Max Quacks - I Gots Giggles

Entertainment Center Conundrum

Ian and I took advantage of an outrageous Boxing Day sale to get the receiver for the house. I was sitting in the living room one morning looking at the box. All of a sudden it dawned on me that the receiver is HUGE... and there is no chance that it will fit in our current entertainment center set up. This is the current drawing of it:

The fireplace sticks out 28". The shelves and cabinet are going to be flush together at about 14". Our receiver is 17". So obviously we need to think about a slight adjustment. There are a couple ways to do it... I am looking for opinions! This is the current profile of the built-in:

Yes, my drawing is awesome. Anyway, the line labeled "shelves" is actually the shelves and the cabinets, flush together.

This is our first option. We can just extend both the shelves and the cabinets below a little more and the fireplace won't stick out as much. My little issue with this is that the shelves will become much deeper and be a little harder to fill/organize/look nice.

Our second option is to only extend out the cabinets. It's pretty funny.. but in my head this is how I thought the unit would look. I guess I never realized that the shelves and the cabinets were flush. I think I like this option the best. The downside to this is that it might look weird with the fireplace. I don't know. Hence why I need opinions. =P

Max Quacks - Got A Reindeer Butt!

First Floor Video

We went to The Lumberyard this morning and shot some video of the first floor. They still have some braces up for certain walls but it's pretty much done as far as framing goes. They haven't cut the dining room windows out yet. (Please note that I call them squares but yes, I do realize that they are rectangles! =P)

The Lumberyard Video

Last weekend I took a couple videos of the house. The first one is of the front porch. We weren't sure if we could get inside. The floor of the front porch is just a piece of plywood suspended over the fruit cellar. I couldn't bring myself to stand for very long on it. So we went in from the back through the slider. You can't tell much from the video... it really just looks like a pile of sticks!

Please excuse the audio in this one... it was absolutely freezing that day, my nose was running and I had just vaulted myself up into the house. I was also freaked out because it didn't feel very stable but that just me being stupid.

Almost There...

At least almost to where I would like them to be... I really want them to put the roof on soon! Before it gets filled with snow...

The Lumberyard Update

It's been a bit of a slow week for The Lumberyard. They've done some interior walls, framed in the garage, and put up the steel support beam. They didn't seem to be working on our house today so we ventured into the garage. It seems we will have some nice storage space above the garage. We'll have to build it of course but that will be nice. Maybe next week we will be getting a roof!

The Hole Has Become The Lumberyard

While we were gallivanting around California... our house was being built! The Hole is now The Lumberyard. There are lots of wood piles (covered up to protect from the snow!) Everyone says that the house will look small until the drywall is up. It actually looks pretty small... but the sliding glass door is HUGE.

The Hole Update

We got a little shock from Ian's mom last night. Our Hole has changed!

Going To Cali, BRB

Finally going back to Cali... It's been too long. My goal was to see my mom every quarter... and I did but each time it was either here or in Virginia! So tomorrow we fly out to visit for a week. YAY! BRB going to Cali~

Gray Vs. Red, Old Vs. New

On the right... our first choice.. Gray brick with a light gray stone skirt. On the left... our new choice.. Red brick with a gray stone skirt. My apologies for the slightly fuzzy picture. I was trying to take it on the sly while driving through the rain, in the middle of a very muddy street, with construction workers on either side and a bobcat zipping by. The red brick will only be on the first story of our house and the rest is siding and cedar shakes.

Personally, I fell head over heels in love with it when I first saw it on a model house. Ian just about bit my head off when I professed my love since we had already made our decision. That was months ago! (I think... time has flown...) But I think we are going to be really happy with our change. I feel like I've gotten an early Christmas present. I can just picture our house in the fall... Red brick.. black front door... Adirondack chairs on the porch.. piles of pumpkins and hay. Love it!!