Almost insulated and sided

The HardiePlank is basically done except for the exterior trim.

I keep waiting for the MiraTec columns to get here for the porches...the 2x4s that are holding up the roof look like they're getting tired of waiting on their replacements (but I've been told they're much stronger than they look).

Kitchen side. Notice the small black circle midway up on the right--that is where the range hood will vent. Yay for exterior venting!

I haven't posted one of these views in a while--this is the angle you will see when you drive up to the house.

HVAC is in progress, too. 

The exterior walls are insulated (excited about that R-19 and 2x6 walls, especially after receiving our power bill for the month of December).

For Christmas, Ashley's parents gave us two pecan trees. Here they are...right now they look like two sticks in the ground but soon enough they'll be producing delicious nuts for us to enjoy!

An almost forgotten appliance

I've spent this afternoon researching range hoods. Exciting, huh?

When we went to an appliance showroom a few weeks ago, the salesman asked us about our kitchen ventilation system. I honestly hadn't given it a thought and certainly hadn't counted that appliance in our allowance. The big three appliances (range, dishwasher, and refrigerator) were on our research/purchase radar but a vent hood? Nope. A vent hood is needed, and even though I love to cook, I've never used a hood consistently. The main reason being is they tend to be SO loud.

Enter the Broan line of range hoods. The salesman suggested we get the Broan QS2 Series (Allure II) hood for our range because it is powerful AND quiet. And just like everything else, once he pointed this out, I started noticing advertisements for Broan hoods in the various magazines I read regularly (This Old House, Better Homes and Gardens, etc). I've read the reviews and have settled on the stainless steel model the salesman suggested. You can read more about it here: http://broan.com/display/router.asp?ProductID=1115.

Looking for a useful site to research appliances and other purchases? I've been impressed with the information on ConsumerSearch.com. It combines information available in Consumer Reports (my parents research every major purchase in CR) with actual reviews from folks who bought the product. A great example--the article about range hoods: http://www.consumersearch.com/range-hoods/review

Now if I can just decide on a range and dishwasher. These are two workhorses of my kitchen and need to be of good quality without breaking our budget. What about the fridge? We were happy with the GE side-by-side we had at our old house and will probably buy it again unless a better deal comes along.

A stove to warm us

It's been almost a week since we had the first snow of 2011 and there is still wintery stuff on the ground, which meant there wasn't much work on the house this week until the past two days. On Thursday, Ashley braved our roof and scraped off ice and snow so the roofing guys could work. Now the majority of the house sits under its shiny tin roof.

The back of our property has a lot of shade--and it's more apparent now that the ice and snow won't melt!

Our doors are up. Unfortunately they're in the wrong place and will have to be switched. This is the 3/4 light that is supposed to be our front door. Right now it's the back door (leading onto the screen porch). The backdoor is a full light--but now that I see the 3/4 light I wish we had two of those. Oh well!

The biggest development this week was the completion of our fireplace and installation of the wood-burning stove. This turned into a much more complicated task than we originally imagined because there are a lot of codes related to how to install a Jotul stove. The cold temps and winter weather made it near impossible for the brick masons to finish the fireplace. They finished bricking on Friday night and then Ashley ran two jet heaters all night to make sure the mortar would dry in time for the scheduled stove installation Saturday morning. When Ashley sent a picture of the stove to our contractor, Peb texted back "Thought this day would never come." We thought about telling him we didn't like and wanted it torn out (joking). We're really pleased how it turned out!

The small door to the left of the stove is where we'll have a hatch to slide wood in from our porch. The built-in for our TV will disguise this.

View of the living room from standing in the dining room.

The pipe for the stove runs up through Levi's room (see the shiny pipe in the wall).

The back door, which is really our front door.

We've been very lucky so far to only have work delayed by weather a few days. Up until this point, it's rained on the weekends occasionally but the work week has been clear. So if we can make it until the end with only a few delays, we'll be happy!

Totin' Around a Clawfoot

This morning we took the boys on a field trip to get Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a clawfoot tub. What a combination!

We went back to Chic Antiques and Company on Huger Street in Columbia, where there are a ton (at least 10-20) cast-iron clawfoot tubs sitting outside. All are in various states of disrepair--but that's expected. If we could find one for free in a field (or take my parents, which they have planted strawberries in), that would be great. But we don't have a lot of time to search the countryside for old rusted tubs and my parents aren't giving up their strawberry patch (not that I blame them!).

We chose the tub on the left (below). For $250, it seemed like a good deal (especially when you consider that a new clawfoot starts around $1250).

For some reason, when the tub was put into the truck, I immediately thought of a pig laying on its back. HA! Now Ashley is totin' around a clawfoot tub in his truck until we decide where we're going to get it re-glazed. I've spent the afternoon calling around about this and prices generally run between $200-400 for the inside (more for the exterior--but we'll probably opt to paint it).

Color Our World

I should preface this post with a bit about my past experience with paint.

I love painting. It's probably one of my favorite home improvement projects because I get to see instant results and it's a project I can tackle by myself. Prior to building this house, we completely renovated a Cape Cod 4 years ago. That was a huge project and I distinctly remember sitting on the side porch, almost in tears because I couldn't decide on all the colors for the house. I ended up choosing a basic tan (Bamboo by American Traditions) for the majority of the interior because I knew we would eventually sell that house and buyers usually look for neutrals. But I branched out and chose Asparagus by Behr (think Kermit Frog green) for our kitchen and LOVED it. Not all of our friends loved it but it made me happy to be in my kitchen. I used a blue for the bathrooms and the dining room went through two colors (a Dewalt-colored orange and then a calmer purple-gray).

With the new house, I won't be painting (at least not soon, I hope). Our builder's contract stipulated we could choose 3 colors for the interior. If we add another color, he charges extra. The folks at Sherwin-Williams were kind enough to give me a paint fan to help me "color our world." My goal is to find one neutral (a warm light tan) that I love that I can use in the common spaces (living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway, stairway, and upstairs landing), one color that I can use in the bathrooms and laundry room, and another color I can use in the bedrooms. Although I'm used to having more than 3 colors in a house, I'm actually looking forward to having a more consistent palette throughout.

I don't plan on painting the stairway for a while once I choose the initial color because it has walls that are 2 stories tall. I'm fine if I don't love-love the colors for the other parts of the house but I need to love the common area color. So while the leaders of our country weigh big decisions, I'm worrying about paint colors.

Here's the paint fan, tabbed up. The blue with 2 arrows is the blue for our porch ceilings (Atmospheric). No other definites yet...you'll see why.

To date, I've purchased 5 sample cans from SW. Here are three of the tans. UGGHHH. Too dark! Maybe nice colors but not what I'm looking for (from top down: Harmonic Tan, Whole Wheat, and Favorite Tan). I'm using our rental house's bare white walls as the test surface. We're renting from friends and a while back I agreed we would paint their master bedroom and bathroom. Lucky to have this canvas!

I painted Anew Gray in the bathroom (too purple) and Useful Gray on the wall near the sink. I really like Useful Gray. It's light but it's a warm gray with green undertones.

Useful Gray on the left, Favorite Tan on the right.

So I'm still deciding. I think Useful Gray is probably my bathroom/laundry room color (maybe even for some of the bedrooms, too). Which leaves me on the hunt for that perfect common area light tan and a bedroom color. Hmm....any recommendations would be appreciated (esp. if they are Sherwin-Williams paints).

Hello HardiePlank and Shiny Tin Roof!

It's been a busy week again. On our end we met with the electrician and HVAC guy to walk through the house to finalize decisions in those departments. Who knew there were so many possibilities for switch placement and lighting positions?! Well, we knew but when you actually have to make them it's a bit overwhelming! The Glen View plan called for a ton of recessed lights but we're eliminating most of them because we're more of a lamp (not overhead light) family. Between talking to those two men and our contractor, we spent almost 3 hours at the house on Tuesday morning. Whew!

Another big discussion this week (carried over from past weeks) involves our fireplace. Because we're opting to install a Jotul wood burning stove instead of a traditional fireplace, we've had to make some alterations in the fireplace. I think we've finally settled on what we're going to do...more on that later. 

My excitement grows as the house's exterior evolves. This week part of the tin roof and HardiePlank were installed. 

View of the rear of the house (where the most work was done on the roof).

Master suite (the HardiePlank is primed and will be painted white later).

We toyed with the idea of boxing our chimney in with HardiePlank but ultimately decided that a brick fireplace is much more classic. By Saturday afternoon the chimney was basically done.

Kitchen side. Love our house! Love it!

We're working on appliance decisions and paint colors right now, as well as finding a claw-foot tub for the master bath (we found several at an antique store--just need to pick out one and get it refinished--MUCH cheaper than buying new!).

Tile Style

Following our contractor's suggestion, we went to a flooring showroom to check out our choices in carpet, tile and hardwood. The carpet decision was easy (sorry no picture). Hardwood is pretty simple, too--we didn't see what we wanted there but we have a good idea of what we want (wider boards). We like the look of heart pine but the stars may not be aligned to get that. Ah but tile...oh tile...this decision has been much tougher!

We spent the majority of our appointment looking at tile options but left undecided. Our original choice was slate for all of the floor surfaces we were planning to tile (all three bathrooms and laundry room) but we've been told it's a maintenance nightmare. There were several porcelain tiles that had the appearance of slate but we weren't sold on any of them. By the end of our appointment, I could tell the salesperson was getting a tad tired of our indecision (and we were, too). We left knowing we had a lot of work to do on our tile style.


Fast forward two weeks and we're at the Creative Tile showroom in Lexington with both of our boys. Toting along two little ones is always unpredictable but we lucked out and were able to spend a while looking at the choices there. What a better selection! And the salesperson was so helpful without being overbearing or trying to push her opinions on us.

We found a tile that we like...not 100% sure that we'll go with this (we went to Home Depot and Lowes yesterday and saw more options) but I've included a picture just for the sake of having an image on this post. We already know we're using white (or biscuit) subway tile for the kitchen backsplash and the master shower. The Egyptian Glass accent tile will be for the shower.

I think what scares us (scare being too strong of a word here) is tile is SO permanent. Ashley has laid tile in our previous two houses and it's not the easiest material to remove if you want a change. We have to make a decision; however, and we're committed to making it and moving on...more details later!