November 10, 2014

There's a Roof!!

 

 

Going by the home site on Monday with my mother I was blown away at the progress that Ryan Homes has made with the house. There's the beginnings of a roof. When we pulled up to the lot the builders were in the process of putting the trusses onto the roof portion of the home. We actually got to see them take each individual piece of wood framing and place it on the home. The best way that I can describe it is like someone putting pieces of a puzzle together. It was great to see. I was so happy I jumped for joy (literally). I was like a kid on Christmas morning. Once the roof is on, they'll start working on the plumbing and electricity on the inside portion of the home and hopefully then at that point we'll get called in for our pre-drywall construction meeting. Below you will find some photos with pictures of the builders putting the roof on our home. Until next time, happy blogging!

 

 

 

The crane placing the trusses of the roof together. There are workers on the top most portion of the home who help guide the pieces into their appropriate places.

Front view of the home site with portions of the roof installed.

The crane placing the trusses onto the roof.

Windows! Super excited to see those.

The crane was placing a piece towards the rear portion of the roof.

Here you can see a worker guiding the crane to the wood piece that needs to be placed on the roof next.

The worker is hooking up the wooden piece for the crane.

Mission accomplished. Wooden piece is hooked up and en route to its proper place.

This is the puzzle piece I was talking about.

It literally snapped into place with some help from the workers. You can see one pictured in the window however there are about 3 or 4 up there.



November 6, 2014

Second Level Framing

 

 

Went by the lot again and Ryan Homes is going full steam ahead! They've almost completed the second level living space where the bedrooms will be.

 

 

 

Full frontal photo of the home with the second level almost completed. There will be a closet above the garage.

 

 

Another full frontal of the home.

 

 

Side view of the home with completed second level. Not sure why they wrapped the third car garage doorway. You can see the foundation where the basement will be and above that, the garage and kitchen area. Above the kitchen will be the master bedroom with sitting room and master bath.

 

 

Garage doorway

 

 

The opening on the second level will be the opening to my closet. I can't wait to customize it!

 

 

Side view of the right hand side of the home with the completed second level. The front facing portion will house one our boys. The rear second level corner room will be the guest room. The guest room is the smallest of all three secondary rooms and they'll all share the same hallway bath. We don't anticipate having any real overnight guests so we didn't see the need to have another bathroom on the second floor.

Our doorway. It's recessed because of the elevation that we chose (elevation B). Once the home is completed there will be a small porch or what they call a crow's nest surrounding the front door.

 

 

Side view of the home.

 

Here you can see where the guest room will be on the second level facing the woodline to the rear of the home.

 

 

In the upper right hand corner of this picture you can see the where our sitting room will be in the master bedroom. It was very important for me to have this as I wanted an oasis where I could sit and relax once I had some free time to myself. We also have a great view of the lake from the sitting room. There lots of deer in the area and I think it would be a great place to center myself after a chaotic day at work. Namaste.

 

A street view of the home with the completed second level.



 



November 5, 2014

Progressive Photos of Framing

 

 

Framing continued on November 5th where they put up the walls around the first level of the home.

 

 

The rear of the house. You can see the bump out to where the rear of the morning room extension will be. There's a rectangular opening to where the door to the backyard will be.

 

Another angle of the rear of the home. The foundation is more visible then we would like but hopefully they'll level it off with some dirt and sod. We'll ask and keep our fingers crossed. You can see more of the extension of the family room in this picture as well as more windows.

 

Love the way the sun is shining down in this photo. It's a sign!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The right side of the home (if you're facing it from the street). The room at the front corner of the home, I believe will be the formal dining room.

 

An angled photo of our side entry garage. Love that we chose to do a side entry.

 

Another photo of the side entry garage. You can see the three windows that will be facing the street. We'll have black shutters once the windows are put in place with a brick veneer. Very traditional exterior.

 

Another photo of the garage. (Don't mind the dumpster). In this photo you can see the third garage door standing alone. That will be my boyfriend's domain where he can tinker to his heart's content. (that is until I get my funky fresh new whip, rubs hands together devilishly, lol)

 

Full frontal of the home with a view of the first floor living space. Here I feel you can get an idea of the placement of the home. One of my favorite pictures.

 

A view of the home from the street. We came at lunchtime so everyone was away from the site. Best time to come so you're not in the way so to speak.

 

Another view from the street. Our soon to be neighbor's house on the right hand side. I'm curious to know and meet my neighbors. So far, everyone has been friendly and waving as they pass by. There's a few homes being built on our street at the same time. We're one of the last few lots left that are actively being built on.

 

You can see the opening in the middle of this picture where the front door will be. I can't wait to have actual people come through that door as we welcome them to our new home. More pictures to come!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



November 4, 2014

Let the Framing Begin!!

 

 

Over the course of the next few blog posts I will be showing you the framework that has begun on our home. Framing started on November 4th and I will be posting progressive posts with dates to give you an accurate depiction of how much time it took them to frame and roof our home. I hope that this helps for all you future Ryan Homes owners as well as those who are considering the Oberlin Terrace as a perspective home. Please ask questions and feel free to leave any comments. I'm very new at this and any positive feedback is much appreciated. Happy blogging!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



November 3, 2014

Concrete Floors!

 

 

 

 

We've got concrete floors!! Once again, when I have too much time on my hands I magically find myself "in the neighborhood" and end up at our lot. I have an uncanny habit of dragging the boyfriend along and he goes begrudgingly (I love him!). He's more patient than I am but I feel like if I don't check up on the lot at least 3 to 4 times a week, I'll be missing something and won't be able to share it with you all out here in blog world.

 

So, this past Monday, we went to the lot and saw that the contractors were in the process of laying concrete in our basement and in our garage. O HAPPY DAY! I asked the contractors how long would it take for the concrete to set and they gave me a range between two to three days.

 

The good times just keep on rolling, because no sooner had we left our lot than we received an email from our PM Ross who told us that framing would start the next day. Blessed beyond measure. With the holidays fast approaching this is the perfect present for me because I'm so happy and filled with joy that the dream of building our home together is quickly becoming a reality.

 

Here are some pictures of the contractors and the concrete flooring. I'll update the blog in the next day or so to show you the beginning of the framework they started working on. Til next time bloggers!!

 

 

 

This is the basement with fresh laid concrete. It's HUGE!!

Another photo of the concrete in the basement.

Another angle of the basement floor with concrete.

Contractor smoothing over the concrete for the garage.

Concrete floor of the garage.



November 1, 2014

Progress!!

 

 

 

It's hard for me NOT to go by and check on the progress of our lot. If I could, I would do a drive-by every single day!! I'm a bit of a stalker when it comes to our home. I want to be involved in as much of the building as possible.

 

Imagine my surprise when my boyfriend and I visited our lot this past Saturday and found out that they laid gravel which would serve as the base of  our soon to be driveway. They also laid re-barb (hope I'm spelling it right) wiring down onto the floor of the basement as well as the floor of the garage. The re-barb is wiring that is laid down on the floor prior to concrete being poured on the base. It helps with holding the rigidity of the concrete.

 

My boyfriend snuck in a few days prior (how dare he!) to me and saw them trucking in loads of dirt to help backfill the foundation. He counted at least 3 large dumpster sized trucks. There were also 2 mini-bull dozers that would roll over the dirt repeatedly until it was packed in solid.  

 

We were able to walk our lot and finally get a good look at how much land we had and get an idea of how much yard space we would have at our disposal. Though we don't have a lot of yard space in the actual back yard portion of our home, we have LOTS of space on the left side of the house. When they showed us the blue print of how the house would be positioned on the lot, our Sales Reps. Brandon and Sean explained to us that we may not have that much back yard space. We thought we would have a lot more than what we actually saw once they backfilled the dirt but I can live with it since we have that large space on the side. I don't want to be responsible for all that maintenance anyway!

 

One of our next projects, once the house is completed and we've recovered financially from the amount of furniture we would need to buy, is to have a small deck to the rear of the home with a roof-like covering where we could run electricity and have lighting and a ceiling fan (boyfriend's idea). Looking at the area that he has pre-selected he's not too sure that there's enough space to accomplish this fete but only time and a licensed contractor will tell.

 

Below you will find a few pictures of the foundation of the home after it was backfilled and some footage of the yard space in the front back and side of the home. Nothing too exciting but it's progress none the less!

 

I'll be back in a few days I'm sure with updates and more photos. Until next time fellow Ryan Homes bloggers!!

 

 

The gravel where our driveway will eventually be. I believe that the actual driveway will be the one of the last things that they do. They'll keep the gravel there so that way it will serve as a base for the asphalt.

 

 

Full frontal of home

 

Close up of front of home. You can see a step-up of where I'm sure the front door will be.

 

Right side of basement wall (if facing the home from the street). I think that we have a nice amount of space between our home and the home next to us. We will eventually have our landscaper Jose come and plant large evergreens on our property line to give us a little more privacy.

 

 

 

Left side of the basement wall.

 

 

A closer view of the left side of the basement wall.

 

This is the back corner of the basement wall that faces the rear of the home in the back yard. We believe that this is where the door to the deck will be placed. If so, it will only be a few steps down to the actual deck itself. My boyfriend isn't exactly sold on the back yard space but I think that it can still be done. We have a "line of disturbance" and a woodland preserve that is directly behind our lot so we can't build beyond our property line. But the trade off is that we have a good view to a beautiful lake and even have some geese! (I'm sure I'll be feeding them at some point if they stick around, I love all animals)

 

Here is a view of the back wall of the basement.

 

Here is a picture of our garage. If you click on the photo to enlarge it you will see the re-barb wiring that I was talking about as well as gravel to hold the concrete once it's poured.

 

Our basement floor pre-concrete. You can see the re-barb wiring as well as more gravel.

 

 

Here is a photo of the yard space that will be to the left of our home (if you're facing the house from the street). This picture doesn't do it any justice because we actually have a lot of space on that side of the home. In the beginning we were told that the developer wanted to make a path where that black tarp is down to the lake and build a sidewalk around it as well. We think that would be great but also wouldn't be upset if that didn't come to fruition. Even though it would just be a few feet, we could utilize that yard space for ourselves and also line this side of our property with trees for more privacy.