Third Week of August — Granite Selection and Tiling

One of the things that I love about working with Drees Homes is that they’re all about the details. So when we made our design choices in March, and I wasn’t feeling 100% about the granite that we selected, I was assured that we would have the opportunity to choose our specific granite slab before it went into the house… and I did!

On the morning of August 21st, I drove over to the warehouse before work and had a chance to check out large slabs of all of the different granites that they had to choose from.

The woman at the warehouse was even nice enough to grab a cabinet sample, so I could see how the granite would work with the color of our cabinets.

When we first chose the granite, I was nervous about the weird purple splotches that seemed to dominate, but as you can see in this picture, they appear to be little dark areas in our slab, and I can live with that! A few days after choosing the kitchen slab, I headed over to the house after work and was amazed to find brick as far as the eye could see!

As you can see, the sides and the back of the house will have a brick wrap around the entire main level…

…but the front is completely bricked on both levels! (Or will be. They hadn’t quite finished yet.)

When I stopped admiring the brick and finally walked into the house, I immediately noticed two things: 1) We had stair railings! They’ve been stained to match the color of the hardwoods that will be installed on the first level.

And 2) They appeared to be finished with tiling since our fireplace had its tile surround. I’m still not sure how I feel about this tile; it appeared much more colorful when we were in the design center, but I suppose you can’t go wrong with neutral, so I really shouldn’t complain.

I apologize for the terrible quality photo, but it really is difficult to get good pictures of bathrooms with no windows. Neither of us are too excited about the tile that they used in the hall bathroom, but once again, it’s neutral, and we’ll just have to cover dress it up with a nice shower curtain.

We are, however, in love with the tile that we upgraded to in the bathroom. I’m sure I’ve shared it about a million times already, but this marble look completely covers the shower walls, floor, and tub façade in our master bathroom, and it was worth every penny. Plus the grout brings it all together, and they even laid it all so the veins run at the same angle, which really makes all the difference (and would’ve driven me up the wall otherwise).

Fourth Week of August — Countertops and Lighting

Alright, before I show you how the house looked during the last week of August, I must warn you that woohoo, the lighting was up throughout the house, but ugh, we kept the standard, no upgrade necessary, very boring and at times just bad light fixtures that came with the house. In fact, the only ones that I probably won’t be changing ASAP are…

…the exterior lights. Thank God! For instance, I’m actually a huge fan of these carriage lights flanking our garage door. There’s a light on the back of the house that may need to be replaced, but the lights over our front porch are also A-Okay. We’re going to go inside now, but you have been warned.

Like this monstrosity in the dining room! What is that? Why wouldn’t you just not put up anything at all? How much money can I get for this light fixture? Basically it will have to go because 1) I think you get the point, and 2) I have great ideas for adding a little character to this room, and one of them has to do with the ceiling.

Does anyone else have a husband who hates the word “character?” I feel like my new obsession with Fixer Upper, in which they use it a million times per episode, probably doesn’t help matters. His inability to recognize, quantify, and evaluate an abstract quality like character might also have something to do with it. Engineers, am I right?

Look at our beautiful little kitchen! Once again, you know that the pendant lights will have to go. I do love that they’re right over the island though. (And sorry for the can lights, Mom. I know you’ll hate them!)

One other exciting addition were our new countertops! They were already installed, which absolutely blew my mind, and looked pretty awesome. Plus I’m dying to get to use this sink because it actually looks like it could hold a week’s worth of dishes. Not that I ever let that many dishes pile up in our sink…

Oh hey! Now that the lights had been installed downstairs, you can actually get an idea of the layout of our basement. I’m standing right in the doorway of the unfinished storage space, but just imagine a pool table a little over from where the giant dark-colored square is, and you know everything you really need to about what the finished space will look like.

More ugly lights in the bathroom. Oh well, that’s life. (Look how awesome the tile looks around the tub, right?! Okay, I’ll stop now.)

And finally, they had also put in our super fancy thermostat. It’s technically more than just a thermostat, and after our Homeowner’s Orientation session yesterday morning, I feel like I semi-understand how it all works. I’m actually thrilled at the idea of being more energy conscious since Drees builds their homes with energy efficiency (and lower utility bills!) in mind.

We close on our house next week! Isn’t that crazy? In just a little under four months, it has gone from hole in the ground to beautiful home. My plan is to post an “Early September” update on the house in the next few weeks, and then give you all a tour once we’re moved in. It will be huge house + no furniture, but that’s what happens when you buy a house at 23!

Leave any questions about Drees Homes, our building process, this stressful financial process, etc. in the comments!

P.S. There’s a lot more to see of the home building experience!

 

The last time I updated you all on our house progress, we were meeting with our builder for the pre-drywall consultation, and the house had been framed and roughed in. Here’s a photo to jog your memory!

When we finished up our pre-drywall consultation with the Drees Market Manager and the builder’s assistant for our neighborhood, we were told that roughing in, bricking, insulating, and drywall would have to be finished before we would know our intended closing date. It seemed like a pretty huge list, so when we went back a week later to check up on things, we were amazed by the progress!

First Week of August — Drywall

Hello, drywall! Doesn’t it make such a difference? You cannot imagine our surprise when we walked through the garage and were greeted with this!

They’d also sanded down the flooring and cut out the area around the fireplace in the living room.

This view is from just in front of the fireplace. You can see our kitchen area, the formal dining room at the front of the house, and the stairs that lead down to the basement. Oh, and you might have noticed the outlets cut out of the drywall. There are just a few in the kitchen…

Oh hey, front door. And here are the stairs leading up to the second floor. Any ideas for what to do with that awkward little space between the two stairwells would be greatly appreciated.

Apologies for how dark this photo is; it’s nearly impossible to get good photos of some of these spaces. Case in point: the hall bathroom on the second floor. I just thought it was actually worth photographing with the rough ins finished and the drywall going up.

Here’s a little peek at our master bedroom, complete with drywall and the framing for the tray ceiling. Still not sure how I feel about it, but I do have to admit that it looks pretty cool!

And here’s a shot of the tub in the master bedroom. I mostly included this photo when I noticed the smiley face that had been nailed into the framing. 🙂

Last but certainly not least is your first look at the basement! Without the drywall it was way too dark and confusing to include a picture, but now it looks like your run-of-the-mill basement. That area that Spencer is checking out will be storage, but don’t worry, we already know where the pool table and bar will fit.

Second Week of August — Paint and Trim

We missed one weekend for my cousin’s going-away party, but we were back that next Saturday to see how things were progressing. Also, Sarah was in town for a quick visit, and you know I can’t have someone come to Cincinnati without taking them to the house, Graeter’s, and Rhinegeist. Typically in that order.

I will admit that the front yard looked like a complete mess when we pulled up. I got over it once I saw 1) our driveway, 2) the sidewalk, and 3) the bricks stacked up near the front door, ready to be placed all around the exterior.

They’d even begun putting them up on the far side from the garage! Soon the entire front of the house will be bricked over, and then we’ll have a brick wrap that goes around both sides and the back on the first floor. The second floor will have siding because Spencer wasn’t too keen on my Georgian-style dreams.

The front porch was also beginning to take shape. Just so you know, those columns are far from finished, but it was still nice to get an idea of what it would look like completed.

And we had a garage door! It’s kind of a bummer because now we won’t be able to get into the house whenever we please, but Drees is good about staying at the model late and leaving keys for us to use whenever we ask for them.

The powder room right off of the garage had cabinetry, which made us think that just maybe…

… our kitchen cabinets would be in, too! I was ecstatic. During this whole process, the kitchen has been the hardest thing for me to visualize. It’s much easier when I can go back to a photo instead of a blueprint. As you can see, our microwave has already been installed above what will be the stove. The fridge will chill over in the corner (bad pun, I know), and the dishwasher will be in the island on the right, next to the sink.

Please take a moment to ooh and ahh over the glass-paned cabinet in the corner. It might just be my favorite thing in the house so far.

The windows had been framed out, and they had also installed most of the baseboards throughout the house. Spencer thought I was crazy when I wanted to upgrade us to the higher baseboards, but I grew up in an older home, and you just can’t beat it. They look so much better than the short, stubby ones that are included with the house.

Okay, maybe the French doors leading into our study off the front of the house are my other favorite things. Our house is going to be so bright and open, and I love it!

I hadn’t included a picture of the game room in a while, so here it is all drywalled. I also wanted to point out the doors that are leaning up against the wall. We decided to stay with the standard six-panel doors throughout the house because if it’s not broke…

We had one final treat when we visited the house with Sarah: Our floor tile was being installed in the master bathroom. You might recall that Spencer and I splurged a bit and decided to do a marble style tile on the floor in the bathrooms, but then we also chose to have it tiled up the walls in the shower and around the framing of the tub. I think it’s going to look fantastic, especially since our awesome tile guy made sure the veins in the marble were all running the same way. Thank God for Type A people like me.

As you can see, things are coming along nicely. Actually, they’re going incredibly quickly. When we first started this journey with Drees Homes, they told us it would take about 4 months to build the house, from foundation to finished product. If everything goes according to schedule, the house will be completed on September 14. That’s only three and a half months!

We should close on the house on September 28, and then start moving in that next week. We could even be in by my birthday, which would basically be the best present imaginable!

Don’t forget to leave some comments and questions below. I obviously enjoy chatting about our new house and how wonderful Drees Homes has been through the entire process!

P.S. In case you missed any posts about building our dream home with Drees Homes, I would seriously check out a few of these.

I’ve had this post on my editorial calendar for a while now. Little did I know it would be particularly fitting since we are all finished with framing and have our pre-drywall meeting with the builder today!

But before I jump the gun, make sure you take a peek at the first month of our home building process or even the design meeting we had before they broke ground. In case you don’t remember, our “house” looked a little something like this:

First Week of July — Framing

So you can imagine our surprise when we brought my friend Jacqueline by the house when she was in town for the Fourth of July weekend and turned onto the street to this:

She was nice enough to take a picture for us. Our first photo with the house! (And no, I don’t know what Spencer is doing to my hair in this picture.)

Once we were finished ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the exterior, we decided to venture inside, and since the front porch still isn’t functional, we went through the garage.

It’s a little crazy finally standing in a house that you’ve put so much thought, effort, and love (plus a bit of money) into. It also made me incredibly nervous to be in a house that was being held up by wooden boards attached to the floor because 1) I’ve seen how easy demos go on HGTV, and 2) I’m way too clumsy for my own good.

Luckily I didn’t knock over any of the boards holding up our living room. In the picture above, you can even see the beginnings of the framing for our fireplace, which is going to go in that corner.

Here you can see the framing for our bay window, which was an addition that I’m so glad we made. The center section will actually be a glass sliding door that will go out to our deck, and it will have windows on either side. This area will be the “eat in” portion of our kitchen; the whole living room/kitchen area is open, and all the windows will make it bright and gorgeous.

I know I didn’t do a very good job of making these photos flow from one area of the house to the other. I was obviously enraptured by the framing for all of the windows like this huge one on the front of the house, which is at the far end of our formal dining room.

Then we made it upstairs and had a very serious conversation about keeping the house roofless and open. Guess who lost that debate…

Our stairs come up from the living room and open up to the “game room,” so everything is nice and (let me say it again) open. Plus we have prime creeping views of our neighbors!

Here’s the actual “game room” itself. I love the windows and how tall the ceiling is. Also, I thought we were using the term “game room” jokingly, but now we’re having pre-wiring for speakers done and determining where the Xbox will go, so I suppose the joke’s on me. 🙂

This is what I like to call Spencer’s “why can’t I touch both walls of our closet?” face. He’s unsure about the massive bedroom-sized closet. I don’t have quite the same hesitations.

And this is our bedroom. In that little nook with the windows is where I will read many a book in a very comfy chair. I’ve yet to find the right one, but it’ll happen soon enough.

Second Week of July — Framing

When we went back the next week to check out the progress, we had the makings of a roof!

Actually they were still shingling (on a Sunday afternoon!), so we didn’t get a chance to see any of the inside. But as you can see, our windows had been installed around the entire house and the concrete was poured in the garage. We also had that really attractive Tyvek wrap completed around the outside.

Third Week of July — Framing and Rough Mechanics

We were out of town over the weekend, so I made the trek out to the house on Monday night to grab some photos before our pre-drywall meeting today. I want to go ahead and apologize now for the lighting because twilight is probably the worst time to take pictures inside a house with no lighting.

With the huge dumpster out of the front yard, I kind of did a double take. Our lot seems absolutely huge! Otherwise, there wasn’t too much of a difference to the exterior, except that our front door had been installed. It’s all white right now, but once the house is completed, the door will match our shutters and the windows framing it will be painted the same color as all of the trim.

Here is the “little” storage area attached to our garage. We could have made it into a study or extra bedroom, so I suppose I should have realized how massive it would end up being. It’ll be a great space for trash cans, a lawn mower, and maybe even a workbench-away-from-home for my dad when he comes to build all of my furniture and custom built-ins/window seats. 🙂

Walking in through the garage, you pass the pantry, the main floor half bath, and a coat closet. At this point, there’s nothing too interesting about them, but I’ll get some pictures once the drywall starts to go in. Then you’re in the kitchen where they have finally put in our windows and sliding door.

I probably should’ve included a few photos of the kitchen because they’d starting putting in the electrical outlets and the rough ins for the sink and oven. Instead, I thought the fireplace would be a much cooler thing to see. I’m still not totally sold on the whole gas fireplace thing, but I can’t deny that it will be easier to deal with in the winter. Plus Zoey loves getting all sooty in our current wood-burning fireplace, and sooty Zoey plus brand new carpets doesn’t seem like something I want to deal with.

The lighting wasn’t fantastic, but I wanted to get a picture taken from our front door. The study (aka my library) will be on the left with the formal dining room on the right. As you walk into the living area, the stairs going down to the basement are there on the left, and the kitchen begins across from it on the right.

Venturing up the stairs, the game room is located to the left with two of the bedrooms on the right side of the hallway. Spencer and I had the option of enlarging the living room and game room above by bringing it out a few feet, but we saw a model home with the extended space and thought it was just too much. Well even without the extension, this room is huge. I’m still working out home we’re going to configure it, but we have so much more space to work with than I realized.

When you walk past the game room, there’s a linen closet and full bath to the left as well as the third bedroom. The bedrooms are all about the same size, and they each come with a smaller-than-ours-but-definitely-still-walk-in closet. Across from the third bedroom is our laundry room (woohoo for second floor laundry!), and then at the end of the hallway is the door into our master bedroom/closet/bathroom.

This space wasn’t too different from the week beforehand, but as you can see, they had installed our bathtub and the rough in for plumbing. The bed will be centered between this window and the one in our “nook” (aka my reading sanctuary), so this will be Spencer’s window.

It isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but here is the shower pan in the master bathroom. There will be a linen closet to the left of it and a WC to the right.

And that’s about all I have to share with you today. It was impossible to get any good photos of the basement, but that’ll be my goal for the next home update post.

I’ll leave you with the exterior on the back of the house. The sliding door in our bay window will go to a deck, which we’re having Drees Homes install for us. It wasn’t until this visit out to our house that I realized just how funny it’s going to look to have a deck out there. Oh well, at least I won’t worry about anyone falling off the shortest deck ever built and killing themselves.

Once we have our pre-drywall meeting, there will be lots of insulation, drywall, and bricking in our future, so be sure to check back here for more updates!

In case you haven’t read about our big, exciting house news or our adventures in design choices for the house, you’ll probably want to start there. If you’re all caught up, let’s chat about where we are in the house building process with Drees Homes!

Last Week of May — Pre-Construction

They officially broke ground on our lot on June 1, which meant I dragged Spencer out to the property the weekend beforehand to take pictures because we obviously needed evidence that it was once a lush, green field. (But honestly, wouldn’t you think we were out in the country somewhere based on these photos?)

At this point, the lot had been staked out for excavation and foundation purposes. The stakes that you can barely see running to the left of Spencer are the edge of our lot, and the ones on his right are where the edge of the foundation would land.

First Week of June — Excavation

A week later, we had a big hole in the ground, and I promise you that I have never been so excited about a bunch of dirt in my entire life!

In the picture above, you can see that they’ve excavated the area where our house will sit and poured the concrete footers. Plus there’s gravel underneath where the basement slab will go for drainage purposes. It all looks pretty tiny from up here…

…but then you get down on the ground and realize that they actually had to dig out a pretty deep hole.

Second Week of June — Foundation

We get weekly email updates from Shelly, the Drees Homes Market Manager for our area, so we at least have some idea of what to expect when we visit the site each week.

As you can see, we had our foundation walls installed!

And for those of you who are curious, that lovely black tar-like stuff is water sealer that is sprayed on any part of the foundation that might have the potential to leak in the future.

Third Week of June

A whole lot of nothing happened this week. It was supposed to be filled with backfilling and pouring the foundation, but Cincinnati decided it just hadn’t been leonine enough in March, so it poured buckets on us all week. Oh well…

Fourth Week of June — Foundation/Backfilling

When Spencer’s parents were in town to take on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail with us, we had a chance to take them out to see the house!

We’re on a corner lot, which allowed us to have our garage entrance on the side of the house instead of the front. Once they completed backfilling the dirt around the foundation walls, they were able to put down gravel where our driveway will be.

From this angle, you can also see that they poured the foundation and installed the beams for the floor on the main level. They should be hidden within the walls of the basement.

That’s the foundation for my bay window jutting out from the back there, and it also gives you an idea of where our deck will be built.

And finally, they poured the concrete for our garage. This photo also gives you a view of the other side of the street, which I don’t think I’ve included up to this point. It’s fun because that house to the left is only about a week and a half to two weeks ahead of ours, so we get a sense of where we’ll be in the near future when we go to see where we currently are in the process. I’m pretty excited to begin the framing!

If anyone is planning to dive into building a new home, please leave any questions that you might have in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer them. I’d also love to hear from others who have built homes! How was your experience? Did you use Drees Homes like we are?

P.S. If you’re looking for advice about staying within your home design budget, check out this post.