It's Finished!

Work was finished on our new home this past week and it is now ready for closing next week. It looks like I'll need to shop for a new lawnmower... We can't believe it, but we'll be moving in on May 4th.

Location and layout

Here is a map of The Villages, FL (you can click on it to zoom in for more details). Our new home is located near the pointer at the bottom of this picture. The pinkish area at the pointer is the Village of Hemingway and you can see the two golf courses (called Kilimanjaro and Roosevelt) that surround us on either side in green. Directly above us (in orange) is the Hemingway Neighborhood Pool. Ahhh...

Here is the basic floor plan for our new home. A few interesting points are the utility room (just below the master bedroom), the huge walk-in closet in the upper left corner and the walk-in shower in the master bath.

Landscaping, appliances, sod and more

The driveway and walks have been poured and the landscaping is now in place. We have a baby palm tree!

The front door has been painted (we love the glass).

The kitchen appliances are in and the kitchen looks to be done.

The walk-in shower is done.

...and the sod is being laid.

Kitchen cabinets and carpet

Our kitchen cabinets and countertops have been installed.

Concrete forms, interior paint and flooring

Today's first picture shows the forms in place for the driveway, front entry walk and read grill pad.

Tiles flooring are in place - this is the kitchen area.

The guest bath tiles are in complete with a glass block window.

The siding is on

The exterior siding has now been installed and the trim is largely in place. It's starting to look like a home!

The sheet-rock is up

The entire interior has been sheet-rocked and looks prepped for painting. This picture is looking from the living room toward the front door and kitchen. The dining area is on the right by the kitchen pass-through.

The roof is on and windows are in

The house is now under roof and more-or-less weatherproofed. The sides have been insulated and the windows are all in place.

It's going up fast!!

This isn't Extreme Makeover Home Edition, but our house in going up like crazy! At left is the two-car garage with the kitchen nook next to it. The ladder is by the front entrance with a bay window bedroom on the right.

The second picture is of the back with the other guest bedroom on the left, the 9' x 20' screened lanai and the master bedroom on the right.

The building material is here

With the foundation poured and drying, the roof trusses, wall lumber and sidewall materials are being delivered.

Pour that concrete!

The concrete flooring is going in and being smoothed out.

Ready to pour concrete

All the below grade plumbing and other wiring has been laid and the foundation has been filled and the vapor barrier is in place. All ready for the concrete to be poured.

Plumbing gets laid

Plumbers can be seen here laying the pipes that will go below the concrete pad.

Foundation is in

Our new neighbor, Harry, has been kind enough to take and email us pictures as our house is built. Two days after we were there, the exterior foundation walls were laid. The shape of the house can be seen. Note that the roof is now on the house next door.

Work begins

After signing all the papers and spending some fun time with our friends, we stopped by to see our lot one more time before heading back to NC. We were surprised to see that work has already started and the foundation walls had been dug out. This area will be our two guest bedrooms. We're under way!

An empty lot

While visiting our friends in The Villages, FL (a 55+ community), we fell in love with the place and bought a new house. This is the first view of the lot we chose which is located in the Village of Hemingway just north of highway 466-A in the south side of The Villages. The house on the right is occupied. The house on the left is under construction as is the one behind us. Two blocks behind us is an adult swimming pool, one block to the right is a golf course and a long block to the left is yet another golf course.