Hidden Gem Darby Creek Metro Park

Thanks to a school project.  A and I had the delight to explore the Darby Creek Metro Park. They have a relatively we nature center which is fantastic.  Inside they have a living stream with all sorts of species found in the Darby Creek area. This little guy was posing for lots of pictures when we were there.

After exploring the inside of the facility, it was great to get out and walk some of the wooded trails on a fall day. 

Then we went to check out the bison, which I had no idea were even there!  It was a gorgeous fall day and it reminded me what great Metro Parks we have here in Central Ohio.  So of course I immediately came home to sign the little kids up for some of the programs they have to offer.  I totally forgot how much of that we did with the older kids.  We are very fortunate to have these types of facilities and I must remember to take advantage of these free programs!  Click on this link to check out the  Central Ohio Metro Parks

Sept 27th

Geothermal lines are all covered up.  HVAC and plumbing are cruising inside. 

We have a furnace!

Plumbing work continues. All the fiberglass showers are in.  Had to make some changes in the jack n Jill bath. Again on paper things look great, sometimes they need tweeted. 

Planting seeds of joy

One of the best parts of this process has been our evenings out on the property together.  Jeff wanted to get some grass planted.  With the amount of land around the house, we want to reserve some of it for pasture.  (Saves on the mowing)  Jeff started planting and soon had some help.

Love these pics.  

Jeff stopped to show them some deer tracks in the mud.  

Love this sunlight.

Just

Geothermal installation

Not as much visible progress today but it still feels like we are cruisin'.   Today they worked on the geothermal installation. Going with a geothermal system was a big decision for us. It was something we always said we would do if we built a house. But when they hand you the pricing it really makes you want to run.....in the short term. After a lot of research we decided it was worth it for us.  If we were planning to be here for 5-10 years it would not be worth it. Since the plan is to be wheeled out of this place when we are old and gray (yes, we even made parts of the house handicap accessible), it is worth the investment.

 These trenches are 6 feet deep, 120 feet long.

Tip:  If you are looking to install geothermal in your new home, there are tax breaks you may qualify for. 

You can see Ken laying the coils of tubing up and down the trenches. 

Sept 23 HVAC, Plumbing and Details

Quite a crew there today:
Exterior workers were giving the gables some eyebrows:)  These will have black metal roofing.

Interior framers were (moving walls for me) adding some details inside the house like the mantle and tray ceiling in the Master Bedroom.

                                                                

Plumbers were busy with all sorts of PVC:

The HVAC guys placed and cut all the vents.  

   

Marked the trenches for the Geothermal system.

And the Well Drilling company came and we now have a well!

Not quite how it looked on paper

Because we designed the house ourselves, we really have no idea what to expect.  There is no model that we walked through.  Only what we have envisioned in our mind and the prints.  Many who have built a house will tell you how some things just look different on paper than in real life.  We had two scenarios come up today where we made some changes.  Luckily it was early enough that we were able to move some walls and adjust things.

Most women will be completely confused by this decision but I actually gave up 20 sq feet of closet space today.  As I was standing in our monster of a closet it just didn't feel right.  Even on paper I knew that it was too big but there didn't appear to be an adjoining room that we could shift the extra square footage to.  Now that it is framed, it looked like the adjacent bathroom cold easily take on some extra square footage.  The bathroom was smaller than I had envisioned so it was a perfect swap.  We only had to move one small wall and change the layout of the bathroom a smidge and voila!

This is the larger version of the bathroom.  Hopefully i don't regret giving up that closet space.









Another re-work we had to do was in the basement.

This door was added to go from the finished side to the unfinished side.  Long story short, we lost 2 feet which took away the walkway I intended to lead through this living area to that door.  We have another door that was going to the mechanical room to the unfinished side.  So we did some shifting and we are eliminating this door altogether.  

We also had to do some reconfiguring in the Jack n Jill bathroom.  That area of the house was a challenge when we were designing it.  And it continues to be a challenge.  However, I feel much better about how it it laid out based on some changes we made today.  Again, I lost some closet space  from a hall closet but it was oversized to start with.  We have been lucky so far with some easy adjustments.

These boots are made for walkin'

Finally moved my muck boots into our new garage.

Here is what inappropriate footwear at a building site looks like:

Stone, Shakes and Siding, OH MY!!

Friday Fun Day -
ROOF IS COMPLETE!!

 

Very happy with the color.  It is gray but has some warm undertones so it isn't so harsh.
Finally made all the decisions on the outside of the house.  Stone, Shake and Siding Colors.  Quite the ordeal but now that the decisions have been made it is such a load off.  Now we can stop thinking about the outside and move inside!

Speaking of inside:  Basement was framed today.

Owen thought he would find the toilet in the basement bath and try it out....what a ham!

Finally looking like a living space down here.

Absolutely amazed at how different the inside of the house looks once everything is all cleaned up.

Up on the roof...

Not only a great song by James Taylor, but happy to see some progress up on the roof.

Hard to see here but the shingles are on this side of the house.  So far I'm really pleased with the color we chose.










I love these pictures because I feel like it is also a game of Where's Waldo.  Or in this case Where's Avery.  If you look back through the pics it's really funny.  Owen on the other hand isn't nearly as sneaky.

The other exciting development is the electric box!!

Sept 17

Roof is completed and ready for some shingles.

Just a little Saturday fun with the back hoe

So back in the corner of our property is a little woods with some hidden treasures.  Along with those treasures though comes some junk. The biggest hunk of junk is an old rusted out camper. In order to get it out we had to bring in a back hoe to pull it out of the trees. It took a couple tries but we eventually got it out of there.  

Attempt one. 

Success.

How else would you want to spend a Saturday afternoon?  I will post pictures later of some of the great finds out of the camper and barn.  We are hoping to use some of them within the house:)

Sept 16th

Monday-  Plan for the week primarily consists of the roof. We have chosen our roof color which is called Driftwood and they will start the shingles on Wednesday. Weather permitting, hope to be done by the end of the week.

They have 75% of roof done at this point.

Back Corner

Back of the House

Front Corner

Front of the House

Our First Dinner Party Sept 15

We had some visitors come out to check out the progress, our friends, the Dunlap's.  The big kids had fun playing in the dirt, riding 4 wheelers, etc.

And luckily Mrs. Dunlap had brought some Pizza Pasta because the little kids became very hungry!  It is the first meal at our new house!!!

Sept 13

After a day and a 1/2 of rain, we are back in business.   The job site has become quite muddy which did cause a bit of trouble for Eli

I'm Stuck!!

Despite the mud they have started placing the sheeting on the roof.