We have a date!

Exciting news this morning- we have a date for move-in! It's still not 100% but Perry is estimating that the weekend of April 16 will be our move-in weekend! YAY! Because we're getting so close to move-in and the final details on the house are all coming together, I've decided to limit the pictures I share from now until the house is done. But knowing that our family and friends (and other readers) want to see something, here are a few sneak pics!

When Ashley's mom walked into our kitchen on Tuesday she almost started crying because she liked it so much. It helps to have a mother-in-law who appreciates the farmhouse look. And I'm pretty tickled with the results, too. Here's the faucet with the backsplash (waiting on grout).

Our master bathroom--shower waiting on grout and there's a toilet!

The guys installed irrigation on Tuesday, too!

And yesterday, two men from Lancaster drove down to get our tub. Finally. We've almost delayed too long on getting this done but I'm hoping it will be ready in time! Here's her feet, in need of some obvious repairs!

Tomorrow we're picking out floor stain. And if we can just settle on lighting for above the kitchen island, I think our decision making may be coming to an end!

Beginnings of tile (and completed granite)

Yesterday was a big day at the house with the installation of our granite countertops and beginning of laying floor tile.

When we picked up our floor tile last Friday, we were a little unsure of how the slate look would work on our floors. When looking at the individual tiles, we could see a huge variance between the tiles (as you can expect with slate)--and there was a lot more color variance than we realized after just looking at the three samples in the showroom. All that said, when I walked in the backdoor and saw the laundry room, I was really pleased with how it turned out. We're using the same floor tile throughout the house (bathrooms and laundry room)--Planet Sun made by the Rondine Group---we purchased our's from Creative Tile.

Half bath. All of our granite is black based except this piece of St. Cecilia. It's a little strange looking with this tile--I made the mistake of choosing it based on two of the floor tiles, not taking into account how different all of the pieces are. Oh well! At least it's a small vanity! And I do like the way Coastal Path (the paint) looks with the St. Cecilia. Once the toilet is in place, there won't be much floor tile to look at anyway!

Kitchen desk. Our kitchen granite is Black Pearl.

Kitchen.

Sink area...another little strange thing going on here. We are using a Delta faucet that we got for free (similar to this one). My mama has a similar faucet and loves her's. I'm not crazy about the spray nozzle but decided to just use this one until we find another one we like better. What we didn't think about was the hole placement. The faucet will be centered on the sink even though the holes are to the right...but when/if we change to another faucet, we may have to drill another hole or plug one (which Ashley's mom warned me about). Originally I wanted to get one of the pull-down spray wands but just wasn't 100% sold on how these hold up. All that said, here's the sink and the faucet holes. Enough jabbering about it, right?!

Boys' bathroom--Uba tuba granite. This bathroom and the half-bath's counters are made from remnants (saving money there).

Our master bathroom. We chose a brick lay pattern for the tile in here (everywhere else is straight grid). Black pearl counters.

Now you can see the texture and color of the tile.

We ate a picnic dinner of Bojangles and hung out on the land for a little bit. I found a Sand Myrtle blooming yesterday--the back part of property is covered in these.

And our Renai waterheater has been installed. Maybe it's been there for a while and I hadn't noticed.

I thought this was funny--typical of folks who work on houses. They have brought their own microwave and stereo. Smart!

Moving right along

I met with Perry and Armando (the painter and tile guy) to go over the placement of our tile on Tuesday. Thankful that I did because we all had different ideas about how the subway tile in the shower should be placed (we're going with the traditional brick-lay pattern).

First layer of paint up! This is Hazy Skies (the grayish color) but it looks khaki-ish in the picture. I love how it changes from room to room. And it's definitely proof that you can have a warm gray!

Hazy Skies in the dining room.

And Lewiville Green in our bathroom. I LOVE the green. LOVE it. So does Ashley. It's not as Kermit-the-frog-green as the green in our old kitchen. It's just perfect against the white. Yay!

Back porch--note the single step that Freddy built. Ashley is especially excited about this because we don't have to put railings on our deck now.

What's going on at the house this week: Another layer of paint, tile, and granite countertops being installed tomorrow (Friday). We're hoping for the first or second weekend in April as a move-in date but who knows. I told Perry I want everything done right so we're OK if it takes a little bit longer. That said, I'd love to be able to have my little soon-to-be 1 year old's birthday party at our new house Easter weekend!

Railings, Steps, and Trees!

Early in the week when we drove by the house, Freddy was working on the front steps (he had already completed the railings).

And Ashley had begun another step of the landscaping...trees!

So when we drove up on Thursday afternoon after preschool, I couldn't help but get excited (again!) to see our house through the trees, this time with it's porch roof properly supported by columns.

Here are the side steps. We changed the plan for this because we wanted to have steps that are close to where we're parking (we kept the front steps, too).

Quick shot of the back (notice the screened in porch is also equipped with supports now!

Here's a good view of the front. Now we're just waiting on shutters and we'll have the complete look.

 

Oh and here's a sneak peek of the bathroom with the tub (no, it hasn't been refinished...waiting on the plumber to mark the location of the pipes before we move it out).

Back to the front porch. In this corner we'll put a 5 ft wide swing (my parents' housewarming present once we buy it). Oh and the columns on the front are wrapped in MiraTec as we originally planned.

And the trees...Ashley planted several magnolias to form a screen between our property and our neighbor's. He also added a few oaks around the house to provide shade in a few years. It will be time for sod soon.

We picked up our tile on Friday (what a load in the truck!). Perry said there will be three crews working at the house tomorrow (trim, tile and painting). More pictures later.

Prime time

When we arrived at the house yesterday, the interior windows and doors were covered in plastic...which means we've moved on to paint!

Our clawfoot tub is patiently waiting on the backporch...our contractor wants to place it in the bathroom before the plumber creates the holes for the pipes. As you can tell, we still haven't had it painted. So we'll have the tub taken inside, placed, and then removed. Then Ashley will take it to the guy who is going to reglaze it.

We had a little bit of trouble with our columns. We originally wanted MiraTec but Perry wasn't able to find what he needed in that material. He brought out vinyl columns but we said no. Nothing else on our house is vinyl so it wouldn't match--too smooth and shiny. These YellaWood columns seem to be a good compromise. We'll see how they hold up.

I took a few shots of the inside now that much of it has been primed. This is my first view of my soon-to-be white kitchen. Love it!

The living room with built-in for tv and wood pass-through.

Stairs with beaded board trim and oak treads.

Handrails for the stairs.

 

Outside, the grading is complete. I'm looking forward to comparing this picture to our yard in a year or two.

Colors chosen and more

Fast Freddy is still working...

Now the fireplace is trimmed out. We still need to fire up the Jotul before we move in. I hate that it got dust all over it during the trim process but it will be vacuumed and recovered in plastic when it comes time for painting.

The much anticipated decision: interior paint colors! Sharing the colors I've chosen for the inside of the house feels a little like sharing the name of a child before it's born. With both of our boys, we opted to wait until they were born before we named them. But in this case of building a house, it makes sense to go ahead and share the colors we have picked out (after a long time of looking at so many different shades of tan and gray!).

So without further ado, our picks (Benjamin Moore colors):

Left to right:

• Lewiville Green (for the laundry room and bathrooms except the downstairs half-bath)
• Hazy Skies (for the majority of the downstairs living space, including kitchen, living room, dining room, guest bedroom, hallway, stairway. And the upstairs landing). This is the sample you see painted beside the woodstove in the picture above.
• Coastal Path (for the master bedroom, half bath, and two upstairs bedrooms).

Two doorknobs have been installed--the exterior ones! And note that the doors are in the correct locations now :o)

My 2 1/2 year old took a few pictures. This one is from one of the front windows, looking into the living room and back to the dining room.

Another Levi picture...up close with the HardiePlank. I love how it looks just like wood!

Our brick chimney.

Back to my pictures...we also have leaf guard gutters now. The original drawings of this house have exposed rafter tails but we decided to go with the gutters to shield us from downpours when we walk up on the front porch! It's raining right now and I wish I could hear the drops hitting our tin roof. Soon! Soon!

And Ashley is still grading the land. It's amazing how the yard has transformed with a few days of dirt moving.

View from the kitchen side of the house. The yard is much more level (dirt was moved from the back to the front to make this possible).

And what better way to celebrate this week than receiving our first tank of gas (and the accompanying bill).

Other things on tap this week...Freddy is finishing up (we hope); the plumber came out yesterday to go over a few things with Perry; the granite countertop installers came and measured; and we're finalizing our lighting and fan order. Whew!

Trimmed out

Fast Freddy is getting close to being done with the trim. As of this afternoon, he lacks the majority of the crown molding, baseboards, and closet shelving. But I thought you might like a tour anyways! Again I apologize for the jumpy order. Blogger makes it tough to rearrange photos (or at least, it is for me!).

Here's the master bath.

Upstairs landing built-in for tv, etc. The living room one is very similar, except it has a cabinet for the wood pass-through.

Guest bedroom window seat (storage beneath).

Kitchen!! The island will have a 1 ft overhang on the right side (desk side), where we'll have low stools. I decided to have a slightly smaller island so there is more room to move around (and congregate in) the kitchen.

Half-bath downstairs. I guess the proper name is Powder Room but I don't know anyone who powders anymore!

Laundry room. The far shelf is going to be left open.

Boys' bathroom upstairs.

Back door and hallway. I love how Freddy added beadboard along this space. He told me he had to come up with a way to transition the beadboard from the stairway into the living space. Good solution!

Ah, yes! We have a porch floor on the front.

And another view of the kitchen. In this view, you can see where the fridge (left) and stove (right) will be.

It's coming together!