Our Concrete Home

Today Brent worked on piecing together my old-timey bathroom.  It looks AWESOME and I love it.  It took longer than expected (everything does these days.....) to install a toilet, pedestal sink, mirror and light.  But LOOK!  I love it!  I like to help, there are lots of things I can do at the house, but when it comes to installing toilets, sinks and lights, I'm not much help.  I'm the one who holds things steady, runs to Lowes or Home Depot for the missing part, the one who checks to see if things are centered, etc.  Today I will try to clean up the bathroom, run to get the right cords for the sink, hang the door and mark spots that need attention. Hilario painted more over the weekend but we had a few spots like this: The crackle effect on the white trim is not supposed to be there.  I will have to sand down those spots and repaint.  We have a couple of them in the house.  We still don't have our furnace going and I think ...

I just got home from our concrete home where it was a balmy 89.3.  Hilario cranked up our portable heat to propel the paint drying.  And it worked! He finished our kitchen windows (love!)  Today base cabinets started to appear... Sha-bam!  Base cabinet in our bathroom.... And in the laundry.... Cute little mudroom bench got prepped for paint...  Randy got hardibacker in the master shower....  And someday my bedroom will be a place of peace and rest.  Right now it's just a chaotic staging ground.   And now...time for bed!

Merry Christmas Friends!   Brent and Cole worked ALL DAY yesterday on the railings.  I stayed home with the girlies to get a Christmas Eve party together (it was great!). We had a marvelous Christmas Day!  Good food, fun presents, and time with family.  After visiting my parents and enjoying a yummy Christmas Dinner we headed home around 4.  Brent headed over to the house to work again on the railings.  He has to take a load in tomorrow so that they can start the powder coating and baking.  I can't wait to see them done!  I followed Brent over to the house around 5.  My job was to install hardware on the doors.  We now have many doors that closer in the basement!  Whoopie!  The family room is prepped for painting the trim.  I just need to go buy (more) paint again in the morning.   Randy has finished the floor tile (still love it) and is working on the platform for the washer/dryer... ...

This was the highlight for me this weekend.  I walked upstairs and voila!  The lights in the living room were on!  Brent has been working room by room finishing things up with the electrical.  He is still chasing a problem downstairs in the family room, but like everything else in this house, he will get it figured out!  The kitchen is almost all tiled!  There are just edge pieces that need to be placed.  This picture does not show the fantastic texture of these tiles.  When Randy picked up the tiles someone commented that they looked like bamboo. 

Carpet samples have invaded my living room.  Today I am leaning towards NOT doing a frieze .  Who came up with that word anyway?  It feels like a chapter in a Fancy Nancy book  "Frieze is a fancy way of saying shag carpet".  You can't tell me that it's not a shag carpet.  Anyway, I'm thinking maybe a low profile carpet and then throw some fluffy accent rugs around.  But that's today.  I learned yesterday that they have carpet for the west coast and carpet for the east coast.  The east coast is more bold in color choices.  Out west we lean towards the desert/nature colors.  When I walk into a carpet shop it seems like the samples scream "Pick brown!  Which shade of brown do you like?"  I had no idea that the browns can look so different. Yesterday I sat in a friend's living room on her new shag, I mean frieze, carpet and the first words out of my mouth were "Is this chestnut?" It was. I know the names of too many carp...

Brent took another day off of work on Friday.  We decided that would help until we finish.  He gets so much done when he has the two back-to-back days.  It's been the weekend of the railings... The deck railing is taking shape.  I am tickled that no other neighbor will have a railing like ours since it's Brent's original work.  Cole spent his entire Saturday welding.  Putting together the two side banisters on the side porch took some time.  I love watching Cole weld.  He does an awesome job, he stays focused and he's good.  Once they are all welded next step is to take them down, get them powder coated and baked.  Flat black, gonna' be gorgeous! Ben came Saturday and worked on the newell posts and handrail.  We needed help with this job.  The tile is inching closer to the wood.  Love it!   This is my tile!  I love it!  It's from Contempo Tile, a series called "Lines".  The color does ...

 The last two days have been busy at our concrete home.  We have someone tiling, someone doing finish work, and our siding crew.  Brent and I haven't been working inside the house as much as we want just because there is no space right now.  It's taking shape. We chose Harristone, Chief Joseph, Summit color for our stone.  I think that Brent was expecting not to have so many big pieces of stone (the squares and rectangles) but more of the long thin stones.  So was I.  It's so hard to tell from a sample panel at a store.  We probably should have gone to visit a few houses.  However, I still think that it's going to be beautiful! The stone mason is Noah and he does beautiful work!  This shot was taken Monday just after they finished the gable.  The foam on the porch is now officially the ONLY exposed foam left on the entire house!  Big milestone for us!   This is the last view of our window repair from month...

Today I felt this house as if it were a living breathing organism pushing up and rising from the dust.  It has been a very memorable experience to watch (I mean work to make) our ideas become three dimensional, tangible, real.  I had intended to stay home for the morning, work with the girlies and place a little organization into our current home.  Things were moving along when Brent called to see if I could come over.  In a matter of a few moments the stone mason, three siding workers, the painter, finish work Ben, and our tile worker all arrived with questions.  The place was a beehive today and I was grateful for the help.   Things are moving quickly right now.  So, I don't know where we will celebrate Christmas.  It could happen...

In case you were wondering...yes...we worked on Thanksgiving Day.  We worked the day before Thanksgiving and we worked today.  I will always be grateful for hands that work.  For hands that can work.  For hands that like to work.  It's a blessing! The kidlettes and I worked on filling all the finish work holes in the basement.  It took us many hours but all the finish work holes are FINISHED!  (Imagine all of us doing the happy dance). This weeks highlight: the deck.  Brent has been working hard on this project.  Before we even excavated he had started the banister.  I love it and Brent has done a wonderful job on making it look sleek, stylish and completely awesome.  I also love that Cole is learning how to weld.  He enjoys welding as a result of our family project. Tonight Brent said that he makes beautiful welds.  Doesn't surprise me, he is a meticulous kid when it comes to projects and making stuff.  ...

It's a day of problem solving.The posts on the side and front of the house have vexed us from the beginning.  We have a framer over there right now working to make sense of it all.  Somewhere between the architect's drawing, the engineer's math, the framer's construction and the cement work we have posts that don't match up with the porch.  Once again, I'm learning that building a house is an organic, living, breathing process and not an exact art.  I imagine that it's more of an exact art for those who have built their own house before but we're learning as we are working.  And then we go and throw the ICF walls into the mix and we have a formula for a challenge.  We have some posts on the side of the house now.  Nate, siding guru, will make sure that they look good, get covered with stone, etc. So the posts were supposed to land clean and neat on the corners of the porch.... But voici, le probleme. There was NO possible way to fit in a concret...