Looking like a real house!

Is that the electrician who is going to bring power to our house? Oh, wait... no, that is just Jeff, in his element!
Looking up at our turret!
We are movin' now!

Lookin' good! We can't wait!!

A view from the trail opening. Our house is the first one on the right.
This is where the boys have to stay when we look at the house. They are looking for ladybugs!
Framing coming along nicely!
Our larger garage.
Another view.

Looking down from the top of the stairs.
Second story, taken in boys play area. Looking at the turret (and Jeff).
Oooh... it is coming along so nicely!
They are putting on the roof. We have the box for our electrical panel!
Another angle.

Progress!!

Some parts of the ventilation (in the floor of our dining room).
The back of our fireplace (and Jeff's hands).
We have a fireplace!

Look, we have an address!! Our house is going to be the prettiest in the development! No, seriously... the front design and the color scheme are the prettiest!

Ben's friends come take a look

Ben's best friend Jason, in Ben's closet!

Ben's buds hanging out in their area!
Anthony on the room that will be Leo's.

Ben's friends came to check out the house! They were amazed! Neither of them had ever been in a house that big (the model of course)! I wanted to show them that we are not far from our old house, so they can still come to visit even though they will not go to the same school!

We are comin' along!

I'm lovin' it!
How exciting!!
View of our house as we drive in!
Do you recognize these houses? These are houses numbers 2-4. They are looking good!
Our accross the street neighbors were there checking out there house. We waved but there was no other connection. It was VERY windy!!

Second story

Looking at Ben and Leo's rooms!
Front door and 2 garages.
Our stairs!!

Here comes the fun! We actually have stuff to look at!

Okay, I have been lacking a bit, but we have been out to our lot almost every single night!! It is so much fun watching the progression! We got kicked off of our lot by a security guard a week or so ago. He said that we needed ID passes that said it was our lot, and that children under 18 cannot be on the site at all! So, I contacted our not so helpful agents who told us the passes would be in our "Welcome Home Binder". There was no indication as to whe we would have the binder though; "soon".

Well, we got a call last week saying that the binder was in. I went to pick it up only to be told that we can only go out to the site M-F from 4-5, and on Saturdays till 11. So, I told the agent we'd be out there this Saturday, and every Saturday. She said the house has to be totally framed before we can go! (It sure would have been helpful if she would have told us that to begin with!!)

So, we go illegally! But, the security guard (who is the only one there when we go) said all we needed was those passes, so we wear our passes and hope not to get in trouble! What can they do, really? I mean it is our house for crying out loud!

Anyways, enjoy the pics!

HERE WE GO!!!! Looks like we are house number 6 in the development!

Our lot number!

Our address marker

Trenches and "footers?"

Pipes!

Every good house starts with a good FOUNDATION!

Getting ready for cement!

We have a floor! (Kinda)

And... it is starting to take shape!

Our ID tags! The Security Guard said he could not let us on our property without these. We just got them.

We have some dimension!!!!! This is what they call an "open floorplan"!!

Not sure, think that is the laundry room.

This is a pic taken in our front yard looking at our neighbor's house. No fair... there walls are bigger than ours!!

A walk in the park, some visitors, and PROGRESS!

First there were holes. Then there were trenches. Now there are "footers" (I think)!

On Saturday Jeff and I had another appointment with Judy to finalize our selections. We took out a couple of nonessential upgrades but still went over our what we thought we'd spend. The builder gave us $35K and we ended up spending $37K. But, I think we made good choices. Dr. Olowude (my supervisor last year) said that if he had it to do all over again (meaning building a house), he would have had chosen more upgrades. He never led me wrong before!

So, we signed our final stuff. Judy told us our "lumber" has already been ordered and that she will be ordering our cabinets and other items Tuesday. She is working on a "board" for us. It will have samples of our flooring/wood/tiles/paint/etc. She estimated it would be ready in about 2 weeks.

Jamie and Rob came to check out our model and lot on Sunday. Jamie noted that the house seems to be much more "like a home" than the previous homes we thought we were getting. Rob was kind of quiet, but he did mention being "tired from all the walking" ( I think that was supposed to be in reference to the square footage).

Sunday afternoon we decided to take a ride/walk along the trail to the park. Leo rode his scooter, Ben rode his bike, while Jeff and I walked. Actually, Jeff rode the bike and scooter on several occasions too! We had fun playing on the playground equipment and tossing the gooey ball around. It was a very nice afternoon.

Progress!

Our Sunday outing, a walk along our trail to the park!

Leo pouting because no one wants to play on the slides with him at the moment!

Jamie and Rob come to check out our lot and model. They are in Ben's room!

House number one.
House number 3. This is the Verona model (the biggest floorplan).
House number 2 (I think).

Ben and Leo playing in our trenches! Awww... they actually look like they like each other!

The boys playing on the trenched lot accross the street.



Trench, up close and personal.

Yes, that is Dave and, hmmmm... who's car is that?? I guess this is the step right before they pour the cement!! Yipeee!