day 14

The excavator was out this morning doing a little more grading but otherwise not much has changed since the weekend.  The exciting news is that we're told they'll be out tomorrow to start framing.  It's been an unseasonably warm week up here, so I'm sure the crew is looking to take advantage of the nice weather.  I'm not sure if it's the still recovering economy, the time of year or just luck, but I'm amazed at how quickly this is going.  Outside of the waiting period for the foundation to cure, there has been progress every day.

However, since today's progress wasn't very visual (I think even I have reached my max of dirt and concrete photos), I thought I'd share the exterior house plans.  Since these were printed, we did decide to remove the bottom window grids.  And I'm still debating whether or not I'd like to add a railing between the front porch posts.  That might be something we do later.

[Front Elevation - north]

That center stone wall was one of many issues we went back and forth with the Developer on.  The ACC covenants have a 65% masonry requirement, but several houses in the subdivision don't meet that.  Despite my best negotiating efforts (as well as our Builder's and Realtor's), we finally gave in and added stone to the roof line.  With the right landscaping (hi, Dad!), I'm hoping it will be a nice accent wall, rather than a weird connector between house and garage.  Our kitchen sink is below the window and I think it might be fun to add a window box, possibly filled with herbs.

[Rear Elevation - south]

We're planning to add a patio off the back porch, but I'm not totally sure how it will work since our yard slopes down on the one side.  Maybe we build up the east side with a patio wall?  Although, I can totally picture E jumping off the ledge as he gets older.... The area between the triple window on the left and the double window on the right is our back porch (the small section between the two single windows is our living room fireplace).  I am so excited about having both covered front and back porches.  I swear I was from the South in another life.

[Right Elevation - west]

Our garage doors have windows along the top and will have carriage-door style hardware.  I'm pretty excited about them.  I'm also excited about the bath tub that will be going under that window.  I should share my inspiration photos for the master bath soon... it's going to be ah-mazing.  At least I hope!

[Left Elevation - east]

One of the big reasons we liked this Lot was the ability to have a partial exposure basement.  Our floor plan is a split bedroom ranch with a master and two additional bedrooms on the main floor.  We knew we eventually wanted to finish the basement and want at least two additional bedrooms down there.  Even though egress windows are always a possibility, I wanted the ability to have 'normal' windows for the bedrooms down there.

It's hard to believe it's been two months since we signed off on these plans (September 19) and five months since we saw the very first draft (June 15).