Almost Halfway!

This marks the fifth week of construction on our house, and man does it look awesome!  Last week, most of the work was internal, with the plumbing and wiring installed and the garage floor finally poured.  This week, they put the siding on and the consensus is the green color with white trim really "pops"!  Yesterday, we had our frame walk with the Superintendent.  It was really cool to walk through the rooms and get an idea of what the finished product will really look like.   

                   Living Room with corner fireplace

                                                           Kitchen

A View From The Top

     This past weekend I was blessed with one of those rare Saturdays off from work, so we decided to take the kids to Seattle and finally get to the top of the Space Needle.  We have been wanting to go since we moved here, but the cost for the elevator ride is so outrageously expensive ($16 for adults; $9 for kids) that we have never been able to justify the cost. . . . until now.  A couple months ago we received a voucher for 4 free elevator rides from Quadrant Homes (the ones building our house) as a way of saying "thanks for doing business with us", and this past Saturday we were finally able to use them.

     With traffic in Seattle seemingly always horrific, we decided to take the train rather than drive.  We drove to Tukwila (near Sea-Tac Airport) and hopped on the recently opened Link light rail to downtown Seattle.  The Link currently runs from downtown Seattle to Tukwila with the extension to the airport scheduled to open in December.   With the cost being reasonable (a lot cheaper than parking downtown) I think I have found a new way to get to Seattle for Mariners games next year.  After a 30 minute ride, we got off at Westlake Center, which is the current end of the line, we crossed the street to the Monorail station and after a 2 minute ride, we were at the foot of the Space Needle. 

When we left home that morning, the weather was typical of early fall in Western Washington (cloudy, chance of rain).  With the anticipation of less than perfect weather, and thinking that it might be windy at the top, I had instructed the kids to bring a jacket and to dress a little warmer.  However, by the time we actually got to the Seattle Center, the sun had broken out and it was a really nice day with little to no wind and the sun making it very pleasant.  We stood in line to get our tickets, and then we stood in line while they searched our bags, and then we stood in line some more waiting for the elevator.  The observation deck on the Space Needle is 520 feet high and gives you a fantastic view, not only of Seattle and Puget Sound, but on really clear days you can see Mt. Rainier, and the Cascade & Olympic Mountain ranges.  There was a little haze over the mountains but, otherwise the view did not disappoint.

     We spent probably a little over an hour on the "O Deck" and then decided it was time to head home.  It had been over 25 years since I had last been to the top of the Space Needle, and a fun time was had by all.

3 down . . . . Eight 2 Go!

The house really began to take shape this last week.  During the 3rd week, the roof was completed and the windows and sliding glass door were installed.  I must admit that the grids in the front windows really add a nice touch to the look of the house.  The roof over the front porch was also put on, which gives the house a more complete look, even if there is no porch yet!  The last thing done this week was wrapping the house entirely in Tyvek.  If memory serves, Tyvek  is a type of waterproof paper that acts as a barrier against moisture.  

This week promises to be pretty busy given the amount of work to be done.  This week the heating, gas and electric lines are supposed to be completely done as well as painting the trim and the beginning of installing the siding.  We are all very excited to see how the siding color (Quiet Willow-a really nice shade of green)will look in real daylight; it's kind of hard to get a true feel for the colors when you are looking at a 2' X 3' section in the showroom. 

Here is an interesting story about how we came to pick the color of siding.  We had originally selected Scottish Thistle (also a shade of green), but the community has rules about the number of same color houses on a street, so we had to pick a different color.  It seems that the house next to ours had already picked 'our' color and since they were further ahead of us, we had to change colors.  Apparently because the other house is actually on the cross street is how we were able to select the same color as them.  This gaffe was discovered when Vicki & I went to the showroom for our final selection appointment.  We did not like any of the other colors (they were mostly brown tones) that were on the included price list, so we asked about upgrading to the 'Mid-Premium' pricing.  We were told that the upgrade was $800 extra, but we could have it for only $400 since our original color choice was initially on the list of approved colors.   We figured this was fair, so we started looking for areas we could make changes since we were already at the maximum we could afford to spend.  Imagine our surprise when we were told that the upgrade would actually cost us nothing!