Ramble On

Progress

All of the block walls are up, the fireplace is in, and now they are finishing up the framing of the interior and roof. You can get a real sense of the what it will be like to live there. More pictures on Flickr.

House Update - Slab Pouring Day

This was very exciting to me.

I spent the entire day watching the process of pouring and smoothing the concrete that will be my floor. I probably got on the concrete guys' nerves by hanging out, snapping tons of pics, and doing nothing while they worked their butts off. I learned a lot today about pouring concrete. One thing I learned is that autumn is a bad time to pour because of all the falling leaves. Oh well, I had leaf imprints in the floor at my old place, too. When I last checked in at 4:30 all but one garage was a smooth layer of hardening concrete. I have more photos on my Flickr site, for anyone who is just utterly fascinated by the process of pouring a slab. Somehow I bet that only applies to me.

My ex-husband walked over to see the action and we went to have lunch. I want him to be happy about the progress of this house because I would never have started this project if not for him. I mean, I would have had something going on, because I always have had some kind of home project in the works. This is actually my 5th house. But I don't think I would have taken on building a house from scratch - hiring an architect, working on the design, getting a contractor, and dealing with all the hassles - by myself. His stamp is on this house too; we started it as an exciting venture we were doing together. The only reason I kept going alone is because I was scared to stop. I was not willing to pull the plug and have this be a failed project and me a quitter. I am excited now that it is actually starting to come together and I am proud of my perseverance, but I must be honest and say I would never have started this on my own.

I will be heading south in the morning for a family visit weekend, my first in over 3 years. I have been having trouble catching my breath all week due to the anxiety.

House Update- Hallelujah!

My house project has had some issues going on behind the scenes that have held things up for a few weeks. No need to go into them, because they are now resolved!

As long as it doesn't rain on Friday, we will be pouring the slab at around 10 am. I will be there taking pictures! I might celebrate with some champagne if I can find some non-alcoholic, non-caloric bubbly. Oh wait, that is called water! Heading over to weather.com.....

House Update

People have been asking me about the progress on my house since I haven't posted an update lately. Things ARE happening, just not much to see. Because of the way we are building, a lot of the inspections and stuff that would be happening later for other types of construction are going on now for us. And in typical fashion, almost every step of the way there has been some issue with the city. We have gotten behind schedule because of these issues, rain, and things like that. But we'll get there. After the slab hurdle is cleared, we should have a few months of smooth sailing.

House Update Week of 9/23, Plus Bitching

Here is this week's progress.

Pipes in for plumbing, gravel spread and plastic barrier put down, rebar to reinforce the slab in place. Check, Check, Check.

Now for the bitching. I CANNOT wait for this house to be ready and to move in because there are things about being a renter that I have not experienced for so long and I don't have the tolerance for it anymore. For instance, I just went out to the parking lot to discover that my mom's SUV, which I had borrowed to pick up chairs for the office, had been towed. I forgot I needed to leave a note or something since I wasn't in my car and didn't have the permit in the window. So it was my fault, but that doesn't mean I am not aggravated. I couldn't find anyone to give me a lift to the towing yard and as it turns out my mom needs to pick it up anyway since the registration is in her name. So now I am sitting here waiting on them to pick me up. But they had lunch plans with my brother and had promised to take my 7 year old nephew to Eddie's Trick Shop (oh boy, an afternoon of watching a 7 year old ineptly perform magic tricks awaits me!), so it will be a while.

I am just going to sit in my dark, cave-like, dirty, creaky apartment and pout and dream about how in a few months I will be pulling into my own garage where nobody will tow me and I won't hear my neighbors singing along to the soundtrack of Footloose.

House Update Week of September 11

I won't post a picture of the actual house because it basically looks the same except for a bunch of white pipes sticking out of the ground. The plumbing lines are in, courtesy of my next door neighbors, The Plumbworks. I walked over to check it out this evening.

I will, however, post this shot of September's issue of Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles. As you can see, my cat George is very happy to see that our architect Bill Carpenter is featured in the issue. Actually he can't read, but I told him about it and he seemed excited.

Look closely at the photo of Bill and you will see...

Power Lunch

Here is a photo of Andy (contractor), Bill (architect), and my plate of spaghetti. I like all three.

Welcome to my mudpile! Mudpile, Sweet, Mudpile. (Use your imagination and pretend I am in front of a door.)

8-26-06

The slab has been backfilled and pilings cored and filled with concrete.  Tuesday I meet with Bill and Andy to walk the site and make sure all the plumbing and such is placed exactly right, because there will be no changing it once the cement is poured.

It's good to see all the stages. I like knowing what is under the ground. Looking at this, you'd never know how deep the block goes into the ground (as seen in pictures from Week of August 7-11).

Week of August 7-11

Pics of my crawl space/foundation/whatever you call it. Getting ready for the concrete slab that will be my bottom level floor.

Front


Back

End of Dry Spell

It's not that I have had nothing going on to write about- I have- but I just haven't been in the mood. I have been a little busier, a little more tired, and a little sluggish, which anyone who has lived through a summer in Atlanta can understand.

Here is the latest on my house:

So, we finally have started. Last week the trenches for the foundation were dug and I think in the next couple of weeks block is going to be delivered for the walls. Of course, OF COURSE, after a long dry spell that had Atlanta on water usage bans, we started getting regular rain as soon as the digging started.

Okay, so you really have to kind of use your imagination here. I took this photo while standing on a mound of dirt in my future backyard. The trenches kind of let you see where the house will be on the lot.
Maybe this next picture will help you envision everything a little better.

This model was made way back at the beginning of the process. You can see how the living area is two stories tall and looks out into what will be the courtyard. My art studio and bedroom also look out onto the courtyard. There is a roof-top terrace over one of the garages, but I will be renting the entire upstairs out and won't get to use it personally, for now at least. Originally, the master bedroom, bath, and bonus room were located upstairs. After I became single again, we had to make some revisions in order for me to be able to afford to continue the project. Now the former music studio is going to be my bedroom. Also for budgetary reasons, we had to lose a lot of the glass shown in the model. The main two-story store-front window of the living area remains, but the two windows on either side of it are now gone and will be galvanized metal. The skylights are gone, too. But you can see that there will still be plenty of windows and light.

Here are sketches of the front and back elevations. I added a few notes about the materials and such.

Here is a shot looking from what will be my courtyard. (I will also have  40' x 50' backyard, but I am most excited about the courtyard since that is what most of the house will view and I loved gardening in my courtyard when I lived in my house in Decatur.)

I will post floorplans at some point. I only have old ones now. I am meeting with Bill on Tuesday to finalize my kitchen layout. I have already ordered my bathroom plumbing fixtures and when I opened up the box I have never been so excited over a showerhead in my life. Hopefully in about ten months I will be actually using it.

Pardon any grammatical or spelling errors in this post. I am too lazy tonight to proof anything.