January 31, 2012

Bet you didn't know we were siding the house in blue?? Neither did we!

Unfortunately the white siding and white trim (and white snow!) aren't meshing. There will be painting to come once spring appears. Bummer.

TA DA! Believe it or not, the floors are being installed.

Check out the ceiling as well. We're loving the details as they SLOWLY come together.

Another kitchen/dining room shot.

Two additional doors that were once windows have been bricked in - this one and one upstairs.

Child labor - the girls working on installing the floor... Danger, huh?

Looking from the front hall into the kitchen and dining rooms.

The central work station and pile of wood for the ceilings. The whole first floor will have wood.

The second newly bricked window-turned-door.

There has been a lot of thought and planning put into the nosing and trim details for the two curved stair wells. It's starting to come together here...

Kitchen stairwell.

Front foyer stair well.

Front foyer again.

Unpacking the chandelier from Currey & Company. We had to get it out of the family room in order to move on to the floor and ceilings.

The girls check the chandelier out where it will safely hide in my studio until it gets hung.

On to fireplaces... The master bedroom has been started.

And the family room fireplace is complete!

A shot from a few days earlier.

We used Castle Rock stone in Buff/Grey Chilton from Madison Block and Stone. I love it!

So that's where we stand on the last day of January. More flooring and siding has gone in. The bathroom floors will begin soon - our 600 lb pedestal tub arrives Thursday... yikes!! We're still taking it one-day-at-a-time but it's finally starting to feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Bring on February!

October 6, 2011

Another week is flying by!

The long punch list of miscellaneous things that need to be dealt with

and fixed is slowly being whittled away...

The bedroom chimney is complete.

The great room chimney is complete as well!


We love how it turned out.


The girls enjoyed the sawdust piles in the kitchen and dining room, pretending it was sand.
Note: I wouldn't recommend tights for saw dust play.


The master bedroom fireplace is framed in.

There will be a matching Cream City brick surround topped with a cabinet door hiding the TV.

The upstairs hallway and sitting area present some challenges in the ceiling lines.
Good luck to the drywall crew!


The front stairwell as seen from the upstairs hall.

Another angle showing the somewhat chaotic ceiling. We love the "quirk" it provides.

The loft area above the girls rooms.

Sophie, Carey and Elle climbed on up to check out the view.

As we fully embrace autumn we hope to plow through the list of "to do" while the weather holds. It's so hard to believe that winter is near... Fingers crossed that we can move in before the first arctic blast!!

September 27, 2011

When Carey called and told me there were LOTS Of cars on site today I had to check it out for myself... NO LIE! What a miracle! Lots of inside details in the framing work are being put to bed.

Our beams have been patiently waiting to be set in place so when I pulled up to see them CUT I could hardly wait to see them INSIDE the house....

YEAH! Just as I had pictured, the beams were set over the door ways into the great room. In previous posts there were aches there but I really wanted to add more texture and a bit of a rustic flair. I'm beyond thrilled! (I think Carey is too :) ha!)

A shot looking from in the great room back through the small hall (the powder room is to the right) and through to the kitchen door into the old stone house. The passage way into the kitchen will be an arch in brick.

So sad this came out blurry but here is my Carey and contractor Cary holding up the fireplace mantle in the great room. Love it!

Another shot... making sure it's all good.

Carey has been so hard at work on the project and I'm pleased to boast that he is expertly skilled in the building field. He was VERY essential today, answering all the detail questions and helping to figure out how to finish things up. There are no blue print plans on a job like this. You might even say we're making it up as we go. Even though it has been extremely stressful, I think it will ultimately be VERY clear that this house is a major labor of love. XOXOs go out to my MAN for getting it done. Love you, Carey!!

September 25, 2011

WOW. It's been awhile... to say the least! After a disastrous situation and relationship with our original builder we went through many months of "re-organization" and have FINALLY started to build again.

This summer the road in front of our house was made wider and re-paved - you can see it here almost ready to be finished.

Our new builder is Chris from Revival Homes. We had spoken with him about the project years ago and he was happy to come on board and help us with our dilemma. Lots of work has been done inside including HVAC and plumbing. Our two stairways did not meet code and had to be re-done. There was a torturous amount of work to be torn out and redone. PAINFUL in so many ways!

Last week our front porch was poured and stamped. We look forward to the cement aging with time and taking on a darker patina.

The front door and garage were also poured.

This week the two chimneys are the "big news" - don't they look great!? This is the master bedroom chimney.

They are being built with reclaimed Cream City brick which we will also use on the two sided kitchen/dining room fireplace.

We love how tall and old fashioned they are turning out.

The back of the house.

Some of the internal fun. You can see the wall of the old house basement here butting up to the new one. Carey is working hard this weekend on cleaning up all the dirt!

Plumbing.

This is the upstairs landing where we will have two walls of built in bookcases and a sitting area with a tv for the girls. We decided to add a sky light which will go in soon.

So that's a short and sweet wrap up of where we are today. So many things have happened along the way proving this project to be something along the lines of "opening a can of worms." What woudl life be without excitement, right?!? We have our fingers crossed that we'll be in before Christmas and the Wisconsin winter arctic freeze. I hope to update the site the blog on a regular basis with lots of progress so stay tuned. Cheers!