Ty's closet, inside Chandler's closet, and all around the perimeter of Kaleb's room will be attic space with an entrance door inside his room.

And... from the front with the upstairs started.   It's coming together nicely!