Click here to see the early March update – House Progress: Early March
Early March saw the installation of so many finishes in the house that each time we visited it made us more and more excited (and, for me, a little more impatient for our big moving day!) to see what would change next. Late March did not disappoint and, by the time the month was over, it was hard to believe we would be waiting just three weeks to be able to move in.
Third Week of March
Exterior
I have to apologize for the quality of this photo, but I snapped it through my windshield on the 16th of March. I didn’t want to get out of the car because they were working on the house, but I had to get a photo because I knew it was my only chance to get a pic of the siding midway finished. And I was right because when I visited the next day, the siding was totally finished.
If you remember from my exterior moodboard post, we didn’t do a brick wrap upgrade (which is something I go back and forth on regretting) so that meant the sides and back of our home are all siding.
You’ll also notice that day they frame up the front porch. The porch was the main reason we chose this particular exterior for our floor plan so finally seeing it – if only framed out – was so exciting!
Here’s a view of the house by the end of the week when things were a little more cleaned up, and you can see they finished trimming out where the gutters are.
Interior
Really, the exterior work was the major change for this week. But, our hardwood flooring did arrive and so did the porch lights. So I snapped some photos of the boxes, but that’s really I’ve got to share for this week.
Fourth Week of March
Exterior
The last week of March saw all of the main construction work on the outside of the home totally finished, which meant all that was left was exterior painting (front door, garage doors and all the trim). When I visited on the first part of the week, I saw the rough in for the three porch lights had been run.
And when I went back at the end of the week, the porch was basically finished except for painting. Plus the last of the concrete had been poured – steps and the walkway out front, and a 16×14 pad leading from the walkout in the basement.
By the way, if you’re wondering why there are no shots from the backyard to give a different view of the house, it’s because for the bulk of this construction, our backyard was basically a mud pit. I did attempt once to get some shots, but it resulted in this so I gave up –
Anyway…
Interior
Back on the 22nd of March (a Saturday) was when we bought our fridge and family room couch and chairs. Before we pulled the trigger on a fridge, we stopped by the house to measure our fridge space. We were surprised to find a crew working on installing the hardwood floors so we knew we had to go back the next day to see what they’d done. So, on the 23rd we popped back in and they actually had the flooring entirely finished but it was covered with cardboard to protect it so we only got a few shots. But you can only imagine our excitement at this little preview –
You’ll also notice all the quarter round molding (I finally remembered the name of it!) was installed so everything was just looking so finished in terms of the walls and flooring at this point.
Also looking so finished? The kitchen –
Our appliances showed up!! They had actually been sitting in boxes in the garage for weeks, but I guess with the floor down they were finally able to be brought in. You might also have noticed our kitchen sink faucet was installed.
In the bottom photo, the cabinet to the right of the stove was damaged somehow, at some point. Actually, it was only the hinge of the cabinet. That has since been fixed, but I wanted to point it out only to say that little things like that are expected to happen during the construction process. There were chunks missing from walls at some points, scratches on the cultured marble top in the hall bathroom (it has since been buffed out), a broken window… things happen when your house is still a construction site.
Also looking more finished was the powder room. It was waiting on its faucet and toilet and both of those were installed after the flooring was laid down.
All of the closet organizers were installed this week, too. The coat closet is directly across from the powder room, and adjacent to the garage door. The pantry is right off the kitchen, next to the powder room.
I have to say I have never had an actual pantry before and I am so excited about it. I’m not sure it will even be half way filled at any given time, but just knowing we’ve got that storage is so great. Our old house had three closets, that’s it. Two were in the bedroom and the third was in the basement. There was technically a fourth closet, in Ezra’s old room, but it was cut in half by being over the stairs so it wasn’t really functional as a closet. In this new house we have two closets on the main level for stuff and I am so excited about it!
Upstairs, the washer pan was installed in the laundry room. This was not a standard option, so we paid to add this on and I’m so glad we did. We have a front loading washing machine, which means sometimes I have to undo this plug to drain the stinky water out of the washer and now I can let it drain directly into this pan rather than having to soak it up in a towel or something. Plus, should the washer ever overflow, it won’t overflow into the laundry room.
The shower enclosure was installed – Ezra and Aslan both approve. There were two options for the enclosure – privacy glass, or clear. Initially, we wanted clear glass. We thought we had removed the window that’s above the garden tub when we were initially making our selections when we signed our contract. However, what we actually removed was the window in the downstairs powder room (which I still kick myself for removing). We found this out at the Design Center when we had to make the choice about the shower enclosure and so that’s why we went with privacy glass because we figured better safe than sorry with a huge window right across from the shower (and we do plan on covering that window, FYI!).
The closet organizers were also installed in all of the upstairs closets. This is the linen closet in the master bathroom. There is another linen closet upstairs, right outside the hall bathroom.
Here’s a view of the master closet. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – this room is so hard to photograph. But this gives you an idea of the closet organizers that were installed.
There are three other bedrooms upstairs, and all of them have walk in closets of varying sizes. This is probably the best closet of all the three bedrooms because it has a window in it!
And that’s how March ended! Still left on the list was –
- Doorknobs
- Carpeting upstairs
- Register vents
- Lights on the porch to be installed
- Exterior trim and door painting
- Painting touch ups on the inside
Not much at all! We ended the month so anticipating the next few weeks. We got official confirmation on a tighter closing window, and eventually April 23rd emerged as our official close date. Our homeowner orientation (the final walk through with the builder) was scheduled for April 16th and we were cleared to go ahead and schedule an independence inspection, which we setup for April 9th. Our loan was approved and the appraisal got put on the books. Everything started taking shape at the end of March and as I write this, on April 14th, we’re just a week and a few days away from closing. Unbelievable!
[…] Update – Click here to see the late March update, House Progress: Late March […]