That's All Folks

The construction phase of the project is DONE. This is an early morning shot, the sun was dappling through the trees...our backyard is such a nice place to be! Anyway, the next phase will be getting all the "stuff" out of the house into the garage. Jon very kindly hung up all three bikes last week (my two bikes and also Gabie's), but there's still more. The Christmas tree, Jon's two sets of golf clubs, my boxes of...well, Jon wouldn't be so kind as to call it "stuff" but I would, ha. We're so looking forward to having our home less cluttered due to our significant lack of storage! So thanks for following our garage-building process. Our next blog postings will likely be dedicated to something more exciting, like our summer trip to Alaska. :)

Don't Fence Me In

Jon started off his Sunday purchasing wood for our new fence! We didn't need a lot to cover the back, just enough to fence in the yard from each front corner of the garage to the side fencing separating us from neighbors.
The first poles are up and awaiting their cement! I didn't see much after this, as I headed to the grocery store to spend way too much money on food. :)

Before I knew it he was all done! Jon did all his calculations ahead of time and used every single piece of fence bought, without running over or under. Pretty impressive, eh?

Here is a shot from the inside, showing the left side of the garage. Looks so awesome!! Jon really did a fantastic job.

Jon's closing things up for the day after a busy weekend in the yard. I'm SO thrilled with the fence! We had a make-shift wire fence up to keep in the dog (and to keep her separate from the workers). You can see one of the posts in the foreground of the photo below - I'm so ready to get rid of that, it looks terrible. You can also see where the trench was filled in. We want to work on the yard next.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

It's a lovely day in Nashville! The gutters were put on the garage this morning and the final inspection should happen in a few days. So exciting! Once the inspection is complete we can start moving things in (the bikes will be first)!
Belle is relaxing in the shade while Jon starts digging two-feet post holes for the fence.

One thing the electrical inspector came back with was to cover any accessible wires with plywood. Looks pretty good, actually!

Belle enjoying a roll in the yard (we have too many weeds, ick). The summer of the flood we had an amazing yard, I guess all that water (and seeds from other people's houses) was good for our yard. It wasn't that good before and it hasn't been that good since!

In the Trenches

Part of what the electrical inspector required is for cement to be placed in some parts of the trench by our house. I have no idea why, but here is it. This morning the electrician and his team worked on filling it with cement and re-filling the rest of the trench with dirt. It's coming along!

Look! I love that we can park in our garage! Jon's out there cutting up one of the stumps they pulled out of the ground. He plans to put up the fence in the next week or so. The fence will extend from the corners of the garage and out to the fences on either side.

Manic Monday

Guess who parked in their new garage today?? Yay! My brilliant husband programmed my car's internal garage door opener (which is good since we only bought one opener, ha). Tomorrow is the electrical inspection. After that happens, the electrician can fill the trench in the yard and we should be just about done. The gutters and a few other things need to happen, but that's it!

For the alley side of the garage, we opted for a "less is more" color for the garage door. I like it!

Lighting

This morning we purchased all the lights for the garage, which included several fluorescents inside (boring), two motion lights on each side (alley side and house side), and then a cute light next to the "man door" (below). I think it looks like a cool old lantern. It makes me want to get new light fixtures for our house, though one at a time - those things are pricey!

What a Difference a Day Makes

It took the painters just one day to get the outside of the garage done! The colors are the same as on our house. The red matches our new windows and I think it looks awesome.

They started digging the trench for the electrical yesterday, talk about hard work! It's a deep trench, holy cow. I would not want to have to do that kind of work ever!

I was amazed to see they actually dug under our walkway. I thought they'd have to dig it up and we'd have to fix it ourselves! That must have been a major pain.

TGIF Update

The siding is on and they're getting ready to paint! The garage will match the house, with the garage door and man door facing the house painted red to match our windows. I plan to paint the back doors on our house the same red, and then I'd like a new wood-look front door at some point.
A couple days ago they had a dozer come down to smooth all the dirt dug up. It looks SO much better, and they were even able to pull up a huge stump that was going to be a huge pain.

Tuesday Update

It's a bright, sunny day in Nashville.

The team is hard at work on the garage. They're putting up the hardy board siding, it's going to look awesome. On the right you can see the line where the electrician is planning to dig the trench for the wiring and the phone wire to extend our alarm (bonus).
Here's the line next to the house, where our electrical box is located.

Belle is enjoying the sun shine!

The Latest...

Lookie, lookie! Things are moving right along.

Storage - hooray!
Inside view with our new hardy board siding.

Garage door opener!

Wrapping It Up

This was taken last night. It's looking good! The framing inspection should happen by the end of this week and then it's on to the rest. Jon and I will shop this weekend for the lights, which is pretty exciting, and the electrician will pull his permit next week. We're moving along!

Raise the roof!

Let there be walls!

The walls started going up Friday. When they first started I was a little worried it wasn't large enough (even though we'd mapped it out and knew it was), but now with the walls up it's plenty big and we're so excited! The first photo shows the view from the alley, the way we'll pull into the garage. The second photo shows the view from our house, with a smaller garage door and a walk through door. Jon's going to use flagstones to make a walkway from the house to the garage.

Concrete!

Isn't it beautiful? :)

Garage Day 2 Updates

Well, we received our inspection go ahead! Because it may rain tomorrow, the concrete might not be able to be poured for a few more days, so we'll see what happens with the weather. Below is the view of the area from the alley, from which we'll pull into the garage once it's finished.

Close-up shot, ohhh exciting stuff. The front of the garage (below, what's facing the house) will have a 4 ft patio area.

Below is another shot from the alley. Our neighbors also have a garage, as you can see on the right, but they pull in from their driveway from the front. We don't have a driveway and our property isn't really conducive to one unless we removed several trees. The shed on the left will be moved next to the garage when done to open up more of the yard (plus, it's ugly).

Just to give readers an idea, here is the garage of a neighbor which is very similar to what we're building. They also pull in directly from the alley. Ours will only have one large door, though.

Garage Groundbreaking

On a frosty Monday morning, workers were here early to start tearing down part of our dreadful chain link fencing. Yay! As Monday was a holiday (Presidents' Day) inspectors weren't availble to check out the progress, so that should take place today. Once the inspection happens, they'll be ready to pour the concrete!

A Few Good Changes

Now that our TV room has moved, I'm excited to be working on the front room. It's becomming my parlor/library/reading/lounging room. Yay! Below are a few shots from that effort. Nothing is settled, I'm still moving things around and wanting a few more pieces and pictures to round out the room. All in good time. The first shot is one of those thingies used to hold old print letters; I bought it last summer while antique shopping during our ladies weekend away.
This is the cutest little table in the World. I'm serious, it's so damn adorable and I love the color. And it has that cool "distressed" look. I imagine I had to pay more for that...kinda like paying for ripped jeans I suppose.

I've had these chairs for a while, I think they look good with the aforementioned table. I've got a couple things to hang on the wall behind. To the left is the mantle.

I ordered some new bookcases from Ikea - they're tall, love it!! I took these shots with my iPhone so they are a wee bit fuzzy.

I inherited this Duncan Phyfe-style sofa from Amy. Her dad made a stand for it since the feet broke off; it needs to be stained, but I think it looks quite natural if you don't know it's not original. And I love this rug, picked up from Costco. It's awesome! Obviously the pets agree.

Kayaking Peters Creek

She looks so cool, calm and collected!

Consider the kayak...
Tearing it up and having a blast!

James filming, while Jon acts as a spotter

After having all the fun! Gabie did a fantastic job, and it was her very first time in a boat!