Glory to God in the Highest!

Merry Christmas, hope this year ends with all of you feeling blessed and loved.

We are closing the walls!

Here it is..... SHEETROCK! It was delivered today and I am sad to say I missed the 18 wheeler that delivered the sheetrock but it is placed nicely in every room. I am so excited, I can hardly stand it. Today they started in our daughter's room. the ceiling is done, I will snap those photos tomorrow, it was too late when I went by the afternoon.
As an added bonus some of the exterior doors have been delivered as well. Hitting a high note and making it early Christmas present to boot!

This is the stack in the living room, and waiting to see these pieces go up. This view is looking back toward the hall and new powder bath. You can see the fireplace in the background. We had to repair the firebrick and with that came new herringbone tile insert. It is beautiful, I will post those photos in another post.

This originial view is from the living room looking back into the dining room and the kitchen.

This is the same view now, you can see the ceilings have been vaulted and the sheetrock is here waiting to be hung.
We are so glad things are coming together, everyone has worked hard this week and we are so grateful for all the people involved in the renovation. We have gotten to know new friends and look forward to sharing the rest of the journey with friends new and old.


Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Baby, it's cold outside.

It is finally cold in Texas! I am thankful for that, it is December after all.
The insulation has been blown in the outside walls and put up into the ceilings. We are about to begin putting up the sheetrock, then wood floors, tile in the bathrooms,Yipeee!!! But I am getting ahead of myself.
Let's start with what is already in place at Hathaway; outside walls, new roof, new framing, new electrical, new plumbing, new lighting, new HVAC and insulation. Imagine how surprised I was when I went inside the other day and it was much colder inside than outside, the insulation is working like a charm.

Here is looking into the master study from the master bedroom. The pocket door track is installed and ready for interior doors. You can see what type of insulation was blown into the walls and insulation that was put up into the beautiful tray ceiling. ( I will take another photo showing the beautiful framing of the ceiling)

Here is a close up of the insulation, between the windows in our bedroom. It is amazing how quiet it is in the house with just the insulation. Once the sheetrock is up it will be really quiet and spa like. Although it will be more like Calagon take me away, is probably closer to reality.

Here is a shot of our daughter's insulation, I know it all looks the same but I am so happy to have moved from framing to insulation and heading into sheetrock.

From one of my favorite Christmas songs:
I've got to go home - Oh, baby, you'll freeze out there
Ahh, but it's cold outside!!!! (or inside if you have new insulation and no heat)

Windows of the World... Well, our corner of the world

Here is the back of the house right after we signed the papers. The upper windows have changed in shape and size, the back wall has been moved out to increase the room size. This was the original garage of the home when it was built (1942). It has since been closed in and looked like this but here are some of the photos along with the process and transformation.

This picture shows the sagging roof and the outside rock exposed. Along with single pane windows and french doors which were poorly installed. As in everything that was done to this house before we bought it and started this "renovation", I mean total rebuild.

This is after the roof was ripped off and before the new roof and extension of family room was completed.

Here is a close up of the two new windows and dormers of the upstairs bedroom and bathroom. And the new metal roof on the back side of the house. Can't wait for the rain (now that the house is dried in).

Here is the almost finished view, minus the stacks of lumber and trash. I love how it looks and I will really enjoy it when I am floating in the pool on a raft with an umbrella in my drink !
We are headed to pick out exterior doors and then onto sheetrock. They say it moves fast after the sheetrock starts..... will keep you posted!

What, Lassie we have a well in the backyard?

After making a joke about a well in an earlier post (Now you see it, now you don't) we do indeed have a well. It is pretty exciting(not in the sense I just found a million dollars exciting) but exciting in we have an alternative way to water our lawn.

This is looking right into the well. Please admire the grass around it, my handsome hubby and good looking son have laid at least two pallets. After determining we had a well, my smart hubby tied a lug nut to a piece of string and dropped into the well. (you know super technical stuff) After what seemed like a long time it finally hit bottom, at thirty seven feet. It was also wet which meant we have a well and it has water in it, SCORE!

Now that may not seem like a big deal but here in Dallas, we have been under watering restrictions and the whole state is in a drought. It makes exciting to discover we have something useful for the future. Because we have discovered many things that are or will not be helpful in the future. The list of those things is far too long to recite. (trust me)
So armed with the knowledge that we do have well, I am thrilled with the possibility of watering our lawn and making sure our children do not fall into it. Because truth be told we do not have Lassie to alert us or help us find them if they do fall in the well.



These are our two furry children ( I mean dogs) :) As you can see they would be no help in either action finding the kids or alerting us, but they are certainly cute!

Put a lid on it

Well, after a very long break I am back to the blog. We have passed our plumbing, HVAC and electrical inspections. Hence we have not changed much inside other the addition of more wires, pipes, vents and framing.
We are waiting for our new windows to arrive (this Tuesday) and be installed which will help move to the next stage of the drying in process. Meaning flooring and sheetrock can start going in and the house will start looking more like a house. Which brings me to my favorite part (for right now anyway) our new roof! She is a real beaut, Clark... The new dormers and the trim and shutters look better than they have in a long time.

I love it!! It looks good even with the old paint,ladder and new posts that are not yet trimmed or painted. We hear it is going to be moving quickly from this point on. However, I am not holding my breath with that little nugget of information.



Looking forward to sharing the details with you very soon.
But for now I will try to keep a lid on all the excitement.

When in Ephesus...

Last year we had a wonderful opportunity to travel to Ephesus. I fell in LOVE with the city of Ephesus, it was completely amazing. I was blown away by the ruins that have been excavated but was taken aback by the streets, they were made out of marble. Beautiful,gleaming marble, they looked almost brand new. I digress, today I had the pleasure of going to pick out tile for our bathrooms. And you guessed it, I chose marble for the bathroom floors, counter tops and shower walls. I had the best time, but thank goodness for the representative and my sweet friend Kendall who kept me on task. I would still be there looking at everything they had even though I only needed help with the bathrooms.

These are the bathroom choices in miniature.

This is the wall surround for the claw foot tub . I will include the tub photos in a later post. (it is beautiful). The tile is a 2x4 white venatino laid in a brick pattern, the cap is a 4 inch classic white calcutta.

This is the floor of the master bathroom, classic white venatino basketweave. There will be a boarder of 6x18 classic white venatino around the perimeter of the room.

This is the shower floor cut into 4x4 tile, the shower wall tiles are 12x18 and a 12x12 tile on the floor of the water closet. The background color is the wall color we are considering. Benjamin Moore's Owl Gray (OC-53). I can not wait to see it all put together.