The Inside Scoop

 This past week we went down to see the house and approve some things like lighting and placement of electrical and structural things. We got into town late but stopped by the house anyway 'cause who can wait a whole night to see you very own house!? not us... well I could- after Jimmy told me that there was a 'Huge rat' on the side of the house I had to enter through... I opted to wait till morning.

 We met up with Johnny (our contractor) and Mark (our real estate guy and Jim's other Southern crush). We talked about the plans and the schedule. We caught some potential problems like the light over the extended island in the wrong place, a light fixture where the shower head should be, data components that were placed on the wrong side of the fire place a couple cracked windows and placement of the deck steps... see there to the right... that's where the deck will go!

Photo credit goes to Nick

 The kids were in tow this trip since it was so last min and it was a weekday, making finding sitters difficult. They were initially interested in the house... but soon they were antsy on a construction site. Camera to the rescue! They photographed all  the things they saw around them. Like  the masons mixing mortar for the brick they were laying while we were there. (I have the whole process, kind of like a flip-book if you are interested in how they do it)

 Then Claire took over and as you can see she is clearly a Havener-product taking pics of her toes at this important moment in her life. (closed-toed to save her tiny piggies from falling bricks and exposed nails)
She also photographed her future playhouse entrance in the crawlspace so we could begin the planning.   :)

 Jimmy did some planning of his own measuring out the space in the bonus room for his HUGE TV... and ensuring the surround sound was wired correctly

Here are some over-all pics of the house. 

From the upstairs hallway outside my delightful laundry room overlooking the kitchen. The sunroom entrance is  to the left.

 

A closeup of the kitchen.. that's my island in the middle and my kids already hungry and running around in it. See that closet to the right? That's the pantry! 

 

This is the view from the top of the stairs. Below you see into the Guest bathroom (it has a tub already!) and to the right you can see the fireplace and the messed up wiring they are going to fix. to the left (out of the picture) is the front door and the dining room and study.

and here are the stairs with the study to the right and the dining through the butler's pantry on the left. 

 

 All three of the 'master minds' surveying the lay of the land and discussing the landscaping/irrigation.

We are super excited to delve deeper into this process and see some sheet rock go up. But first the brick gets finished and screw-ups get fixed. Then insulation and county inspection. Then drywall and the race to the finish.

Crossing it Off

Crossed 6 more things off our sand bucket list this past week on vacation. Summer is flying by and we are accomplishing a little of nothing and a little of something just as it should  be.  :)

House Update

 It has windows! and see that... that's the brick and concrete for the driveway! 

And this is my backyard from what we assume is the great room windows. We are an estimated 8 ft. off the ground from the backdoor to the yard... meaning a raised deck off the sunroom. 

We head down there this week to check out the progress for ourselves so expect excessive pictures in the next update of the INSIDE!!

Also and a complete aside and absolutely unrelated- I had a moment of 'I wish you hadn't telled me that' this morning. It made me miss my family something fierce.