Kitchen Cabinets

Today was cabinet day and finalizing the drawing and paint colors.  I was more than a little stressed over the paint choices as that also impacts the color of the walls (which will be the same throughout most of the house) and the trim color (which will be the same throughout the house).  

First, I can't say enough about the cabinet company we're working with.  The designer has been WONDERFUL!  She asks questions, answers mine the same day (usually within the hour), tells me how I can save money, and has been great about calculating and recalculating the design and the bid on the many occasions I've changed my mind.  

Here's the layout of the main cabinets in the kitchen:  This wall will be bricked up to the ceiling using the General Shale Ironworks.

These are the cabinets on another wall in the kitchen:  The area in between them is the doorway leading to the great room (on the left) and the dining room (on the right).  I was really stuck with what to use for a backsplash on this area.  

And then I found this. . . LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this tile!  I love the design, I love the color, but I DON'T love the price.  

WoW!  Sticker shock!  So to put this in perspective, a box contains 5, 6x6 tiles which covers .71 sq ft.  

This is another (slightly) more affordable option that gives me the same color, but I lose the design I'm in love with.  

 Remember I said it was only slightly more affordable.

Which brings me to paint colors.  Let's start with the walls since the kitchen, den, living, and dining rooms, along with some other smaller areas, will all be painted the same color.  We're using Sherwin Williams paint, and I'm already a big fan of Rice Grain (in several rooms of our home now), and the new HGTV Sherwin Williams line at Lowe's has something very similar, Pure Linen (this must be really new because I'm having trouble finding pics of it on-line):

Rice Grain SW 6155

Pure Linen HGSW 4043

 Now for the cabinet color- Dover White with brown glaze.  This will also be trim color.

Dover White SW 6385

And the kitchen island color:

Warm Stone SW 7032

 So I was more than pleased to find out that these colors are "stock" colors with my cabinet company, which means I don't have to pay extra and they had sample cabinets for me to look at with the colors I chose!!

And here it is all together:

 Since I fell in love with a very expensive tile for the kitchen backsplash, I'm looking to cut some costs elsewhere, like the laundry room.  I can save quite a bit of money by doing stained cabinets rather than painted/glazed and even more by doing a laminate countertop instead of granite in the laundry.  I'm also doing a stained vanity in son's bath rather than p/g.  Doors will be flat panel, not raised like the one shown.  Laminate for counters in laundry narrowed down to Golden Juparana (shown) or Bordeaux Juparana.

Stone and Brick

This one was supposed to be easy.  I knew exactly what we wanted, even had a picture.  The salesperson I met with knew exactly the house and exactly the stone, a Tennessee fieldstone.  He gave me the address of a few other homes that had the same stone laid by the same person who will lay ours.  My husband and I went out to look at them and he SWORE it was a different stone.  I called the stone company and they SWORE it was the same stone.  ? ? ? 

Well, it appears that the look of the stone depends on two things:

1. the shipment- Since we're using a natural stone, the pigment of the stone can vary greatly.  
2. the way the stone is laid- The house we are trying to mimic had small stones, much like the picture below:

not big stones like the ones on top in the picture below:

The outcome:  Same stone, same mason, but the larger stones are broken up.  This is what we're opting for.  It will cost a bit more due to the labor of breaking them up, but it's what we want.

I also needed to decide on the stone veneer that will be used on the inside of the house on fireplace and stone/wood posts defining the dining room like below:

Don't have a sample to show, but it's a mixture between browns and grays.

Finally, I needed to decide on a brick veneer to use in the powder room and for the kitchen backsplash. This is the look we're going for as far as cabinets and appliances:

The brick shown in the pic is authentic, old, and is in between my two samples.  Here's what I'm trying to decide between:

This is General Shale (manufacturer) Peppermill on the left (the red one), Seawall in the middle, and Ironworks on the right.  The two on the right are VERY similar, but the Ironworks is a little darker.  I'm going for a very natural, cool look without any red or orange.  

Wiring, Doors, and Windows

Lots of wires sticking out of the walls this week!  Met with our builder and electrician Monday to discuss lighting, recessed lights and outlets.  So this meeting took a little over an hour.  I really just deferred to the expertise of the builder and the electrician on placement of switches and recessed lighting.  A few things of importance:

• Recessed lights in the soffits for "down lights" or uplights in the landscaping- I opted for lights in the soffits.
• Plugs in the master vanity drawer like this:

• Under cabinet lighting in the kitchen.  While I would love to have this, it was going to cost about $550, so I opted for more recessed lights in the ceiling.  I have 11!  That should be enough!
• Plugs in the pantry- Shelving in the pantry will be solid, not wire, and I'll have a countertop to keep toaster, blender, etc.  I had two plugs put in the pantry at countertop height.
• Plug in great room floor- Thankfully, I didn't have to decide on the placement of this.  After I know furniture placement, they'll pull the wiring through the floor and add the outlet then.
• Lighting for covered patio- We'll have an eating area and a sitting area in front of the fireplace.  The fan (like below) will be over the sitting area with recessed lighting over the eating area.

• Laundry room lighting-  I really wanted some pretty lights in the laundry, but at the advice of our builder, am going with a less expensive 4 ft. fluorescent light.  He swears it puts off better light.  We'll also have fluorescent lights in the kid's closets.    

Those were really the only decisions I had to make (thank goodness!)

Now for the pictures!  

I am so excited about our attic.  Our last house (that was a custom build) had NO attic.  NONE!  Not even one of those pull down ladders leading up to not much more than a crawl space!  We did have a large garage, but oh how I hated seeing boxes, totes, Christmas trees, and everything else stacked up every time I pulled into the garage.

This is the doorway leading to the attic in our new house:

Bonus room.  So glad we moved the restroom and WIC out of this room and into what would have been attic storage.  We've decided to go ahead and have the plumbing and wiring done and will hopefully be able to finish it now rather than later.  Love the two big windows in this room!  The wall to the right will have two built in beds like the picture below.

 Looking from bonus room down hall to WIC with bathroom on right.

 Son's room with windows in.  Built-in bookshelves will flank the windows.

 Den with son's room beyond.  Vaulted ceiling in den will have stained beadboard.

 Back porch.  See that wire hanging down in front of the fireplace?  Yes, well that's all my husband's doing.  After I met with the electrician and told him I wanted the TV on the wall (easily viewable from anywhere on the porch and sheltered from the elements), my husband insisted on having the TV above the fireplace.  Little disappointed in this.  We'll see...

 From kitchen eating area looking into kitchen.

 Yay!  Windows and doors!!  This is actually a patio door (meaning only one functioning door) with full-length windows on each side.  Love the natural light this will bring into the room and the view of the outside.

 Fireplace in great room.  Fireplace will be stone with built-ins on both sides.

 Front door.  Love, love, love this door.

 As of April 24

Plumbing and Deliveries

No pictures today, just an update on progress:
April 13- Started on plumbing.  Got shower/tub inserts set.  (It rained)
April 14- Measured for cabinets.  (It rained)
April 15- Windows and exterior doors were delivered.  (It rained)
April 16- (It rained)
April 17- (It didn't rain but no progress)

Making progress!

April 7- Making progress on the framing and should finish up this week!  

Front of house as of April 7.  We made a special request for the dormers to flare out on the ends.  Our framer said it took lots of time to do this, but I think it will be worth it.

From the road:

Through the trees:

And as of April 10:  Shingles are going on and I'm amazed at how quickly this happens!  

Roof is Weathered Wood.

 And just for fun, we stopped by Chaney's Dairy Barn for some ice cream and fun jumping on the trampoline pillow.

April 12- 

 

Rear of the porch roof will not be shingled until fireplace is complete.