Interior stone is done

I think the stone guys worked all weekend.  When I walked in the house on Monday, all the stone was done and they had completely cleaned up their mess.  They were so good and so fast!  I absolutely love the finished look.  Can't wait to see the pony walls with the precast columns on them.  It will look so amazing.

View from front door...

View from back door looking towards the front...

Another view from the family room...

And the picture nook at the end of the hall.  The brick is the same as in the entry dome...

Nat and his crew are absolutely amazing!!

More outdoor fun

Yesterday they began the structure for the pool slide.  I had no idea how they made them, it's pretty impressive.

By the end of today it looked like this...

And today they began the pavers as well!

They also began the travertine inside, removed the huge chain-link fence around the property to begin more landscaping, started installing all the ac vent covers, began installing electrical outlets and switches, and Jerry's still working on the tile in the casita shower...

 

I'm pretty sure that's it.  Another good day.

Meanwhile, on the outside...

Thursday, they did all the shotcrete in the pool.  It was a pretty interesting process to watch.  They basically shoot concrete out of a big gun.  Very cool.  Too bad my kids were in school and missed it.

Here's the pool the next day after it dried...

 

And today they began digging out the volleyball court.  This made Stephen and Alyssa especially happy!





Stone Veneer

Today is a good day at the house. We pulled up and there were a dozen cars/trucks out front. There were subs there for the inside and the outside.  It makes me so happy to see real progress.

Nat and his crew finished our entry-way dome ceiling...

Then they began on the pony walls in the living room and dining room...

Here's Alyssa watching the progress.  She was so cute, we had to drag her away.  She really wanted to stay and watch!

Jerry also finished up in the girls shower, it turned out great.  It's so dark, however, that it's hard to see well in this picture.  I don't know how he's able to work so well in such dark, small spaces!  He did tile work behind where the toilet will be as well.  We'll be installing glass doors  to separate the shower from the rest of the bathroom. 

 

Flooring

The past two weeks we've been having progress on the flooring and the bathroom tile.  Our flooring guy, Tom, has laid almost all the tile that looks like wood.  Here's the office:

Dining room:

Living room:

Casita:

The girls will also have this style of tile in their bathrooms but he hasn't started that yet.

 

Our tile and countertop guy, Jerry has been hard at work in the bathrooms.  This is Jaren's bathroom, it's so beautiful in person!

And here's the powder bathroom:

He's currently working on the girls' shower, then he'll move to the casita.  He's saving our bathroom for last!

Mud

We had a pretty intense monsoon last week.  Everything was flooded and muddy.  We had had a little bit of leaking in our master bedroom near the fireplace during the last storm.  Although they told me it was fixed, I really wanted to make sure before the final coat of paint went on this week.  So I was pretty determined to get inside that house.  I pulled up to the side near the garage because it was so flooded and muddy I could not walk through the front door.  I kinda knew this was a bad idea, my Armada traditionally has not done well in less than ideal weather conditions.  As expected, I got stuck and could not reverse out of there.  Quite luckily, our tile guy, Jerry, was there along with his large 4-wheel drive truck.  He sloshed through the mud and pulled me out.  It was super nice of him and I was pretty embarrassed.  This is my car the next day.  It actually looks much better than it did right after.  I did get it washed right after this picture was taken.  Lesson learned. 

P.S. There was no leaking anywhere inside the house, so there's the silver lining!

Kitchen cabinets

The kitchen and master bedroom cabinets were finally installed this week.  I have been so excited for them, they are even more amazing than I remembered!

This is a bookshelf nook in our family room...

Stephen's vanity...

My vanity...

Courtyard wall and more pool progress

We drove up to the house yesterday morning, and our courtyard wall had been put in.  It's so fun to see more progress on the outside of the house, since the inside has been changing so rapidly lately.

In the backyard the pool is coming along at a good pace.

It's so crazy to see how some of these things are built from the ground up.  I would've never known all the stuff that goes into a pool, look at all those pipes!

The bubble has burst...

It was bound to happen.  During all of these past few months of construction I've had dozens and dozens of people tell me I'm completely crazy for taking on a project like this.  They'd tell me that building a home was "the hardest thing they've ever done" and it was so stressful, and on and on.  I would just smile and tell them the truth.  It hadn't been that bad.  It was actually pretty fun, and everyone was doing a great job. 

So obviously it was destined to get a little rough for me, right?  Today was the day I felt ready to tear into several different people and read them the riot act.  The theme for the past few weeks might just be called "overpromising and underdelivering" aka, the most aggravating character trait a person can have.  I have to include this tidbit in my blog for fear that I'll forget the hard times and accidentally try to do this again (not for us, mind you...I'm already building our "forever" home...but maybe for someone else!)

It seems like a great deal of my job lately had been babysitting.  Anyone who knows me knows that I don't really enjoy babysitting of any variety, but to have to micromanage grown men is the worst!  Several of our subs, who shall remain nameless, have gotten into the habit of going lost past their deadlines, which makes every other sub after them frustrated and behind schedule too.  I knew this would be the hardest part of the job.  It's not even the unmet deadlines that are the worst, it's the stammering excuses and failure to communicate with me that makes my blood boil.  I want them to fess up when they mess up (that sounded awesome, right?) and just tell me the truth...they are behind schedule and are trying to make it right.  But they just fail to show up for work every day and somehow are unable to call, email or text me to let me know what's going on. 

And of course, the sub who is giving us the most grief is the "friend" of Stephen's who I can't really yell at properly.  Remember how people always say not to hire friends or family?  That's a really good rule.  Really, really good. 

So after putting out multiple fires today (in addition to my other "job" or shuttling kids to school and lessons, doing laundry, buying groceries, cooking meals, helping with homework, exercising, paying bills, doing my church calling, volunteering at the kids's school, etc.) I went into the master bathroom where they're installing the cabinets and saw this...

A medicine cabinet that just doesn't quite fit.  I'm not sure if this was the work of an overzealous framer, or poor measuring on the part of our cabinet designer, but I do know that it looks ridiculous and needs to be fixed.  And it will be, and all will be well again, and I'll go back to my Mary Poppins disposition as usual.  I just needed to have one bad day.  Game on tomorrow. 

Pool Dig

Last Thursday the pool was completely laid out and ready to be excavated. 

Stephen and I happened to be at the house when the trucks began.  We realized quickly that the kids would want to see this.

So even though we were supposed to head out to Carlsbad with the Cobb's for our annual Labor Day weekend, we made a quick stop at the house so the kids could watch the pool begin to take shape. Here's Me, Sonia and the kids watching all the action:

And here's the pool as of today, all ready to begin the concrete!!