Deep freeze

Progress on the house has, literally, been frozen for nearly 2 weeks! With no natural gas hook up and temperatures hovering near -40, there is no feasible way to make any headway on the house. We now have the house completely closed in, electrical roughed in, and our garage floor poured...all good things. We'll just have to wait now until the weather lets up to get going on the exterior, and then for natural gas to be able to heat the inside to rough in the plumbing and get it drywalled.

What's wrong with this picture?

After a weekend out of town, I headed out to the house to see how things looked since the windows had been installed. Hmmm, going out there and becoming frustrated at the appearance of things is becoming an all too common occurrence. As we approached, the words came swift and sharp, "Why can I see sunlight through the roof?!".


As we got closer, I realized that the windows were indeed installed, the majority of them anyway, but for some bizarre reason the roof wasn't totally sheeted! Call me crazy but isn't that supposed to happen *before* putting in windows and doors? Not to mention the fact that they had installed some fugly white steel front door that was certainly not what I had ordered.


Seeing the windows in made me truly regret accepting the windows the company had shipped...all of them for the front of the house with mullions instead of clear glass. It's just not my style, not my taste, and I should have insisted they go back, but I didn't and now I'm stuck with them.


I am grateful for the manufacturer's error on my patio doors, though. Originally they were to be sliding glass doors, but when they arrived they were two garden doors...which I looooooooooove! So glad for that mistake!


I'm meeting with the electrician tomorrow to set up our interior and exterior lighting plan, wish me luck!

Is that your final answer?

I kept telling everyone who cautioned me about the huge number of decisions I'd have to make not to worry, that I have a vision and I wouldn't have an problems. WRONG!

We have been through more siding, trim and paint samples than I care to think about. And each one left me more and more dewildered. Dallas isn't much help either, telling me that, "As long as it's not ugly", I can select what I think is best. So, after muh deliberation, we've decided on our exterior colours.

We have decided to use a fiber cement siding instead of vinyl for a few reasons. It's longer lasting, it looks better, and it's friendly to the environment. Here's our pick for siding:

Our trim:

Our garage doors:

I stood in my closet today

I nearly froze my tush off today but I managed to spend some time walking through the house and triple checking to make sure that things were coming together as we wanted them to. So far so good, no changes = a happy contractor!


Perspective is hard since the walls are only framed, but here is a tour:


The dining room (view from the living room)
Front foyerUpstairs hall (it will have an open iron railing and be open to the stairs and foyer below) Bonus room