So Much Going On

It's been a few weeks since our last post.  So many things have been happening, I'll try to get everyone up to date.

We closed on the Dearborn house last Wednesday.  Picked up a moving truck Friday night, had two movers over Saturday morning and loaded the truck. Mike drove the truck and Cocoa and I followed in the Vue.  We got to Patti's house in Allegan about 6 and Patti got here about 7.  We went out for a quick dinner and then all crashed.  Saturday morning two more movers came and unloaded everything into Patti's garage and basement.  We headed back to Dearborn to pick up a few things and drop off the keys at the realtor.  When we walked in with the keys, the new owners walked in behind us to pick up the key.  They are a nice young couple, who will hopefully enjoy the house for many years.  It's hard to believe I had the house for 3 years before Mike, so a total of 27 years in that house.  So good bye to that chapter of our life and on to the next one.

So now onto the new house.  The trades, Electric, Plumbing and Heating/Cooling are in the house doing their things.  We hope to have them all completed and ready for the inspections by Monday.  Following are a couple of pictures of the doors that were put in in the Great Room, Laundry Room Entry and Front Doors.

The doors are finally in on the lake side of the house

This is the laundry room entry door.  I wasn't sure it was worth the extra cost to have the tall door, but it sure looks good with the sun shinning in.  Can't wait to see it with the walls, floors, cabinets and washer/dryer.  You know that gypsies don't have washers and dryers, so the thought of having them at my disposal is a wishful thought.

Here is the door from the master bedroom to the deck.  This was a last minute addition to the plan.  So glad we did it, it looks great and the sun cooperated for the picture.

Basement bath tub is in.

Here's an exciting picture, the HVAC runs are getting put installed.

We hitched a ride back to Dearborn on Monday to pick up the car and turn in the keys for the house.  Mike is sleeping on the van floor and Cocoa has the comfy seat for her nap.

Here are Mike and Cocoa sleeping on the way back from lunch after we helped unload the truck.

Here are the front doors.  They look great and you can see through the house out the deck doors and to the lake.

Doug stopped by Patti's this afternoon and we talked about the schedules and he thinks we may be in late May.  I'm not holding my breath, but early June would be good.

In the mean time, we are staying at Patti's in Allegan.  Of course, her house is waiting for flooring, painting, trim work, bathrooms completed, kitchen, etc.....  But it's a place to sleep close to the build.  We're off later this week to Urbana, IL.

My Outdoor Shower and Exterior Doors

Not too much new looking this past weekend, but here are a few pictures of the garage exterior doors and my outdoor shower.  We're headed back tomorrow and plumbing and HVAC are working today, so we should see more visible progress. 

I've always wanted an outdoor shower, but ours got cut early in the budget.  We found this sitting in the snow for the basement bath.

The is the back garage door.

This is the entry door from the garage to the house.

This is the garage entry door on the front of the house.

Garage entry door from the outstide.

This is Mike's workroom door to the outside world.

Yesterday we had the appraisal for the Dearborn house.  Hopefully, by week end we'll know that all is well with the buyers financing.  Then we set the close date and go.  Today I'm starting to pack.

Windows are going IN

We had a great drive over to the house yesterday.  The sun was shining and traffic was light.  Of course, sunshine is great, until you get to a dirt driveway with thawing.  This equals mud.  Oh well, can't get to spring without thawing and mud.

The windows are almost all in.  I need to get the exact location for the kitchen window to go over the sink.  But I need to determine the exact location of the sink first.  I'm getting there, we walked through kitchen things with Jan. Hopefully we can get together soon to finalize that kitchen.  But I need to decide on washer/dryer, to finalize the laundry plan.  So many decisions.

This week Mike and I have been TRYING to decide on garage doors, fireplace, kitchen plan, lighting plans.....  Now you know why I'm updating this at 6AM on a Sunday morning.  Sleep is not always happening.  Of course, Mike and Cocoa are sound asleep after a bird hunt over by the new house yesterday, they are both pooped.

We also have more reasons to not sleep.  We have a contract on our Dearborn house and will be closing mid-March.  Yes that is just a few weeks away.  Who would have thought in this economy we would sell the house so quick.  It was only on the market for a week and we had two offers.  Thanks to our agent, Allison Fishwick for a great job.

So now we are working on where will we sleep for the next few months.  They are making great progress, but not quite that good.  

Okay, back to the pictures.  The camera battery went out, so the pics are from the cell phone. 

This is the garage.  They have it closed off and are running heat in here to get the ground to thaw, so they can pour some concrete.

This is in the garage looking to where Mike's work room and the laundry will be.

This is the view from the west neighbors.

Coming up the drive to the house.  The lake is in the background.

Here is the lake front view.  It's hard to believe that last weekend there was over a foot of snow.  Windows are looking good.

This is the lakefront bedroom in the lower level.

This is the other bedroom in the lower level on the right.  On the left is the walk out area to the lake.

This is the family room in the lower level.

This will be the great room.  Once the doors are in to the deck it will be great!!

Last but not least, I think this will be my favorite place, the sun room.  And today there was cooperation, there was great sun. 

Just a few updates on the lower level

We made it over to the house today.  It was cold, although warmer than the last few days, but sunny, which always helps.

Here are a few pictures from the lower level today.  Okay, I changed them, but they still show up on their side.  So for now you just have to turn your head.

The is the upper stairs going to the lower level.

Another head turner!!!  This is the framing for the master shower.  The seat will be tiled.  Although there are a few things that need to be changed/corrected in here.

These are the bottom half of the stairs to the lower level.

This is the wall for one of the bedrooms in the lower level.  It looks really dark because they have all the window opening covered to keep out the cold and snow.

Okay, another head turner.  This is the other bedroom in the lower level, you can see some light in this room, the window covering is not on tight enough.

Let's all hope for a warm up, so they can finish the shingling early next week.  Then they will start to work on the exterior trim.  Things are still moving along well.

Shingling is Happening

So we haven't made the trip over to Allegan in the past two weeks.  We've been busy putting our house on the market.  We have had some showings as well as some repeat visitors.  It is a pain to always be ready to head out of the house and take Cocoa somewhere.  Of course it usually is scheduled for dinner time.  Cocoa loves it, Sonic has become our new dinner spot, since it is too cold to leave Cocoa in the car while we go in somewhere to have dinner.  She loves the tots and the cheese bites.

So Doug has been kind enough to get us a few more pictures as the shingles are going up.  We hope to get over there this Friday.  So here they are:

1/28/11 Progress Continues

Here are some pictures the builder sent over.  I'm not sure when we started that Doug knew he would need to be a photographer, along with a builder.  I wonder if they teach that in building school.  The first picture is from over the river on the road.  Nice Picture Doug!!

Here's a view from over the bridge on the other side of the lake.  Nice picture, can hardly wait to get the boat and dock in the water.  Speaking of boats, our just came in, so they will keep it in storage until it warms up, maybe May????

This is coming down the driveway.  Looking good, all the sheeting is done and it is covered, no more snow on the floor.

Here are Willie and Colter trying to get Tim to play.

Here's the back of the garage all wrapped up.

They are taking sheeting into the rafters.

Nice way to move supplies.  Sure beats hand moving supplies.

1/25/11

We got to head over the Allegan today to check on the progress.  Thankfully, the weather cooperated and the road were good.  With the warmer temps (20's and 30's) and the snow on the ground = foggy roads.

The well is in and work on connecting to the house is happening today.  The basement concrete is in with the plumbing for the basement bath in.  The trusses and sheeting are on the house, trusses are up in the garage and today they are doing the sheeting.

Today we also ordered the windows.  So things are still moving along.  Here come the pics.

This is the lake side of the house.  The left side on the main level is the master bedroom.  The center area is the great room and the right side is the sunroom.  The kitchen is behind the sunroom, but it is all open.

The well is in and here they are putting the line from the well to the house.

Looking through the wall into the master bedroom.

This is looking into the sunroom from the great room.

This is looking from the master bedroom hall through the great room and into the kitchen.

Here are the guys loading the sheeting onto the roof of the garage.  It sure beats taking them up the ladder one at a time.

Easy way to move the sheets.

Sheeting going up on the garage.

 

Now we are in the basement.  Here is the well.

Here is a bedroom in the lower level.  Doug and I are standing in a sitting area.

This is another bedroom that looks out to the lake.

Here shows the concrete floor that was poured last week.

The well piping being trenched in.

Another view of the lake side of the house.