$10,000 and 3 1/2 Weeks Later...

Can you believe it? We are almost 3 1/2 weeks into this project, and we have come a LOOOONG way, baby! Now, when I showed up on site Monday morning - I was surprised to see an entirely new, shirtless crew working there. They are the concrete specialists. Our minor glitch really was minor, as the concrete was only delayed by three working days. Here they are, pouring the patio...whilst Jackie's crew was busy cutting boards to frame the walls: Then, they used water and this long implement to make the slab of the garage nice and smooth. I like this tool. I want to borrow it to mop my tile floors. I could stand in the kitchen and mop the living room with this gadget:Something I didn't know - it is good to cut these slopes in the slab so that the garage doors fit snugly, instead of having just a flat garage entrance:We were talked into TWO garage doors, instead of one large one. First of all, the two doors provide a place for us both to pull into the garage, without us having to swing over to one side or the other to park. Secondly, the extra little stud in the middle provides extra support to the bonus room above.

All the time the concrete crew was working, the other crew was framing and putting up walls in a flash:

After watching this guy finish up the slab, I found out why the concrete crew is muscular. And as warm as it has been, the concrete was setting up quickly, so they had to work much faster than usual. This isn't like a floor buffer, folks - this thing has some serious TORQUE:

This evening, I decided to quit harrassing the crew, and take some photos while they were gone. This is the view of our master bedroom and master bath - the extra slab stuff is where the stairs will be - leading up to the bonus room/music studio. And the dude in the front is obviously NOT a builder, but our friend - who busied himself playing builder with the little blocks that were laying around.

If you think I like windows, you're right! The three open spaces on the left-hand side of this photo are the dining room windows. The bottom sills will be a foot off the floor, as we have 9-foot ceilings and 6-foot windows. The space in the middle is for the front door, and there are three more 6-foot windows in the living room area to the right of the doorway. I think I'll be able to see out, don't you?

This is the laundry room entrance (far right door), coat closet (middle door) and spare bath door...leading off into the bedrooms.

Naw, that photo didn't explain it....here is a panaromic shot (click it to big it)...this might give you a better idea of how the house looks so far: This was the first time I tried this feature on my camera - it allows you to stitch together the photographs in three pieces for wide shots.

There are still garage walls, master bedroom walls, master bath walls, and a kitchen wall to go - plus the second floor bonus room, but I'm pleased that the builders have done SO MUCH in only 17 working days! And so far, only one little draw from my construction loan.

Roger and I picked out a front door - and now we have to make some deck decisions. We have already modified the plan a LOT from our first sketches, so I'll have to upload that sometime to give you an idea what you're looking at.

Who said wood wasn't pretty?

Sigh....