Electrical Outlets and Lights

As I wrote about earlier, Sara and I had a marathon electrical and cabinet walk through Thursday.

Friday, they electrician got an a lot done which you can see from the pictures below. I was out there today with my friends Matty, Dave and Curt to show them the house. Dave is a real estate guy, and he suggested that now is the time to walk around every inch of the house to listen for squeaks and creaks so the framers can sturdy up any parts of the house that may need it. With all four of us walking around, we didn't hear anything. I think Sara and I may have to do one more walk through just to be sure, but I feel really good about the quality of this house.

Many of the outlets are in around the inside of the house. The recessed light locations we picked out Thursday are almost all complete as well. I also took a picture of the controls which are in in the master shower.

They have the front door card boarded up and taped so you can't enter there.

They've also done a lot of work around where the fireplace and TV will be in the Great Room. We put two recessed lights on either side of the fireplace as well, which are in currently.

After staying with our friends at the lake Randy and Kathy, we stole an idea from there house and put two smaller recessed lights above what will be our bed in the master bedroom with dimmer controls on each side for reading. Thanks for the idea Randy and Kathy!!

Sara is away for the weekend stamping, so after showing them the house, Matty, Dave, Curt and I went to the gun range. Now off to hockey!!!

Granite 2

It is difficult even here to tell the color of the granite Sara wrote about, but it is interesting to see the warehouse and how they move the huge pieces around. We're really excited to have this selected. Our cabinets are currently being designed after last week's walk through, and we can see on the floor of the kitchen how they will sit, and where these granite pieces will eventually be installed.

Granite

Chris and I started to look at granite last weekend in Maple Grove.  I wasn't terribly impressed by the selection or customer service.  Today we had the opportunity to visit another granite place in Albertville - on the way to a funeral :(   We found the three large slabs of granite that will be in our home for the kitchen counter top, breakfast bar, and desk.

While a picture of granite does not really convey the true color, below is a picture:

http://magma.getliveapps.com/granitetops/1/Granite/127/Tropical%20Brown/

The color is called Tropical Brown and it's a mixture of brown, black, and also has some irredencent pieces scattered throughout as well.  I was quite amazed by the process of moving the 1,000 pound slab of granite and took several photos that we'll post soon.  They store the granite in stacks but move each piece individually when you're ready to look at them seriously.  It was quite the process to watch 3,000 pounds of our granite being moved by this fancy machine arm from the ceiling.  Thankfully the operator knew what he was doing and didn't drop them!

Well that wasn't so bad. . .

We've been dreading yesterday for weeks because of an anticipated 4 or 5 hour walk through to choose all of our electrical outlets, phone outlets, cable outlets and light switches. Our cabinet guy was also there to draw out where every cabinet is going to be.

It actually wasn't nearly as bad as we thought.

I don't know how much it actually helped, but I had blown up copies of individual rooms, and marked off where I thought all of our lights, switches, outlets, etc should be. Sara and I had a little Tiedeman Staff Meeting the nights before the walk through to discuss the drawings. A certain number of outlets and switches are code (local or state, I'm not sure), and a certain number of outlets and the rest were agreed to in advance in our spec book. For anything beyond code and spec, of course there is an additional cost. This process includes recessed lights by the way, which we really like but which are not all that cheap. We were able to negotiate an increase in the number of recessed lights before we signed the purchase agreement, but we anticipated going way over anyway.

We were given advice by Nate to have them lay out the code and spec first, so that if possible we could move those around rather than automatically adding in areas we needed outlets or switches. That was great advice, and probably saved us some money.

Justin brought a heater, which helped a lot. While there is no insulation, with the windows taking in the sunlight, and the heater fired up, it could have been a lot worse.

The whole process took about 3 hours.

The biggest "issue" we had was we realized there was a downside to the clever master bath vanity that we had designed in that while it was great for Sara to do her hair and makeup in the morning, we lost a lot of drawer space for all the stuff you want to be right at the sink when you are getting ready. We're working on some potential fixes to that issue, and hope not to lose the design of the vanity.

My prep worked ended up being pretty close to where they placed the code and spec outlets. We did move a few around, but didn't end up having to add all that many. We were far more aggressive inside with recessed lights than I had been, but I hadn't included all that we had in our spec book. We went over a few, but not nearly as many as we had anticipated. And where we added them, I think we're really going to be happy. Our kitchen is full of recessed lights and pendants over the island. It is going to be very cool.

The electrician was happy with us that we had anticipated in advance how we wanted our ceiling fans to operate, dim, etc. We purchased a reasonably inexpensive switch at Home Depot, and he's going to install them for us. He said normally he installs regular light switches, only to have customers show up at the end expecting dimmers and dials. I think he was shocked that we were prepared for that.

We certainly went over, but because we only added one phone line rather than 5 (I haven't had a landline in 6 years), and I think we have fewer cable hookups than spec (we're moving close to wireless, not further technologically), and both of those downgrades will help significantly to defray the additional cost of the upgrades.

All in all, it was a painless process, and I think we are going to be very happy with how our lights and all of the electrical stuff will work.

Our cabinet guy is in the process of designing the cabinets after yesterday, and will have a 3D rendition online for us to play around with in a week or so. From there, we'll add, resize and move doors and drawers to get our kitchen, bathroom and laundry room cabinets the way we want.

More later. . .

At the end of the framing process

We're nearing the end of the framing process and have been very pleased with how the house is coming together.  We have run into a couple of changes and Greg (head framer) has been great to make those changes.  Below is a picture of the new closet door opening in one of the bedrooms.  Our plan had a pocket door but we realized after it was framed that we wanted a regular door so they were able to make the change.  I can't imagine if we were still living in the southern metro trying to be onsite and present during the construction process - that would have been a challenge.

 

This is a picture of the pocket door that hopefully they'll be able to return.

The plumbers have started to rough in the plumbing in the house.  The picture below is the shower/tub in our future kids bathroom:

 

And the pipes in our master bath:

The heat guys have also started putting in the heat/duct work:

 

  

 

And part of our front porch is done:

 

 

I'm leaving on Friday and will be gone for almost 10 days (with a quick night at home in the middle).  Before I leave we have a lot of decisions to make and I'm confident we'll get everything done.  Tonight we need to decide if we're going to finish off our second bonus room - which is above the third stall of the garage.  We have the pricing and now just need to decide if we're going to spend the money now or later.

We have about a three hour walk thru scheduled on Thursday afternoon so I'm really, really, really hoping for warm weather.  I was out at the house tonight for maybe 15 minutes and was frozen.  The walk thru is with the electrician and cabinet maker so we'll have made many more decisions by the end of the week.  We also basically decided on all of our plumbing fixtures.  Our builder ended up "letting" us purchase our own fancy hand held showers and rain shower so now I just need to place the order so it arrives before the plumber is ready to install.

Reminder to anyone who is considering building a house....it's a lot of work!  It will be worth it when we move in but the process requires significant research and a tremendous amount of attention to detail.

Marathon Day with Mom and Dad

Sara and I had a very productive day today, but it was a marathon. Mom and Dad accompanied us to the house, to Condor, to the granite warehouse, to Home Depot and to Menards.

We got to the house about 9:15 this morning and spent just a little bit of time there. Sure enough, all of the windows are in. It looks great. It is amazing to see the house full of windows. Even being in there on a cold day it is warmer without the wind whipping through. Sara got some great pictures of the house and windows as you can see here.











We left the house around 9:15 and drove around the neighborhood to look for (and look at) other homes that have front porches that are all composite (steps and all) as opposed to having cement steps with wood or composite porches next to the steps. Virtually every house in our immediate neighborhood have cement steps. A neighboring street (the one actually that has the home with the stone we like and ultimately found) has mostly homes with wood or composite front steps and porches.

So, we're still confounded.

After we left the neighborhood, we took mom and dad to condor to show them the board of the stone we selected, and show them the colors of the siding and shingles.

We met the other owner, and it turns out he has mutual friends with my parents. Small world.

Next, we headed over to Maple Grove where Village Floor gets their granite.

They have huge slabs of granite in their warehouse from all over the world. Some of it is on our "standard list" and other options would be upgrades. We learned that there is absolutely no certainty in pricing of granite, and that it all depends on the deals made between the fabricators and the builder and the other vendors between us and the place where they actually pull the rock from the ground.

We did find two slabs that are "standards" through Village that we really really like. One is more black, and the other has more browns and tans. We'd be very happy with either, but our choice will make the way we put together the rest of the kitchen and even living room dramatically different. We were able to get small samples of each, and sometime after the weekend we may make a decision on which stone we want on the counter tops.

Next, we went to Home Depot in St. Louis Park to look at lights, cabinet hardware and more plumbing. Home Depot lays their lights department out in a very user friendly way, with "families" of lights all grouped together. We found a couple of families of lights for over the breakfast bar, in the dining room and in the stairwell that we definitely like. We also found ceiling fans for our bedroom, the other two bedrooms on the second floor, and the living room. We didn't actually purchase any of them, but I think we found the ones we want. We did purchase some switches for dimming the ceiling fan lights, and changing the speed of the fans from the wall. We're going to bring those to the electrical walk through on Thursday to make sure we can use them (or something similar).

We took a detour after Home Depot and stopped by to see Jane at Continental Diamond so Sara and mom could get their rings cleaned. After that, we wend down to Edina to Cheesecake Factory for Bloody Mary's and a late lunch (this was about 3pm).

On the way back up to Blaine, we stopped by Menards. We didn't like their light selections, or the way they had them laid out on the floor. But they do have some great options for the vessel in the main floor bathroom. And the hardware they have for the cabinets is far more extensive and better laid out than at Home Depot. I'm pretty sure we'll get our handles and knobs there.

We talked with a sales representative for a while about soft close cabinet drawers and doors. If you haven't seen those, they are drawers and doors that don't slam, but stop short of closing and then softly close themselves. I think we are likely to go in that direction after we talk with the cabinet guy next Thursday.

We got home around 6:30 after a very long, but very productive day. Sara has been putting pen to paper and doing more research on our final plumbing selections. I've been trying to help while updating our blog. I'm going to spend a little more time looking at plumbing before bed while we watch the Olympics.

Meetings and Windows

Sara and I started out this Friday with an early meeting with Sherri at the TJB offices to finalize virtually everything on the outside of the house.

Before we did that, we talked a little bit with Sherri about the plumbing, much of which has to be decided on by Monday. We looked at the island they have in the offices and talked about what our kitchen faucet will look like with the raised breakfast bar we will have in the kitchen.

We started out talking about our front door. This has been a little bit of a struggle because our plan shows partial sidelights on the side of the door (glass in the top portion, and a solid material in the bottom portion). All of those that were close were significant upgrades, so we finally concluded the issue of the front door by picking one with full glass sidelights. We'll have to find some sort of blinds or shades after we get moved in. We do like the door, however, which we will have painted shortly before we move in in a color to be determined.

We signed off on all of the stone, siding, trim, garage doors and shingles. Overall, we are very happy with what we've come up with. We've posted the stone, which is a combination of greys, black and some white. We like the look a lot, and it is something that is unique in the neighborhood. Most of the rest of the house (siding, etc) will be different shades of grey, with white trim and probably white garage doors. We are really excited about how the colors seem to have come together.

We also saw our stone address plate which will be next to the double stall garage door. It turned out very cool. You can see a picture of it here.



After we left TJB, Sara and I had a meeting with Justin out at the house. He had called the other day and said he had a few things to go through with us. We were thrilled when we arrive to see that all of the windows had been delivered and that they were busy putting them all in. My parents met us out there, and they got a chance to chat with the guys framing the house while we talked with Justin.

Justin and the lead framer Greg talked through some options with the fireplace and book shelves. I think we know how we're going to have the fireplace designed based on our conversation.

We then went upstairs with them to look at a few issues with the master bath. We have a pretty big walk in shower, and Justin had some questions about the way we wanted to place the shower heads. We'll have a rain shower on the ceiling of the shower, and Justin said they needed to build a soffit to insulate it. The soffit will drop the rain shower down about six inches or so. He also pointed out that the way we have the door designed made it likely that we'll end up with a pretty wet floor outside of the shower. He drew on the floor a suggested wall change to catch the spray of the water off of the rain shower. It is those little things that we'd have never thought of that make us thankful we have such a good builder. We gave Justin the go ahead to frame up a new segment of wall (at no additional cost which is nice) which we think will make the shower hold heat better, and will certainly catch the spray of the water from the ceiling.

We also talked with Justin and Greg about cutting off part of the surface area around the tub on both walls to give us a bigger vanity on one side and a bigger linen closet on the other. There will still be plenty of room for a wine glass or candle on the edge of the tub.

We then talked with Justin about the doors in what will eventually be kid(s) rooms. For some reason we had a pocket door in one of the other bedrooms' walk-ins. Depending on if Justin can return the casing, I think we're going to remove it and put in a normal door. We debated putting in two additional doors entering the sink/vanity area of each of the bathrooms, but I think we are going to leave them as is. The two bedrooms on the other side of the upstairs are connected with a "modified Jack and Jill," which means you leave either bedroom into a room with a sink and vanity, and those two rooms have a shared shower and toilet. It's a good set up.

Lastly, we talked with Justin about some options for the second bonus room over the single stall garage which is currently set to be unfinished. Justin is getting us some prices on partially finishing it with the idea that we'll finish it up when we get the basement finished. His preliminary report to us makes it likely that we'll do it.

Justin and Greg said they'd likely finish the windows by the end of the day, and the framing process would almost certainly be done early next week.

We were thrown for a bit of a loop as we were leaving with regard to the front porch. With all of the many decisions, we think we thought (literally, it is that complicated) that we had a poured cement set of steps with a composite porch. They have us with a composite front porch, steps and all. I'm still not sure what we're going to do about this. It will require some research.

Less Worried

Ok, it looks like Sara did pretty well with mom and dad Wednesday night without me.

They are getting very close to being finished with the framing. They were starting to bring in the windows and the construction doors. You can see that they have really made a lot of progress on the structure on the ceilings.

With a big weekend ahead, it was good to see all the work they've done from the pictures Sara took with my parents.

Worried

I have a work commitment this evening, and my mom, dad and Sara are out at the new house right now without me.

Everyone else, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers!

(Just kidding sweetheart, I love you).

Framing and Master Bathroom

Today was a pretty busy day for the house as we prepare for an electrical walk through next week.

Justin has the framers working on the fireplace and inset area above it where we will eventually have a flat screen of some sort. We are meeting him out at the house on Thursday (after we meet with Sherri at TJB) to go through a couple of questions he has for us. Sara also spent a bunch of time working on some issues with our front porch, including having a good conversation with my dad. They have a similar composite decking in both the front and back of their home as we will have, and had some good advice on how to have TJB install ours.

I spent a little bit of semi-frustrating time on the phone with Glenda from Condor. We're happy with the result and are excited about the stone that we're going to have, but getting there hasn't been without some irritation and confusion.

Sara and I met at the house after work. Not a lot has changed now on the outside as they have most of that part done in terms of the framing. To the trained eye (i.e. ours, as we've looked at this plan every day for months), you can see from the picture below from the outside that there is a significant difference from the pictures we took just yesterday. That difference is the window on the second floor which is in the small room which will contain our toilet. It was one of those windows we had in the plan but was missed in the framing. Good catch (again) Sara!

It is the inside pictures that are really starting to get exciting, starting with those you see below from our master bathroom. You can clearly see where the big tub will soon be. Less obvious but still kind of exciting (to me anyway) is you can see that they installed some of the hardware for where the pocket door in the room with the toilet will be (that's the room with the new window I was telling you about).

More and more coming up here we're going to be able to see these kinds of indoor changes that make the inside look more and more like a real house the way the outside has become over the last few weeks.

Outside and House Guests

Sara and I spent a few hours on Saturday morning at Condor hoping to wrap up our stone selection. Mary met up with us there to help us with all of the other outside selections, assuming we came to a conclusion on the stone. While this is just a small representation, you can see here what we hope is the final concept for the stone you will see on the front of the house.



It is a little hard to tell from the picture, but the darkest stone is really a very black stone (which has been the bane of our existence on this whole part of the project). We love the stone, but of course it is the one stone on earth that comes with it an up-charge. Apparently the black black stone ruins the molds. I think we are likely to run with this despite the up-charge.

Mary was awesome taking this stone and the color samples we have for the siding, shakes and shingles to basically draw out what the rest of the outside of the house could look like. We were really hesitant to look at anything else until we had the stone locked down, and I think we're both very happy that we chose to choose our outside products in the order we did. Everything else really fell into place once we were able to be nearly certain on the stone. We'll put up some pictures when we can, but it is essentially going to be a combination of blacks, grays and whites all around the rest of the outside of the house and on the roof. We're excited about what we came up with.

Sunday, our friends the Olsons came over for brunch and then we all went over to the house to show them around. You can see that Graham really like the heavy equipment they have parked outside. There was even a point at which he asked Sara for the keys. Sadly, the builder hasn't given us a set of keys, so poor Graham had to sit in stationary piece of equipment and wish he could drive it around.


These are pictures of Sara and the Olsons in our future bedroom and the main floor great room.





After Melissa, Jeff, Graham and Amelia left Blaine, Sara and I went back over to the Edison Street model TJB home to look at how they did the fireplace and in particular how the TV was situated. As they finish framing, they are going to build the fireplace and bookshelves in the great room around a fictitious flat screen TV that we are currently looking to make not so fictitious. I'm kind of excited that we are forced to choose a TV now as it is something I'd like to get sooner rather than later anyway, but it is one more "thing" that we have to research. You can see just beyond were everyone is standing in the picture just above this paragraph where the TV will go. They are standing right about where the couch will sit, just a few feet from the kitchen.

We've done a lot of research on Plasmas and LCDs, which was great until we got to Best Buy yesterday and saw the LEDs. We talked to a very nice tech geek about all of the wonderful new features of the LEDs which are finally dropping significantly in price. I had no idea that there is a burgeoning LED Apps industry in its infancy similar to the iPhone Apps business which is now over 100,000 apps. Putting an LED TV on the wall with a high speed Internet jack next to the cable jack will open up a lot of new technologies in the coming years (according the geek).

We're going to start investigating the LEDs on Consumer Reports, and see what we learn.

We spent a little time after Best Buy at Lowes looking at plumbing again. It wasn't all that fruitful.

After that, we set aside the house stuff and went to a movie for the first time in months. We saw Valentines Day on Valentines Day. Good movie, and a nice way to spend the afternoon after a great rest of the weekend.

Stone - The Final Chapter

Chris and I were able to get out to the house tonight before dark.  I guess it helped that it's staying light later and that it was finally Friday of a long week.  It's fun to look back at the pictures throughout the process so far.  At times it feels like we're moving at a snail's pace but looking back at the pictures of the past two weeks.

Here are some pictures from tonight:

The majority of the roof is up and quite a bit of the framing is done.  Depending on the weather they have less than 2 weeks left on the framing.

The porch is just starting to get built.

Closer picture of the front porch

Here I'm taking a closer look at the front porch

I know it wasn't that cold today but I just don't have very warm blood.  i'm standing in the unfinished bonus room.

I'm very excited to report that I've been able to play detective the past two days on our stone.  We've been working on our stone selecetion for quite some time but haven't been very successful.  I finally took matters into my own hands as I was tired of looking at samples that weren't what we wanted.  I just couldn't understand why with several pictures and an actual address for a home built in Blaine in the past several years it would be so hard to find this stone.  Well it wasn't that hard but I don't think anyone who was "working for us" even tried.  Below is the picture of the stone that we'd like to use on some of our house.

 Black Rundl Country Ledge Stone

Below is the picture of the house that we found the stone on in Blaine:

 

So..our journey continues early tomorrow morning to try to finish the stone selection process once and for all.

Master Closet

Chris mentioned that we met with a closet consultant last weekend. Below are two mock up pictures of what our closets may look like:

Chris' side of the closet

Sara's side of the closet

I’m not sure if we’ll be able to make the investment in our closets right away but we now have all of the information to think about.