Home. Sweet. Home.

Well, another long dry spell between posts.

We've moved into our new home! We're still unpacking boxes, and we probably will be for a while. Been doing some yard work, too, just a little bit at a time.

It's really pretty out here. There's abundance of wildlife. And the wildflowers. I can't help but take pictures.

Here are some photographs of our beautiful surrounding:

www.flickr.com/photos/miscellaneous/sets/72157594323901822/

Have fun viewing!

See The House Pics on Flickr

Hickory hardwood floor installed. Mesquite mantel and hand-carved corbels installed.

Check out new photos of the house by clicking HERE.

Or copy and paste this link into your browser:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/miscellaneous/sets/72157594251684721/

Almost. Done.

Electrician and plumber got their work done last week, except for some minor things. We are looking forward to seeing the hickory hardwood floor and carpet installed this week and next; as well as the mesquite mantle and corbels.

The house is looking great! Since there'll be a lot of pictures to post, I created a photo album on Flickr. Just click on the link below:

HOME BY THE RIVER: In Pictures

Pictures: Balusters, Balcony, B's Home Office

Hello again. Here are some random pictures I took. The first one is taken from the family room, looking up. The second photo is our unfinished balcony in the second floor - the iron rails haven't been installed yet, and the tile used is Indian slate. The third photo shows B's home office.

Pictures: Unfinished Kitchen & Bathrooms

As of this writing, most of the tile floors are done (they started on Saturday) - though they haven't finished grouting yet. The cultured marble tops in the Little Man's bathroom as well as in the pool bath have been installed.

Here are some pictures I took this evening:

A Few Pictures

Building a custom house is not always fun... we had (and still have) our fair share of frustrations. :(

On a positive note, we've seen much progress since last week. All cabinets are in. They finished painting the interior, the wood stairs have been stained. The countertops will follow soon.

Here are a few pictures I took today. First photo shows the stairs and the front door. The next one is the master bedroom ceiling (the dining room has the same type of ceiling). And the last photo shows the fireplace as seen from upstairs.

Interior Trim Complete. Next... Cabinets!

Hey look inside! Interior doors, crown mouldings, trims and shelves in all the closets and pantry are set. The staircase railings and wrought-iron balusters have also been installed.

They just started the stonework inside the house. We'll take pictures later this week.

Soon to follow: kitchen cabinets, countertops, and interior paint. We're excited!

9' Wrought Iron Double Door Has Arrived

We ordered the door four months ago. Cantera Doors finally delivered and installed it on Thursday, July 13th. I'll post some pics once it's "unwrapped."

The place looks great on the inside! All walls are up, taped, sanded, rounded, and textured. On Friday, we met up with the carpenter and talked about shelves in all the closets and pantry, trim and crown moulding.

This coming week, they will start the stonework inside the house. And the cabinets are supposed to be delivered on the 24th. Here's to hoping.

The Stone Has Fossils

As shown in these pictures, they finished installing the stone today (and yes, it has some fossils, which makes it very pretty). The stucco still needs to be painted. As far as the interior goes, the sheetrock is done - tape, texture and paint to follow.

Some Major Progress

So our builder's contractors got the shingles and stucco job done last week. Over the weekend, they also put up the insulation. B added some more acoustical insulation in the media room and the Little Man's room.

Today they started putting up the stone. The sheetrock have been delivered as well, so hopefully, by the end of the week, we'll see some work done, as far as the interior is concerned.

Stucco... Finally!

After a few broken promises from our builder and a couple of weeks of frustrations on our part, the stucco guys finally showed up and have started working on the stucco. We have documented everything. B & I are crossing our fingers that our builder will get this project going smoothly from here and out... and try to make our expected move-in date possible.

Here's how the house looks like now:

The House And The Fountain

Although our builder said they were supposed to start working on the stucco and have the shingles delivered, we didn't see much of an activity at all last week. On Friday, we walked the house with our builder to locate all lights, switches and outlets.

On some other notes... B & I knew that we needed to replace our 4-year old vacuum cleaner - it was just a matter of when and how much we'd spend for a new one. B already fixed it once, and I broke it again recently (not on purpose, I swear)! Since we got this 20% off coupon from BedBathAndBeyond and a gift card, we decided to buy a Dyson. We have two big doggies, and so far, it does an outstanding job on the carpet.

We also found this very lovely fountain at a local nursery. Online retailers sell it for $700-$900 but we paid much, much less than that! It's heavyweight (weighs 165 pounds), and made of cast stone.

Views From The Balcony

Interior Mechanical Work In Progress

Yeah, B & I have been slacking on this blog thing lately, not from lack of inspiration but more to the fact that the weather's been very nice...

Let's see, they've done quite a bit of things on the house since our last post --- plumbing, gas service, sealing up the exterior walls, framing the arches and niches, and all the bath tubs are in place. So far, we think the workmanship and quality is top notch!

We also have been going to the property a lot more lately to clear some trees to give us better views of the river.

Looking More Like A House Now

The roof decking and windows were installed... and the covered balcony in the back is showing off the views!

Sheathing Has Begun

Exterior wall sheathing has begun. Roof will be next!

Framing Stage

The Little Man got his legs pricked this evening by those "prickler" plants, B & I will need to whack them as soon as we move to the new property. On a brighter note, the framing is almost done. Also, we saw at least 100 "white birds" (we don't know what they were!)- all sitting in a tree across the river. It was neat to look at, like that entire tree was blooming. :)

Anyways, here's how the house looks now:

Frame's Up!

The first walls were up last week. They're working on the second story and the roof this week. We are happy to say that the framing is very nearly done!

If it's not gonna rain, we'll take pictures tomorrow and post them here.

Slab is Poured!

Wow! Things have really moved forward. The concrete slab is poured and smoothed. We wandered across it, imagining where walls and rooms will be. All very exciting!

The Grid

After the tarp's been installed and secured in place, it was time to lay out the grid for the floor slab. They had the task done yesterday.

B met up with our builder and home inspector at 7am today. By this time tomorrow, we will have the slab poured. Yippy! Hopefully we'll be posting images of the finished concrete slab by the end of the week.

Plumbing and Inspection

After a couple of weeks, the plumbing's finished and has been inspected. It certainly looks complicated (to me, at least), but the Little Man is doing a great job making sure everything's in the right place.

I also took a photo of the river at the back of the property.

Dirt's In!

If you've been following our blog, probably you know by now that our lot is already cleared. This week, our builder have loaded in some dirt. It looks a lot better. It's amazing how the small things can excite us--- like a cleared lot and dirt! :)

Our Must-Haves... Part One

Like many homeowners, B and I have thought carefully about the special aesthetic and comfort features we want to include in our dream home.

In order to stay within budget, we made a list of things we both want. Then we categorized each item as either a must-have or like-to-have.

Recently we started purchasing stuff that are on our must-have list.

* Ornate wrought iron double door, 9-ft tall

* Mesquite wood mantle, 72" in length, 10.5" in depth, and 6" in thickness; and a pair of hand-carved mesquite corbels

* SONY Bravia 40" LCD Flat Panel HDTV, Best Buy had surprisingly marked down the price by a few hundred $, and they honored our 10% off coupon as well, so we got a great deal on this

* Home theater speaker set, and other audio equipment and accessories, from JR.com

* White Goose Down comforter, goose down pillows, and bedding set, from different online sources

After spending all that $, I guess we better start stocking up on Mac 'N Cheese and ramen noodles! :-)

Lot Clearing

Yey! Our builder DW had the lot cleared a couple of days ago. Now you can see where the house is going to be at. Some of the biggest trees in the property had to be removed, but, on a brighter note, we got to keep more trees then we thought.

Here's a picture I took at 6pm today.

Signed!

Well, we signed for our home construction loan early this week. Now it is time to get down to the hard work and get our dream house built. We'll keep you all posted.

Whatever It Is, You Can Get It On Ebay

We went to a local design showroom looking for kitchen tile murals, and they were pretty pricey. So I decided to search online.

This is what we ended up buying on eBay. It's made of Italian Botticino marble tiles.

Pre-Construction Meeting

We had a 4-hour pre-construction meeting with our builder today. Had we known that it's gonna take that long, we would have hired a babysitter for our Little Monster. Anyways, we thoroughly went over the plans and our design selections one more time. We also made a few minor revisions.

After the meeting, we drove to the property. Our builder marked the trees that need to go. Hopefully we'll see some activities at the lot soon.

Texas-Mediterranean Style

After moving to an apartment, we didn't waste any more time. B and I contacted and talked to some of the local custom home builders, until we were down to two choices. In the end, we decided to go with custom builder DW.

It took a good few months to finalize the floorplans and elevations. Longer than we anticipated but oh well, we can't wait to get the house started!

Once the plans were finalized by the architect, we had to meet with the builder's interior designer. We had three appointments with her. During those meetings, we discussed in details what we want. I'll post pictures here as we go further along with this project. In the meanwhile, here's the front and back elevations of the house.

Gorgeous Property

In the past, B and I had talked about on where we would want to live if we have to move. Colorado and New York were the best contenders but the cold winters just didn't appeal to us. So, after much contemplation, we will continue to call Texas home, I guess.

In May of 2005, when we found this gorgeous piece of property that backs up to a historic river (see photo below) and has some really good views, we decided to sell our house. Less than two weeks on the market, it was sold. Henceforth, we packed up our stuff and moved to an apartment, albeit temporarily.

Historic river at the back of our property