Parade home update

The framing of our parade home has been completed on May 1st 2008. It is really beginning to take shape as you are able to see the wide open floor plan and the large window openings that will offer a nice view.  Well I made a change during the framing phase that will end costing a couple of thousand dollars extra but I believe it will really have a nice impact. I will talk in detail about it when we move a little farther along but it has to do with adding a very beautiful coffered ceiling in the formal dining room.  As I tell all my clients making changes during construction can have a impact on the bottom dollar and try and refrain from doing this as much as you can, but I believe this will really be worth it.  The patio screen contractor was out at the job site this week and we worked out the details for mounting the screen tracks so they are incorporated into the brick columns on the patio. It is very important on things such as this to have a very cooperative team of contractors that are willing to work together to make the end result what you want and I will say here at Montgomery Homes Inc. we have just that.  The roofing contractors will be installing the roofing in the next few days and the windows will be installed as soon as they come in. It is at this point I always feel good about a house because it is in the dry and out of the direct weather elements.  I have completed the electrical plan and the structured wiring plan as here within our company we draw our own plans so we have the ability to draw exactly what a customer wants within in the plan as far as electric, stereo wiring and structured phone, cable wiring. I will be reviewing these plans with the electrical contractor prior to him getting started.  The fireplaces are ordered and will be installed this coming week.  My wife who does the decorating and coordinating of all colors, will begin the selection process of all interior materials, as well as exterior colors.  So I am very pleased with the progress that is being made at the job site and we would like to see you out there some time.

Spring time

Well I think spring has finally sprung here in the central part of Oklahoma that is.  The grass is beginning to green up the trees and landscaping are coming out of hibernation and things are starting to look real good. I really like when all the Bradford pear trees bloom out as this is one of my favorites.  I am seeing people out in their yards and bed areas working them over.  This is a great time of year.  Well a little bit of update on the show home we are constructing in the beautiful Stone Mill subdivision in Yukon Oklahoma, on Thursday of last week the framing crew showed up and started laying out where the walls will go.  This sounds probably trivial but it is at this stage right here where you house gets squared up so that they are level and in correct relation with each other.  If a framer lays out the walls out of square it makes the sheetrock stage hard to do, it will make tile floors grout lines not be parallel with the walls in other words nothing good will take place.  I find as a contractor this is a great time to spend at the job site because some times walls have to be shifted a little bit to make a plumbing line work properly or maybe make cabinets and trim fit into corners like they should.  After walls are chalked out on the slab the framers go to work putting down the 2 x 4 sill plate and we like to use  liquid nail under all the sill plates for a good bond to the slab.  By the end of the day of Friday about 2/3’s of the walls were framed up with window and door openings in them.  This next week I will be meeting with my cast stone contractor and we will be discussing cast stone mantles, hood surrounds and some details possibly for the exterior fascade.  The framers will continue on with the walls and on up from there.  Brick will be ordered this week and the windows are on order. We will continue to press on from here.