Looking Like Home

We made trips to the lake on December 11th and 18th. We took my Mom and Dad and Kelly out on the 11th. It was the first time my parents had seen the house. It was a good thing the driveways and sidewalk had been poured, otherwise we might have been carrying my Mom onto the premises!






The pea gravel drive looks fantastic. The outdoor fixtures are up now as well.








Another addition to our Lone Star collection has been installed. Stay tuned, there are more. Fixtures and fittings were also prominent everywhere.






Shower jets are available from every conceivable direction.










The outdoor sinks have been put in on the patio and in the garage. And we have running water!








The great room, from both directions.








Picture this
<----

With this ---->

(Did I mention more Lone Stars)





We'll be back after Christmas when the railing will be put up, with more pics for your viewing pleasure. Merry Christmas to all.

Getting Ready for the Pour

These pics are from the trip we made on Friday, December 3, 2010. The forms for the driveways, sidewalk and lower patio have been set and the pour is scheduled for Tuesday.







We decided to go with pea gravel instead of stained concrete (nice looking, more durable and cheaper, too).







The front doors have been stained and are really looking nice. They are made from"knotty alder", and really have "character".





Winnie's china hutch and the bookshelves stained and ready to dust.





Into the man-cave, with the entertainment center and wet bar. The wet bar will have the brass beer engines I brought back from London mounted on it.





I still have quite a bit of old vinyl, so we made some pull-out shelves for my turntable, LPs, and other gear.








We'll be back next weekend to see what it looks like.

Our First House Guests!

No, we haven't moved in yet. But our neighbors from Houston did want to see first hand what we keep going on and on about. So, on November 27 we and some of our neighbors made the trip out to Canyon Lake.







Cabinet work is pretty much complete, and the stain is going on.









In the garage, the workbench, pegboard and
shelving are now in.











We even took a hike down to the lake at the Pavilion. What a gorgeous day! We topped it off with lunch in Gruene at the Grist Mill before heading back to Houston.

Woodworking Gone Wild!

We traveled to the lake house on November 13 on our way to a wedding in Austin. Winnie got to spend some time with Laurie Mahoney picking out light fixtures and ceiling fans. Then it was over to the house to check on progress. Mark the trim carpenter had really been busy!










Cabinets, drawers, center island, a desk for Winnie in the kitchen, it was all coming together nicely.










Into the media room, and we have the bar and the entertainment center. Panic! The wine refrigerator opening looked way too narrow! (It wasn't)







When we eliminated the formal dining room from the house plan, Winnie lost her china cabinet. Can you believe we found another place for it? Doh.










No, those aren't floating cabinets. Visualize a stone fireplace, mantle and hearth. Yeah, now we're talking.












Did I mention the master shower /steam sauna has been tiled? Sweet!









This is one of our "little extras". The cutout will contain a steel sink (to match the steel doors and the gas grill that will be parked next to it, of course). Now that the stonework is completed, the wrought iron railing can go up.

Back in a couple of weeks!

Granite Revisited

Back in August, I posted that we had picked out some granite out at Keystone Granite in San Antonio, but they weren't sure they had enough of it to do all of our counter tops, and didn't expect get any more. As it turns out, they did get some more, so we headed back out to San Antonio on October 23 to look at what they got in.






Keystone actually had two options for us to choose from, Peacock Green and Peacock Light. Can you tell which is which? We chose Peacock Green (left)




We took the scenic route back from Keystone to our house (courtesy of Google maps) and discovered some Texas wineries and passed right by Natural Bridge Caverns. We are going to have a lot to explore once we move out here.




It had only been a week since we were last here, but a lot of progress had been made. More cabinets were going up, and there were drawers galore!






The propane tank had also been installed, so we will be able put that gas grill Winnie has always wanted on the patio. My charcoal smoker will be relegated to the lower patio (more on that in a future post).

It will probably be three weeks before we are able to make it back out, but I'm sure a lot will have been done.

Lock Her Up!

No, not Winnie, the house silly.

We went out to the lake October 15, and we even managed to get our daughter Kelly up early for a 7:00am (almost) start. It was her first trip out since construction was started on the house, and she was impressed. She also got a chance to meet our not so imaginary neighbors, the Coopers, who are also building a home with the Mahoney's. We learned on the Homeowner's web site that they live a couple of streets over from us back in Houston.


The first thing we noticed was the garage doors were up. It was supposed to have a lock box with a front door key in it, but it didn't and all the doors were locked. Laurie had to call hubby Brian to bring the key out to us (a rare Brian Mahoney siting).







Once inside, we noticed the trim carpenter had been hard at work building cabinets, hanging doors and well, putting up trim.







Out back, I got a real
education on how our septic system works. As it turns out, ours is a real HOOT (those among you with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge of how an aerobic septic system works can click on the link). The bottom line is that this bad boy outputs water that has 99% of the influent waste stream removed (and waters the yard!).


Back inside, we noticed our front doors had been delivered (they use temporary ones during the construction to keep from damaging the real ones). We just couldn't resist a peek, so we tore into the packaging. There will be a trivia contest question at our house to guess how many time the Texas lone star appears on out property!



We will be back in a week to check out a new shipment of granite that came in.

Drywall is up!

We made a trip to Canyon Lake on Friday, October 1st. Kinda funny, we were just driving out to check on progress, and about the time we got to Seguin, our builder called to ask a question, and when she discovered we were almost there, told us to swing by her office and we would go walk the house and spec out cabinets. When we arrived, not only was the roof and stonework completed, but the sheet-rock guys were just about finished with the floating & taping.




It's incredible how much larger the house seems with the drywall up. Even Winnie thought so, and if you have been following this blog very long, you know that's a fact. :)

The stone columns on the patio were also new since our last visit, and we really like them.












Wondering what those PVC pipes are for? Think conduits for all those home entertainment system wires you never thought you would need!








We'll be glad when the railing goes up on the patio, that's quite a drop!


Things will seem to slow down now as the cabinet maker starts work. We're told he will be measuring and cutting for the next several weeks. We'll be back out to meet with him in 2 or 3 weeks.