EllweinHouse

Grass update

2011-08-07T17:09:00.015-06:00

My dad has been pestering me for this for a while, so after mowing and weeding for several hours this afternoon, I finally got around to snapping some photos of the lawn which are up to date. Above is a view from the back, which as you can see is not as full as the front, and has areas with weed problems.

below are some of the better spots

Unfortunately, not everything has come up this good. There are some areas where I am having troubles getting the grass to really take

First cut

2011-06-17T16:03:00.002-06:00

After a long and stressful week at work, I left early today and came home to cut my lawn for the first time. It's not the US open, but its pretty good for an amateur and only a month in.

work day

2011-06-04T22:01:00.010-06:00

The weather has been rainy for the whole week, and today was the first warm and sunny day that we've had. So today I spread some fertilizer on the yard, pulled up the last on the burlap and ran the roller over the whole yard one last time. Below are some before and after pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Before

After

growing grass

2011-05-26T20:13:00.005-06:00

I had intended to chronicle all the effort into bringing in 75 yards of topsoil, leveling it out, and preparing it for grass seed etc. But i never got around to it. Instead, here are some pictures of the progression of the land.

before topsoil

The first seedling -- one week after planting

A view from today -- one week afer the first seedling popped up

End of rock farming

2011-05-06T21:33:00.005-06:00

My yard raking days are nearly over. Today the guys from Hamlin construction came by and hauled away my collection and took it over to a job site a few houses down. Their help, and bobcat, are greatly appreciated. Here are the before and after photos.

Curby

2010-10-04T22:08:00.007-06:00

The girls absolutely loved the 2.5 tons of sand that was delivered, must have been like Christmas for them. I must say that I do have an excellent group of friends! This last weekend we laid down curbing around the house and created a tree ring in the front. This required almost 30 hours of preparation time by me mostly consisting of try to level and compact the ground where the curbing would go, and only 5 hours to install all the curbing and clean up all of the equipment. As with most home improvement projects it seems as though the prep work is both the hardest and the most important. Now to the part that you really want to see, the pictures!

It is finished!

2010-09-19T18:00:00.001-06:00

And now I can say that I've installed a sprinkler system. Finished all the electrical and some miscellaneous drip work. It feels so good to be finished.

Testing complete

2010-09-18T21:31:00.001-06:00

Today I got all of the pipes flushed out and all of the nozzles and heads in place and roughly set for their zones. I must admin despite the cold it was fun being sprayed by the sprinklers as I ran around the hard to and from the valve box. Now all that remains is a little bit of prep work on the drip lines and wiring.

MUD glorious MUD

2010-09-16T20:13:00.001-06:00

I have made mud! There was just enough daylight for me to flush and set both of the spray zones with complete success. Tomorrow weather permitting I should be able to test the other 9 zones and prepare for wiring on Saturday. So exciting!

Day 11

2010-09-15T22:11:00.001-06:00

I can see the finish line now. Only 6 more sprinklers to install and then wiring and testing. Might get my normal life back by Sunday night!

Captain Irony

2010-09-08T23:00:00.002-06:00

Last two nights have been successful for installation. Several sprinklers in the ground each night and visible progress is being made. Tonight it rained, so I'm thinking that perhaps I don't need this after all :)

Day 3

2010-09-06T21:50:00.002-06:00

No pictures today and darkness fell before I had a chance. Today I pressurized the valve box, tightened it up, and then managed to get the east boulevard installed and hooked together underneath the sidewalk. With the boxes finally finished up, progress should be steady in the evenings if the weather can manage to stay above 60 degrees.

Day 2

2010-09-05T21:51:00.002-06:00

Today was another end-of-fall weather day. Windy, and probably not much over 60 degrees at any point in the day. What happened to the summer? Nevertheless, work continued. Today the valve boxes were completed, though I ran out of daylight before pressure testing them. All of the copper pipe is assembled for the connection and nearly completely tested.

Irrigation day 1

2010-09-05T21:46:00.003-06:00

Well, the first day went very well. We got nearly all of the Pipe in the ground, and even a few of the spray heads. Special thanks to Clint (not pictured), Andrew, David, and my father in law Steve for helping out. Also, here is the pipe plan to provide some idea of what we did. We pulled all the pipe in about 3 hours with the pipe puller.

Irrigation Extravaganza!

2010-09-03T21:31:00.003-06:00

And so it begins. After an entire summer of procrastinating, raking, planning, contemplating, and generally fussing way too much about it, I'm going to start putting in the sprinklers tomorrow. Here is the necessary before pictures of the back and front.

Tis the season

2009-12-06T21:47:00.003-07:00

The mercury reads below zero, so it seems like a good time to hang up some lights.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T17:56:00.001-07:00

We are thankful for friends and family!

Moved OUT

2009-11-23T14:21:00.002-07:00

People keep asking me if we've moved into the new house yet. I think that moving in is going to take weeks, even months (and that if you don't include basement finishing and other miscellaneous construction projects.

The truth is that we have finally moved OUT of our old apartment. I packed up the last box at 1AM this morning.

wifi for everyone!

2009-11-20T23:17:00.001-07:00

So, I thought that we would be off the grid for a few days until our internet service is transferred over. I turned on my laptop and there are currently 20 wireless networks visible from my bedroom! A handful are even open.

Closed!

2009-11-20T11:43:00.002-07:00

I just got back from the closing. So, the house is now finally ours (well 95% the bank's). Feels so good to be moving in and having everything finished up with. I can honestly say that we've had a good experience with Hamlin construction and would recommend them to our friends.

Appraisal

2009-11-12T13:58:00.002-07:00

We just got a copy of the appraisal, and the house appraised at a little over the agreed purchase price after all credits and change orders. All signs point are go for closing. Now we wait for the results from the underwriting before we can set a firm closing date. Still hoping to close on or before Nov 20!

Inspections

2009-11-09T20:55:00.002-07:00

Several city inspectors were in today and most of the finishing touches are now in place. Still remaining is the installation of the garage door opener and the last bit of sidewalk to be poured tomorrow.

almost done!

2009-11-06T16:48:00.003-07:00

I haven't updated with any pictures in a while, so here is a teaser from the master bathroom. They poured our driveway / sidewalk today and will have the inspector come on Monday which will mark the finish of construction!

Countertops

2009-11-01T18:44:00.003-07:00

Here are some pictures of the countertops which were installed on Friday.

cabinets

2009-10-28T20:54:00.004-06:00

The cabinets are now installed!

mass installation

2009-10-28T20:50:00.003-06:00

and Pat said, "Let them have lights." And there were lights, and it was good!

In this picture, you can see the bar lights and the chandelier above the stairs. Most of the doors and frames were installed today.

floors

2009-10-26T16:24:00.002-06:00

Today, the floors for the entry, baths, and kitchen/dining were installed! Attached in the dining area.

Painting

2009-10-26T10:27:00.005-06:00

We got had an opportunity to get into the house this past weekend and do some wall painting. I think that we spent more time taping than painting, but we're really happy with the results.

Locking up for the night

2009-10-10T08:36:00.003-06:00

Melissa was able to lock the door to the house for the first time on Friday!

rock'n

2009-10-10T08:32:00.003-06:00

They began hanging the sheetrock on Friday. The spaces feel even more real now that there is a clear definition. Here you can see the kitchen/dining area (bottom) and the kitchen (top).

Siding

2009-10-06T19:22:00.003-06:00

There were installing the siding this past weekend! Here is a picture from sunday afternoon. Tomorrow we expect that the insulation will begin to be installed.

looking up

2009-10-06T19:19:00.004-06:00

Was digging through the memory card on the camera and found this fun picture from when the trusses were going up. This picture is from the master bedroom looking east toward the living area.

Locked in

2009-10-02T14:41:00.002-06:00

I locked in our interest rate for the mortgage today. It is very comforting to have that taken care of and to no longer need to worry about how the market may affect rates. When the construction was just starting, rates were more than 1/2% higher, so I'm feeling lucky that the timing for this has worked out.

Lov'n the view

2009-09-28T20:50:00.002-06:00

Mount Helena, as seen from where the back patio will be.

Kitchen Dinning

2009-09-28T20:46:00.003-06:00

Here is the framing for the kitchen and dining room. On the left side above the staircutout is the pantry. Just to the right of the picture is the sliding glass door. This picture faces East, so there is lots of natural light in the living area!

Master Suite

2009-09-28T20:40:00.003-06:00

Here is the framing for the master suite with the closet and bathroom in the background

Wrapped

2009-09-28T20:35:00.003-06:00

Here are some up-to-date pictures of the back and front of the house. The front door is not installed because door that was received was not the correct door which was orderred, so a new one is on the way.

Framing completed!

2009-09-28T19:24:00.002-06:00

Today, we had our electrical walkthrough with the project manager. The framing and roof are nearly completed and some interior work has begun. I'll post some more pictures later on tonight.

back to work

2009-09-14T20:13:00.004-06:00

The framing crew started on the house today! The schedule says that they are suppose to be finished in 8 days. This is obviously very exciting as the project is dynamic and will be going up very fast.

Today they finished the wall for the basement. The view is very exciting, you can tell how the stairs are going to be wider than normal, and the basement bedrooms for the girls are very large!

virtual kitchen

2009-09-06T13:50:00.002-06:00

Here is a rendering of the final design for the kitchen of the house. Not shown is that of the wall next to the fridge is a large corner pantry unit. Yeah, more food!

Delays...

2009-08-29T23:03:00.003-06:00

on Friday I spoke with Pat, the project manager, who informed me that the current schedule date for the final inspection has been pushed back to Nov 11th. This is from our original closing date of October 23rd. Frustrating as that is, there was no work done on the house last week although apparently some items (windows / doors) were ordered from suppliers. We're told that work will begin anew on Monday (8/31). *sigh*

Basement walls

2009-08-21T21:51:00.002-06:00

This week they completed pouring the walls for the basment. It feels really big to be down there, which is exciting and a little scairy all at the same time.

its punny

2009-08-11T21:50:00.003-06:00

So, even though in a little over a week no work has been done. At least they managed to make a drop-off at the site. We were told today that they would begin to pour the foundation by Friday of this week.

Thanks Amber for the title!

A hard day's work

2009-07-30T22:12:00.003-06:00

Its been a long time coming, but its finally starting to feel real! One day in and the hole is almost completely dug. Its really amazing what a good job those kids did!

Construction crew

2009-07-30T22:07:00.003-06:00

Our construction crew is hard at work. Here is the official groundbreaking!

Painted Earth

2009-07-29T09:56:00.003-06:00

Real work began today as we went out with Pat, the construction manager, to stake out the property and paint the lines for digging! We should have a nice hole in the ground within a few days.

Updates

2009-07-05T09:24:00.002-06:00

We completed the pre-construction meeting on Wednesday of this week. Among the typical decisions made at this meeting are items like texturing for walls, exterior colors, trim, roofing, etc. This went pretty well, but there are a few items still up in the air.

To summarize:

exterior color -- red
trim color -- almond
roof -- architectural shingles (a darker brown color with red and tan hints)
texture -- medium depth texturing (the newer style, looks a little like plaster)

We have also added a small window to the garage and expanded the layout of the basement bathroom for the girls as they grow up.

Details and Washer/Dryer Dilema

2009-06-09T14:46:00.007-06:00

Here are a few details originally left out. Top pics are of the hills seen from the Master and north and south windows. Each level of the house is 1406 sq ft. The address is 361 Northgate Loop. If you look at Google maps you will just see a blank piece of land. The land is in between two completed houses on a 16,000 sq ft lot in the city. We are a block away from the golf course and a great elementary school. The main level is the major living space where the basement will be finished in the future. Right now we are thinking about paint colors, trim and cabinet colors, and were we will place our furniture. Melissa is worried about not having a washer and dryer on the main level and whether or not there should be a window in the kitchen at the end of the bar instead of cabinetry. Thus removing the window from the dining area. Let me know what you think about these concerns. We could put the w/d in the master bedroom closet???

Its official!!

2009-06-06T21:05:00.002-06:00

We signed the initial buy/sell this afternoon and wrote out a check for earnest money. The project is now past the conceptual stage and into motion! Closing date is "on or before" October 23rd.

2009-06-05T20:37:00.001-06:00

Here is a nice 3D picture of the main floor which more or less matches the floor plan from the previous post.

2009-06-05T20:35:00.004-06:00

Here are the main floor and basement floor plans which provide the basis for the official architectural drawings.

Plans are set

2009-06-05T20:29:00.002-06:00

We have now agreed, verbally, to enter into a contract with Hamlin construction regarding the construction of a new house! Our financing has already be pre-approved for the final sale, so we'll be able to sign the papers as soon as we're ready.