Ball Ground, GA Christmas Parade 2015

50 Years of Baseball in Ball Ground, GA

Spooktacular 2015 - Ball Ground, GA

Scarecrows - Downtown Ball Ground, GA 2015

Porch brick facing completed.

The masons completed their work facing the front and back porches with brick.  

The front door has some lights taped to it for Halloween, looks better at night.

The masons arrived today!

They started wrapping the front porch with bricks.

Here is the front porch ceiling after being painted.

The ceiling still needs to have the trim painted, that 

should be done tomorrow.

Another visit from the painters today.

Just when we thought that is was going to be a work free day the painters came by and painted the porch ceiling and some more of the trim.

Porch ceiling and window sashes are a good, correct shade of blue, a traditional color to 

keep out the spooks. 

 Here's a better explanation for a blue ceiling from Sherwin Williams:

"There are numerous theories as to why – from fooling spiders and wasps into thinking the ceiling is the sky, to blue being a harbinger of good luck, to the color extending daylight, to scaring away evil spirits."

https://www.sherwin-williams.com/architects-specifiers-designers/inspiration/styles-and-techniques/sw-article-pro-thewhysbehind.html

A lot of progress!

Wow, the build is progressing beautifully!  The sheetrock has been installed, finished and primed. The hardwood floors have been nailed down and waiting for the proper time to be sanded and finished.  The outside is being painted, just a few more trim pieces need to be painted.  The driveway and sidewalks have been poured.  

The next step is going to have the interior trim and doors installed.

Debra

Wasn't that just super boring?  How about that paint job?  Four or five or more colors, we lost count.  Thank you, Haley the color consultant at Sherwin Williams in Woodstock for encouraging us to chose colors outside the normal.  We think it is going to look great when completely painted.  

Wish you could see the hardwood floors.  We decided to go with #3 red oak which is a rustic conglomeration of knot holes, worm holes and splits and other distresses.  Fabulous Flooring did a fabulous job installing them.  

Lots of concrete, more than I expected but very happy to have it.  Quality Construction also built three beautiful retaining walls to make life easier especially when my wife has to mow the yard.  

Yep, the sheet rock is done.   Just waiting for the trim to be started and completed then interior paint.  

I promise to blog more often.  I have just been crazy busy watching our house being built.

Bill  (do you believe that, if so i have some swamp land for sale then)

Started installing the windows!

The trim crew arrived early today and started 

installing the windows!

Wine Tasting Event to Benefit Charities in Cherokee County

We have always thought that Ball Ground would be a nice place to live.  Now that we actually reside here, as we build our home, we see and understand first hand what a truly special place this is.  This event is an opportunity to give back and help out the community in a fun way!  

Hope to see you there!

Our yard is starting to shape up!

Wow, what an improvement a lot of hard work and expertise with a backhoe and bobcat can make.  Our grading guys really improved our side yard along Terrel Street today.  

The Burger Bus arrives in Ball Ground, GA!

Our windows arrived today!

I hope they get put in soon!  They were made by Robert Bowden in Marietta, GA.

Thursday is going to a fun day!

I found out today the our grading sub contractor, Holcomb Grading & Hauling, is going to give our lot the final grade. 

The concrete crew from Seminole Concrete is going to 
finish our porch top. 

And we are getting our doors and windows delivered!

Our house has been wrapped!

Today one of Woodmen Insulation's crews came out and wrapped our house.  It looks neat seeing it a new color!

Just a quick update.

The plumbing, HVAC and electrical have all been roughed in now.  The next step is having the house-wrap installed and that should be Monday.

Check out this bathroom vent that ACR Heating and Air installed, they go way above the norm in all of their work.  This vent has hard pipe for most of the length with just a short piece of flex to reduce noise.  All joints were taped and then coated with mastic!  Truly amazing work!

The electricians showed up today!

Was a busy day today!  B & R Electric came by and started roughing in the electrical for the house today.  It was busy here today, HVAC, pest control and electrical all here today.

Borate treatment today.

Arrow Exterminators showed up today and applied the borate treatment to the house.

The HVAC rough in has started!

Wow!  I am so happy with the way our new HVAC install is going!  When you hire someone that knows what they are doing and take pride in their work it really shows.  

Here is a photo of the inside unit, I am very impressed with the work so far.

ACR Heating and Air

Bathroom tub has been set.

The great guys from Heritage Plumbing came out yesterday and set the cast iron tub in place.  That was a simple job for them, it was one I would not wanted to have done.  That tub weighs 315 pounds and is a beauty.

Had the subfloor screwed today.

A nice guy the builder hired came out today and screwed 

the subfloor to the floor joists.  We have Advan Tech for 

our subfloor that is now glued, nailed and screwed to the open web floor joists on the first floor and I-Joists on the second floor.  

We will be installing nailed down hardwood floor later 

that will be running perpendicular to the floor joists.

I believe that we will have a squeak free floor!

Tub delivered!

I bought a white KOHLER Villager enameled cast iron tub yesterday and now it is

 waiting for the plumber to install it.

Plumbers onsite!

Things are moving along nicely, Heritage Plumbers  is here starting to rough in the plumbing.

Changed our front porch roof.

We changed it to a hip roof, looks a lot better!

Was like this before.

The roof is complete!

The roofers started today!

A walk through of home just after framing was completed.

Framing crew working on garage roof today.

What a hard working couple of guys!  Left here last night around 7 pm and already back and putting on the roof sheathing.

Here is the walkway from the house to the garage.

The garage is coming along!

The framers are amazing.  They worked very hard and  this is how the garage looked at the end of the day.

The garage framing has started!

Going to have a nice sized single car garage with a 

work shop above it.

How the house looks right now!

Some more windows were finished being framed and the sheathing is being installed.

Framers are gone for the day, they finally get to start their weekend!

We have a great framing crew, they have done so much this week and they do it to perfection!

Here are the latest photos of our house.

The roof sheathing is going on today.

They had a few sheets on late yesterday, now one side is complete.  Using LP Shield OSB, it has a layer of foil on it to help keep the attic cooler.

The rafters have been set!

Today they will be completing the second floor 

by framing the ceiling and closets.

Second floor framing almost done!

This is how it looks this morning, they need to finish framing the second floor rooms and then start the roof structure.

First floor framed!

Framing was started

The framing was started the other day and it is starting to take shape!  The basement is all framed out and the first floor is almost done.

Fireworks - 2015 - Ball Ground, GA

The V Market - Ball Ground, Georgia

The back-filling begins.

Our basement walls being waterproofed.

The plumbing drain lines have been placed.

The foundation has been built!

Pay phones for Tom Cruise's movie Mena

Mena - Sheriff's House

The location for the footings have been marked!

Basement has been dug!

The basement has been dug and today the footings were marked to place the house on the property today!

Our house in Ball Ground demolished - time lapse

I placed my flag pole atop the new mountain in Ball Ground!

Building permits being pulled!

We talked with the building permit department and found out what the costs will be for the permits.  Our builder is going to pull them today!

Picked a builder!

We finally picked the builder to help us build our home!  Tom Reed with Milestones Homes, LLC has started the process, he has contacted Ball Ground to have the permits issued.

Hope to break ground in a week or two! 

Milestones Homes, LLC.

Hot boiled p-nuts!

Have a desire for some boiled peanuts?  

Stop by Martin's General Store and they can help!

Old marble plant in Ball Ground, GA

This ruin is visible from Valley Street.

Here is the front elevation

Here is our final floor plan!

Thanks to Craig at Tightlines Designs for his work in perfecting the floor plan for us!

We now have a plan picked!

After a lot of looking at plans, a lot of looking, we finally picked one that we really like.  It is a Tightlines Design plan called the Austin III and is about as perfect as we can find.  We have talked with one of the architects at Tightline Designs and he is going to make the plan perfect for us!

Here is what it will look like.

Here is a link to the plan online - http://tightlinesdesigns.com/house/austin III