The garage is up!!

The garage work has begun and it's moving so quickly!  I'm pretty sure I say that about everything, but they just work so quickly on things around here!  Could be the intense heat is speeding them up so they can get out of the it!  This week they started framing the garage and the stone work has also begun.  The entire garage will be covered in stone to match the house.  The stone is a pretty close match but the only difference will be the edges of the stone for the garage don't match the edges on the stone on the house.  When the house was built, someone(or more likely a group of people) cut each stone to make the sides all straight.  Well, that is a HUGE task, not to mention costly, so the garage stone has rough edges but it will still look great.

Here is our 3 car garage.  The middle opening isn't finished being cut yet so it looks like a smaller opening because it actually is!

 It is a huge garage but it looks so small next to the house!

Here is the beginning of the stone work.  We didn't originally plan on having windows out the back of the garage but after seeing the giant wall that will be covered with stone we decided to add 3 basic windows, that will be centered on the garage doors, to help the aesthetic look of the garage.

 Here you can see an up close look at the stone we are using.  It looks great!  You can see the rough edges as compared to the straight edges on the house in the picture below.

Next week the roof will go on the garage and before we know it the entire thing will be done!  

I go out to the house just about every day to see what's going on and this beautiful plant surprised me!  When we are all done with the restoration we will do the landscaping so we haven't really moved anything or pulled out any plants because we would rather let the professionals handle that(Todd and I aren't very good with that sort of thing!).  Anyway, I try to envision what it will look like and what type of plants I want where(once again....I don't get very far because I'm terrible in this department).  I just assumed these random plants would be trashed but they bloomed and I love them!  Just wanted to share because the red flowers are so pretty and a nice surprise!

The Driveway is DONE!

We finally received the official document from the Department of Transportation stating we could continue with our double entry driveway so Jerry Livingston and his crew from Muskogee, OK finished the driveway this week.  It looks amazing!  The circle drive is so fitting for the house and I can't wait to get landscaping up around it - which will be at the very end, but it will all come together nicely!

It's hard to take a full picture of all at once because it's so big, so here it is from several different angles.

 This is the view from the garage looking out to the road.

These next two pictures are taken from the top of the porch looking out to the left and right.

The front porch is almost done!!

The work on the front porch is almost over.  It looks amazing!  Besides painting the rails, staining the floor, and covering the ceiling, the major work is done.

In this picture you can see the railing is done and you can't even tell from the front of the house that the porch doesn't extend the entire length of the house.  Remember we had to shorten the decking some to allow head room when you walk down the stairs to the lower level.  Our crew did a great job of making it look like it does extend the whole way.

 Here is a view from the side.

 The steps were built very quickly and turned out great! 

 The railing on the stairs is almost complete and then they will begin work on the ceiling.

 Meanwhile the driveway has been partially poured and the framing of the garage will start later this week!

 Our driveway is HUGE and we will have lots of room to not only get in and out of the garage with our vehicles, but also plenty of room to play!

 The circle drive hasn't been poured yet because we have to get approval from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.  I would have never thought we would need approval for a driveway, but because we will have 2 entrances onto the hwy instead of the typical one entrance, we needed to get approval.  We have been inspected and got a verbal "OK" on the driveway but we are waiting to get the official document in the mail and then they will pour the rest of the driveway.  

 Here is the 3 car garage that will be up in a couple of weeks!  They will start framing it later this week or early next week and then the roofer will be here in 2 weeks.  I can't wait to see it completed and covered with the matching stone from the house!

 All around the property, and next door on the tennis courts, there are dates and names written into rocks, walls, and concrete floors stating people who have lived in the house, or possibly just passed through at some point in time.  So we thought it was fitting to put our little stamp on the property!  These little hand prints and date mark the start of a new era at the old Officers Quarters!

Front Porch and Garage Progress

The front porch and garage are coming along very quickly!  Once they got the old porch down, the new one started to be built.  The garage and driveway has also been laid out and the concrete work began and has moved along quickly as well.

For the garage they dug out a trench and built a stem wall to support the weight of the garage.

  

 After that was poured and dried, the garage pad was poured.

The circle driveway has been dug out and will be poured hopefully this week!

After all of the posts were put up, the last 2 metal columns were taken out and then the work began to recreate the original porch.

 Wood was secured along the wall of the house to support the decking.

 Then the boards were installed across the porch.

This is the view from the end of the porch and after they finished the floor, they started working on the railing!  More pictures coming soon!