A Ficken Home Tour

A few Houzz/Pinterest worthy photos of our very own. Still can't believe we built this beautiful home!

All photos courtesy of the amazing Tom Charles. :)

And the final timelapse video of the entire house being built! From groundbreaking to all finished in 2 minutes.

DONE.

Well, I think the title of the post says it all. You might have thought to yourself, "hmm I wonder if they moved in and can't update the blog because they are so busy living it up in their new house!" Soo, not quite...here's how it all went down.

The week after the last post, we finally were able to get a hole cut in the last tile for the shower, grouted the backsplashes and got our mirrors installed. The plumber came back that Friday and finished installing the master tub drain/fixtures and the shower fixtures. After he finished the tub, we spent the weekend putting the tile up around it. We had already done the top, so we just had to finish around the sides.  After that, we got the house all cleaned up and ready for our final inspection.

Monday the 24th, we had our final inspection and failed...with a list of things to fix. We worked all week to get them done, first thing on the list was MOW, amongst other things like caulking and sealing areas, cleaning the garage, getting rid of the dumpster, adding self closing hinges to the garage entry door, remove the extra brick/stone, point the flood lights down, etc. 

Most of that was pretty easy to fix, but unfortunately the dumpster was too heavy for our guy to move it. It was so full of the brick/dirt mix from the final grading that it was probably close to triple the weight we were allowed. We have some awesome neighbors out here by the way...one of which owns a bobcat and came down, opened the dumpster up, and started scooping out stuff for us to get the weight down Thursday night. He even moved our extra bricks and stone back behind some trees at the back of the property. We called another dumpster company to come take away the excess dirt the next morning, and had the inspector come out that day to check everything. 

(Yes, that giant boulder was inside the dumpster - no wonder it was so heavy!)

I was there cleaning and had the privilege of meeting Mr. Inspector. He seemed like a nice guy, even with all the trouble he gave us along the way. :) Anyway, we got our FINAL GREEN TAG on Friday June 28th, which happens to be exactly one year from the day we closed on the lot. Wow...1 year later, done.

I think we both just stood there that Friday afternoon going...uhh what next? Up until this point there was always a list of "this must be done" and after that glorious green tag it was just...done. A strange, but wonderful feeling. And it didn't last long, we knew we needed to pack up and get moved so that we could sell our old house while the market is so good. So back home we went to pack up and try to find some movers for Sunday. Saturday, one of the moving companies we contacted called and said, "Well I don't know about tomorrow, but how about today? We can be there in 3 hours." Umm we only had half the house packed at this point but we said fine, packed like crazy, they showed up at 4:45 and it took them FOUR hours to move our things. 24 hours after final inspection and we were packed and moving. Wow. Oh, and the refrigerator didn't quite fit because of the thickness of the tile, good thing we had the tools moved. First night in the house and already cutting things up!

This past week has been a combination of finishing cleaning out the old house, unpacking the new house, and even a little lake time on the 4th. The house is slowly starting to come together, but is still a huge mess.

The next post is reserved for the gorgeous pre move-in photos that my stepdad took the Saturday before we moved in while it was all still clean and the final timelapse video of everything from beginning to end. I think they deserve their own post. Get ready to be amazed at these pics. I'm still amazed when I look at them!  

I am planning on updating the blog after we sell the other house and get the rest of our furniture in/everything unpacked, and as we finish some of the projects we have on the list like the sliding barn doors for the office, media room setup, and the shop build. I'm sure there will be more to come, but we hope you have enjoyed reading our house building journey! If you have any questions, we will be glad to answer them!

Last post before move in????

Whew! This week went by so fast, but lots of good new things. Just a few left to go until it's finally moving day! 

Monday the electric company came to start up our service, woohoo! That meant lights, appliances and garage doors working, and no more extension cords! The A/C guys didn't come back until Thursday to hook that up but it's all working and cooling perfectly now! So thankful for that too since we spent quite a bit of time there this weekend. More to come on all that!

Finally able to see in windowless rooms: media room, pantry, storage closet

The trim guys came back to finish up all the remaining baseboards and install the door hardware, which means we have our actual keys to the house now! No more temporary locks! We got the glass for the entry door too. It swings open on the inside too like a little window if we ever get a nice day. So cute!

The drywall crew came back to fix and re-texture any areas that had gotten messed up along the way. The painters will come back this week and finish all the final paint touch ups too now that the drywall's all fixed. The coolest part of the drywall fixes was seeing the pocket door between the utility/kitchen all finished. We had the trim guys arch the doorway and put the pocket door in it so that it matched the arched hallway on the other side. I was kind of unnecessarily freaking out about having one flat and one arched, so I LOVE how this turned out and was so glad they could make it happen. 

Our shower door was delivered and installed too and it swings out and in towards the shower if you look closely at the pics - kinda fun! (Ignore that one missing tile in the shower...it's getting fixed, hopefully...someday if we can find a way to cut a hole for the shower knobs without breaking 15 tiles...)

We also unpacked the fireplace logs and Rob converted it from natural gas to propane, not that we need them for a while. But...when we do, they'll look nice and pretty. Oh yeah, we got our propane tank installed this week too! Almost forgot about that since it's buried in the backyard...no pics of that haha.

Friday the guy came to grade the lot and clean up all of the trash leftover from the brick/stone. They brought in some fill dirt and cleaned up all those rocks we had brought in for the temporary driveway. It's all clean and we can even drive on the driveway now! We spent half of yesterday putting in about 20 plants and 15 bags of mulch...not nearly enough to fill the flowerbeds, but hopefully enough to make the inspector happy. :) That's what we're goin for. 

And last for this post is what we spent the last 2.5 days working on. The tile guys were swamped and couldn't make it back out until Wednesday this coming week to finish tiling our master tub, and we didn't feel like waiting on them, so we decided (Rob says I decided, eh same thing) that we could surely do a little tiling ourselves. It can't be THAT hard right? Of all the things Rob has done in his life building and fixing everything you could think of, I was surprised to learn he had never tiled before. So new adventure for both of us!

We spent Friday night (yep, wild times) cutting, spacing and laying out the tiles for the master tub, last night putting them on thinset (after spending the whole day landscaping), and then today grouting. We also had to put some backsplashes on all the vanities because the mirror guy said he couldn't install the mirrors without them! Oh the things you learn building a house yourself. Anyway, those backsplashes were surprisingly easy since we just did some individual 4x4 travertine tiles. The tub took a while though but it ended up pretty nice. Now the plumber can come back and install the drain and faucet for the tub so we can get our final inspection done! At this point, I think he's just about all we are waiting for. Everything else is DONE.

Yep, I said it. Everything else is DONE. Ok, so we have a few little touch ups and some cleaning to do. But really...it's done. We could move in right now and survive just fine. But again, I guess we'll follow the rules and get our final inspection and certificate of occupancy first. We also have to get an appraisal done for the bank before we move any of our stuff in. BUT...I hope this is my last post before moving day. Let's just pretend I'm not overly optimistic right now, but I really feel like it can happen. So everyone cross your fingers and hope this week all goes according to plan. This time next week I could be writing to you from our new home!!! And even if we're not moved in, I might just do it anyway because we're getting AT&T U-Verse installed Friday, haha. Priorities. :)

Can we move in yet?

So...another quick one here. Can you tell we are getting a little exhausted here towards the end? We can't wait to have our weekends back so we can actually enjoy this beautiful house! Lots of good stuff happened this week though, so let's get goin. 

Tuesday and Wednesday the stained concrete guy came to stain the floors in the utility and storage closet. They look awesome, but like the wood floors they tend to get a little dirty when you have tons of people walking through working in the house all day so hopefully they will stay a little cleaner once we're all moved in.

We also had an electrical and driveway inspection Wednesday, which we got another red tag for but he gave us the ok to turn on the power IF we got everything fixed for the final inspection. So the power company is coming out tomorrow to turn on the juice! Woohoo! And since we got the green for the driveway approach, they poured that on Friday. We can walk on it now but can't drive on it for another couple days. Yay no more muddy feet!

 
Yesterday the painters came back. They finished staining/painting the office now that we finally picked a color. And they put a fresh coat of paint on all the baseboards they put in the week before and some exterior pieces on the back that were put in after they were done on their last trip. Looks much more 'finished' now. They still have a few touch-ups left to do but looking great!

Annnd finally, the plumber came and installed almost all of our fixtures yesterday! The tub still needs to be tiled, but Rob cut a hole for it to make sure it would all fit good. Looks good to me! And check out the size of this tub....that's what we get for not seeing in person before ordering. Wow...I had no idea how big it was going to look! He turned on the water too, so they even work. :) Nice to be able to wash our hands out there in a real sink...and go to the bathroom once we get some seats (and toilet paper) haha. We tested out the shower a little and it's pretty crazy with all the knobs and everything. I'm sure we'll get used to it...Rob was VERY excited about it.

Oh I almost forgot, as part of our final inspection we know we had to have all the vents/pipes coming out of the roof painted so someone got out a can of spray paint today after he finished converting the range top from natural gas to propane, and fitting the vent hood area for the hood liner we got. Busy busy!!

You can't even see them now! It's like magic.

 It's all starting to come together. Only a few more things left! Yesss.

Getting closer!

I'll make this a quick one...you only want to see pics anyway, right? Well, I have JUST the thing for you then!

Monday the masons finished up the stone chimney on the back patio and removed all the supports they had on the front arches. And they made us a cute little mailbox on the street. Did anyone mail us anything yet? We need to see if it works! Rob also put on our front sconces. So pretty!

Tuesday the electric company came out to inspect Rob's beautiful trench and I guess they approved! This here is our electrical line that runs out to the transformer. Still no service yet, but we'll get that after our inspection - coming soon!
 

The wood floor guys came out and finished up the floors with their last coat of polyurethane on Tuesday. Of course we had to stay off of them until Thursday so no work all day Wednesday. It's worth it though because they turned out fantastic. We would highly recommend this place if you're in the market for super old wood floors! :)

After we let that dry, the trim guys came back Friday to put up all the doors, finish door casings and baseboards. Some of them still need to be painted but we'll get to that later. Also, check out how dirty these floors got in a day. Can't wait to get to clean those all the time...

Saturday, the same guy that did our foundation came back to lay forms for our driveway. This one hurt the ol' checkbook...having 125ish ft of concrete driveway plus a turnaround. Ouch. But it was surprisingly not much more than asphalt and way less maintenance. And my little car wasn't going to make it up into the garage without something...so alas, we bit the bullet. It'll look great though and last for years...so there's that, right? They still need to do the re-bar and get an inspection before they can pour concrete but hopefully by the end of the week we can get that in.

Oh yeah, and as you can see there, the HVAC guys came back and hooked up our A/C system. Of course, we can't use it until we have electricity but it's ready when we do!

And last for today, I'll leave you with our fluffy new carpet - freshly installed today! We got there a little late today so the lighting is weird, but trust me it looks lovely and it's nice and soft. :) And it's hard to tell but the media room on the left is a totally different color. We wanted it nice and dark in there. The other two bedrooms are the same and I must have missed getting a pic of the master closet...but it's the same too.

Not too bad for having all that done in a holiday week! Next up - install door hardware, install plumbing fixtures (toilets, faucets, water heater), tile around the master tub once it is installed, pour driveway/sidewalk, stained concrete floors, electrical inspection and starting up the A/C! Whew. Let's go.