April showers continue to put a damper on things, but there were a few nice days last week and our weekend trip to the house showed that they have continued to make progress.  Unfortunately it was much much colder and windier than the previous weekend, so we did not linger for too long.

They have started on the second floor! And although they have built the framework for the stairs - both to the second and basement floors - without the builder there I wasn't willing to explore too much in case it wasn't safe (especially because all the kids wanted to do was climb them!).  It is especially nice to start having a real visual of what the house will be.

Front of the house

Another front shot - Jacob's room will be the front bedroom there to the right of the bay window

North elevation

Back - this will be the garage

Interior looking at the back door and the bay windows in the living room (these were not all cut last time)

Yay! Stairs!

Peeking into the 2nd floor

Another peek - this will be the laundry room

Front bay window

I *think* this was looking down the 2nd floor hallway

Random tape roll

This will be our walk-in closet!

Another shot of the master walk-in above the garage & mudroom

I'm going to sound a little repetitive every time I post how exciting it is to see progress on the house.
But, in actuality, this time is was the most fun we've had to-date because we could actually walk through some areas and start to get a real feel for what it is going to be.  The actual footprint of the house is fairly comparable to our current house - the major differences being a finished basement will finally give us some sense of breathing room, and the layout is more thoughtful for what works best for us.  The best feature?  Lots and lots of south-facing windows!  The amount of natural light that will come in is what I'm really looking foward to.

Lots of pictures to show - but what I really hope to do is reference these pictures 5-10 years from now and compare them against the kids growing up.  :')


The front door & yard



(north side) Left Side



Back entrance from garage



The kids walk up the "driveway"

Garage and back of the house



Lots of support beams!



Steel support beam will be between the kitchen and dining area

Fireplace and windows

Looking north: large window is the dining area

Front door

Stairwell

In the "kitchen" pretending to cook!

Bay windows and back door

Walk-in pantry!

Fireplace from outside

Basement pictures:

Bathroom

Door to guest bedroom

Window and bar area

This was a busy weekend for us, and the first of probably several future trips to start looking at options for the house.  Our assignment this weekend was to join our builder's wife for a trip to look at cabinets and granite, just to start getting an idea for what we want.  This place was so far north of the city for us, I don't think we hope to do too many of those.
It was my first time looking at a place that sells slabs of granite and stone, and it was really interesting for us.  And although I have "ideas" in my head for what I think I'm looking for, when it comes time to actually put it all together, I realize that I'm completely nervous about committing to it!

This was beautiful quartzite-so much like marble! But just my luck, of course it's the most expensive (and already sold)

I was looking for a black - this is a honed absolute black.  I liked it until it showed fingerprints immediately and then it kind of looked like a chalkboard.  Probably too high-maintenance.

This piece was definitely not for me, but I thought it was so unusual, and kind of reminded me of a tiger. :)

Hard to see (except for Mady's reflection!), but I think the kind we may go with is this style (not this piece exactly) - called Milky Way.  It's a black with some white "veining" the way a marble does.

They started framing the house this week!  The kids and I visited on Saturday.  It looks like they have the basement framed out and concrete for the garage poured.  It was so incredibly windy out that we didn't stay for long, just long enough to explore what is new...

Front porch area

Stairs to the basement will be here

The window area for "mima's" (guest) room

Garage

It was really really windy!