Tiedeman House: We're In (and Have Been)

We (Sara) started this blog so that we could track the progress of the construction of our home both with photography, and written words that would reflect our thoughts throughout the process. We ultimately wanted to look back and be able to recall how the house was built, and how we built the house.

We've been closed and living in the house for about a month, and haven't really finished the blog. In a way, the silence describes the process pretty well over the last month. It sort of ended, not as planned, and with a variety of frustrations and difficulties.

But. . .

We are in the house and are totally blessed. It is a gorgeous place and we've very happy with it. There will be little things here and there, we know that to be true, but it is going to be an awesome place to make a home and eventually grow a family.

With the finality of the house will come finality of this blog accounting for its construction. I have a couple of last posts kind of "in the can" in my head, and we have some great photos of the completed product that I still want to get into this format so we can put together our own book showing the process from start to finish.

We closed on June 4th with everything basically done but the landscaping and the touch ups we know will exist for the remainder of this calendar year at least.

We quickly learned that the neighborhood we were looking for seems to be where we've landed. We've had many of the neighbors stopping by with gifts and introductions, starting with the Hansons two doors down who brought us a very nice picnic basket full of goodies the first day in case we hadn't moved with any grocieries. Very very thoughtful.

The next step for us was to get the landscaping in. We wanted to do so quickly, but we also wanted to get it right. Blaine has some restrictions and mandates for new construction, and we wanted to at least get those mandated things done (sod, sprinkler system and a couple of trees) along with some of the key hardware (retaining walls) right away. We decided we can make shrubs, perennials and annuals a little longer term project, which we'll take care of over the next months and years.

We got a few bids and decided to go with Kevin from B&D Landscaping. Kevin came back with a very good bid for us, and he has done quite a few homes near us and is around the neighborhood frequently. Plus he comes across as honest and genuine, and he clearly loves his work.

First, however, another look out into our then blank back yard at the deer. I think these are the same deer that have already been munching on our wonderful little Honey Crisp Apple Tree. I think Blaine might have an ordinance that prohibits me from placing the crosshairs across the back of their shoulders (setting aside my natural inability to "shoot a deer" that I aim at).

We're seeing a lot of these guys, and it is a very cool addition to the neighborhood.

Kevin spent the first days installing retaining walls and adding rock or mulch where appropriate.

This is the view out of our dining room window. Eventually, there will be a deck extending out towards these retaining walls and some tall shrubs serving as a protective wall on the side of the patio you see that will eventually house a big hot tub.

Here they have dumped piles of red mulch which over the last week has been spread over a section of the berm and on top of a few of the retaining walls. I know this is going to require constant maintenance and yearly refreshing, but I really like the color and I much prefer it to a lot of rock.

This is the berm structure we had Kevin put in. Everyone who bid came back with a much bigger structure than this (including Kevin). We had to dial them all back so we didn't lose our whole yard. I think it adds some character, but we also really like the grass. This tree is an Autumn Blaze Maple, which is supposed to be bright red in the fall.

Mr. Sprinkler came last week and installed the tubes for the sprinkler system and then the system itself. Todd and Mark have been great. Todd came out early the other morning and gave us a training session on the system. They also offered up the first fall blowout and first spring start up as part of the package after we asked them for it.

This is the back of the house outside of what will eventually be another guest room when we finish the basement. We ended up opting for some rock because of a lot of advice suggesting mulch all around here would be a nightmare.

The rock is a limestone, which is sort of poetic since both Sara and I attended St. Olaf where all of the beautiful buildings are limestone.