Margaritas must be involved for it to be a proper fiesta

Today was a far cry from the dreary, drizzly weather earlier in the week. We almost forgot what it was like to feel the sun. Kind of put me in the mood for a tamale and a margarita. Of course, the Mexican workers jamming out to their Hispanic music and taking care of our porches, rock fascia, and siding probably had something to do with my cravings. Three guys were working on the rock and three on the siding. The porches are dry, and the finishing touches (the acid stain and the etchings) will be done at the end of this whole project. 

Rockin' it out on the north side of the homestead.

Our garage with siding and roof, but notice how there's not a cloud in the sky.

Our almost-finished front porch.

And our almost-finished back porch, which will be a screen-in porch eventually.

We headed up there today before Noel went to work to actually meet up with two of my compadres, Angie and Jillian, who haven't seen the house since the land had been cleared. What a difference a few months make! (By the way, it was so wonderful to see you guys!) And who magically appeared while we were there? None other than Indy. And then my parents and the dog. I'm telling you it was a fiesta! Well, not really but we (well, really Noel because I had girl stuff to catch up on) did talk some business -- the front porch steps, gutters and soffits, and insulation.

The geothermal unit in the attic that heats the upstairs. It is suspended from the ceiling.

As is the tubing. It bears a striking resemblance to a big silver spider. Ahhh!

And our parting shot...our little Soxy pants who wonders where we spend all of our time on our days off. Well, little buddy, you'll soon see.

Who's been playing with the rainstick again? You're grounded!

Two blog posts in such a short time frame! What is this madness?! You can pretty much tell which days I get leave the drugs behind and rejoin the real world (if ever so briefly). These are the days I get to immerse myself in blogging fun. Gosh, that probably sounds really boring to everyone but me. 


Anyway, Noel picked a good day to work because this was truly a day for ducks. I met Indy down at the house site after he's spent a week recovering from the flu and food poisoning. Sounds miserable, doesn't it? Anyway, he's probably ten pounds lighter and good as new. He and I walked through the house and addressed a few issues such as lowering the ceiling in Noel's shower from 9' to 7', where to place the radiant flooring in the master bathroom (and whether to use radiant line with liquid concrete or a radiant floor mat), and insulation options for the house among other things. The insulation is an interesting issue. Indy has always used blown cellulose insulation; however, he has just acquired a foam machine (you know, for sprayed foam insulation) and wants to use our house as a guinea pig. Typically, foam is double the price of cellulose; however, Indy has proposed that if we let him play with this spray foam machine in our house he will price it very close to the price of cellulose. Foam in the walls yields and R-factor of 30 versus cellulose with an R-factor of 19. Huge difference! A combination of foam insulation, 2x6 walls, and the geothermal system would yield a minimal energy bill.


Fiber cement siding is beginning to appear on our garage, and we couldn't be happier. It looks great! I gave Indy three exterior color swatches for the house and discussed framing around the exterior windows. Seriously, would you really contemplate framing around exterior windows on any other day. It's kind of like planning a wedding. So many details, it can get ridiculous really. 

Our house is getting some clothes!

Our fiber cement siding is CertainTeed Weatherboard with a wood grain detail. It looks awesome! And it's green!!

Watson Metals out of Manchester showed up Monday to cut and form our roof. Evidently, the company appears on-site with a long roll of metal and a machine that forms and cuts the sheets to fit the house. So we have some metal that will one day be our roof, but we also have some crappy weather that isn't conducive to roofing a house. Rain, rain, go away...and don't come back as snow either, please.

A close-up of our heavy metal roof. Rock on!

And more of our roof.

The plumbing rough-in is complete. Many thanks to our plumber, David from Cloudy Suds (yes, that is the name of his business and is a parody on the last names of the two owners). Also, many thanks to Stroops out of Tullahoma for getting our upstairs geothermal heating/cooling unit installed today.

Our parting shot...many thanks, Daddy, for being so bored that you swept up all the construction debris in our house. Your retirement benefits everybody. Are you sure you want to go back to work?

I will not crack any plumber jokes (hee hee hee)

Neither snow nor frigid temperatures deterred David, our plumber, who bears a striking resemblance to Paul Bunyon minus Babe the Ox. He has been working every day this past week and weekend. (We really hope he's not charging by the hour.) However, David has flown solo on the majority of the rough plumbing work.  He should be getting close to wrapping it up. The bathrooms are done and so is the utility room. Because the kitchen sink will be in the island, little can be done to plumb the kitchen until the island is in place, which will be a month or two down the road. When Noel caught up with David on Saturday, he was working on the pipes under the house.

A man's shower is his oasis...and this is Noel's.

Dear Matt, Please enjoy our washer and dryer for the few more months that they are yours. I miss them. Love, Your Sis

Oh, my, how embarrassing! Our pipes are showing!

Let there be light! Finally, the electric company installed our transformer and with the help of a temporary line we have electricity. And the plumber is taking full advantage by jamming out to some awesome tunes on his radio as he works. The rough-in electrical work is finished. We passed the state electrical inspection. Jon, our electrician, will return a bit later to put on the finishing touches.

Got sunglasses?!

Just a slice of what is beneath our feet

Before the inclement weather, some of our siding, rock fascia, and the rest of our windows were delivered by Builders Supply; and we now have our bamboo stair treads and risers. I just really hope I'm not walking down stairs one day and trip over a panda bear whose pissed that we took some of his lunch. 

Our snow-topped rock fascia, cement mix, sand, and siding

This should stop the frigid breeze that is currently whipping through the house.

As for the aesthetic stuff, we are still waiting on the samples and diagrams from the cabinet maker. Also, I have been looking at sinks, faucets, and tiles for a kitchen backsplash. I'm sure we are way ahead of ourselves, but we like to have plenty of time to make decisions. And, good grief, there are so many decisions!


When we embarked on this journey, we were clueless as to the sequence of events of building a house. A buddy of Noel's, who in a former life worked in the building supply world, so kindly provided us with such a list. This list helped me (I'm reluctant to use the word 'us' because we all know Noel's not the A-type personality of this duo) know what to anticipate. Of course, every step of the way has been a learning experience. A short-summary of our year-long adventure:
2/2010  purchased land
Spring 2010 -- architect designed our home
Summer/Fall 2010 -- chose a contractor
June 2010 -- two years of wedded bliss
October 2010 -- logged land
November 2010 -- began clearing land
December 2010 -- foundation and framing
January 2010 -- rough-in electrical and plumbing, geothermal


We have made a point to talk to all of our subs. We ask questions, ask their opinions, and get answers. Sometimes it's easier to speak directly with the subs than to use our contractor as a liaison (even though that is his job). As I mentioned earlier, we get their phone numbers and give them ours. The subs encourage us to walk through the house and make sure everything is right. Overseeing the building of a house is a full time job, especially when your building the White House! (Ha! Ha! Now that's a knee slapper!)

A couple of parting shots: The view from the bonus room...not a street light or neighbor in sight.

Back door guests are the best! This muttly loves coming to visit.

Banking on the bank

In order begin drawing from our loan, we had a certain amount of money that we had to spend out of pocket. We've been keeping every receipt and documenting each amount (with the corresponding date of payment and recipient) in an Excel spreadsheet, so we know exactly where we stand financially. Well, we have spent the proper out-of-pocket amount. We'll take that loan now, please. However, early last week we received the bill from our electrician and dropped it off at the bank so they could issue him a check. A day later we get a call from our electrician saying the bank is refusing to pay him until a state inspection is done, which could be up to four weeks. This poor kid hasn't had an job in three weeks and to wait four more weeks for a check to pay himself and his workers is completely unacceptable. After numerous phone calls, faxes, and emails, Noel was able to authorize full payment, and the bank cut the electrician a check without waiting on the state inspection. Moral of the story: Find one credible banker and stick with him/her (there were too many hands in the cookie jar -- hands that couldn't handle cookies). Now we have a happy electrician who has completed the electrical rough-in work.


The ice and snow are gone for now. It's a good thing because that ice caused Indy to run into our electrical wire that anchors our electrical pole and caused Jon, our electrician, to run off the driveway entirely. Noel and I had more sense than to try to drive up that icy hill. But an ice-free hill equals workers at the house site! On Monday, Noel ventured up there to see the progress. The plumber had just begun. Jon and his guys were finishing up speaker wiring (which has Noel all googly-eyed looking at TVs and speakers at Electronic Express), and the geothermal guys had just completed the upstairs duct work.


We should be getting close to exterior siding time! If it will ever stop raining, that is. We have chosen three colors to try for the exterior. And, hopefully, at some point we will get a metal roof (something that was suppose to occur before Jack Frost showed up).

We're dreaming of a white January

We are assuming the snow has frozen any action at the house this week. Ha! We're sure the driveway has been a bit impassable but Noel is going to brave it today. Nevertheless, we had some excitement before the white stuff showed up -- our low-E exterior doors and windows. Because they are low-E, we get a tax credit! Being a tree-hugger does have it's perks! Well, we are still waiting on a few windows because four were sent with grills in them and two for the living room are being custom made. We couldn't be happier about our 8-ft front door. It and our patio door are absolutely beautiful.

Windows in the kitchen and the patio door.

I have no idea what those wires connect to.

Drum roll, please....our front door! You've got to take a leap to get in or out of this one.

Can lights in the living room and a transom window to let in a little light.

Our hearth. It's looks cozy but it's terribly cold in that house right now.

Top o' the garage.

Noel met with Joe, the geothermal dude, last Friday. Joe and Noel discussed locations of air returns, the geothermal wells, and the units under the house. As it turns out the pad that was poured under our house for the units may actually be too small. So now we have a place to store each other when Noel gets on my nerves or I get on his. On the bottom floor, the vents will be in the floor because the unit will be under the house (somewhere). On the top floor, the vents will be in the ceiling because the unit will be in the ceiling. 


And we are back to cabinets and countertops. We braved the flurries on Saturday to pick out granite at OHM in Nashville, a massive granite/marble/soapstone warehouse. If you can't find something you like there, then all hope is lost. Initially, we were not going to use granite; however, granite has become so comparable in price (but more durable) to solid surface and is cheaper than Silestone. The decision made itself. We have three samples of granite now. We have chosen a white-ish color for the bathrooms and part of the kitchen, and we have two darker choices for the other part of the kitchen. I am finalizing cabinets tomorrow. We hope!


And if we ever get out of this winter wonderland, we'll get a roof on this house of ours. We might even get Builders Supply to pick up some of this excess lumber so we can get a credit placed on our bill. 

A couple of parting shots: a shivering pair of almost homeowners

Got toilet?

Can we just build a boardroom if we're going to be having all these meetings?

I never thought that many people would fit up on the top of that hill of ours. Workers were crawling all over the place yesterday -- roofers, framers, electricians, the cabinetmaker, us, the contractor. If ever we had an inclination to live inside a drum, Wednesday obliterated that idea. The hammering...the sawing. But we are well on our way to a new homestead. 


On Tuesday, Indy, Noel and I met with John (the electrician) to talk lights, televisions, speakers, outlets for my hairdryer. It was smooth and uneventful. We then met up with David our materials-man, who so far has been responsible for ordering doors, windows, lumber (and the one who's responsible for those big bills we keep getting -- no more, please), and took measurements for the rock fascia that will make our home so PRETTY! Oh, our day was only getting started. We stopped by the paint store to collect more swatches for exterior colors, which we've narrowed down to about five. Since Indy doubles as our painter/trim-guy extraordinaire, we get to pick a few sample colors for him to paint on the house then we choose a color once we have actually seen it on a small area of the house. Then, because Indy crushed our souls with another bill, we swung by the bank to collect some dough. Show me the money!

Noel on the phone with Jessica, our other banker...this could explain why he has that "Oops, I crapped my pants" look.

(Please tell me you all remember that classic SNL skit.)

Wednesday morning we were back at the homestead meeting with Indy and Henry, the cabinet maker. We have appointments with the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker next week. Noel and I have discussed cabinets at length during this process and have a really good idea of what we want. However, the shape of the kitchen island had been giving us a fit. The three stooges and myself put our brains together to come up with a workable design. We're going for functionality, people. The bathrooms and the utility room were quite a bit easier. Now picking out the types of cabinets...whole new can of worms. Noel worked that afternoon so I spent a hour with the cabinet lady discussing wood types, stains, glazes, design, layout, colors, countertops. Good Lord! Did you know there were that many different types of wood? You got your pine, your hickory, your cherry, your walnut, maple, alder, poplar. And did you know there were scandalous types, too?...yeah, you got naughty pine and naughty cherry! We aren't quite finished with cabinet/countertop decision but are almost there. We have a date with some countertops in Nashvegas on Saturday. Noel can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday.


And let's hear it for some eco-friendly geothermal heat! We'll have some wells and units within a week or two. Noel is meeting with the geothermal company tomorrow to make sure that we're not sweating this summer or shivering next winter. You're welcome Mother Nature.


In the midst of all this decision-making, Keith and his men have given life to our garage. Oh, our cars will be so happy. By the way, remember Keith's checklist on the side of a 2x4? Well, instead of shrinking, it grew ever so slightly. When you build, you see little things here and there that need to be changed. We lowered a window, extended a wall, created a cut-out. We also have the beginnings of a hearth, and the doors and windows should be placed (according to Keith) by the end of this week. Get that Windex ready!

A home for our wheels

Noel and Indy discussing important garage stuff, I'm sure...while I take pictures.

A parting shot of the ever-growing checklist...