Flooring and Paint

Unfortunately, we lost a couple of days of work due to me not being able to make a decision on tile and paint colors.  My biggest problem was the master bath; I ended up changing it three times before I just threw in the towel and chose something.  The first was too white, the second was too brown, and I hope the third will be just right!  

Looking into laundry room from kid's hallway.

Hallway entrance from garage.

Upstairs bath.

I also confirmed all paint choices this week.  

Portico for the master bed and bath:

Portico SW 7548

Useful Gray in the upstairs bonus on walls and ceiling.

Useful Gray SW 7050

Balanced Beige for son's bed and bath:

Balanced Beige SW 7037

Silvermist for daughter's room:

Silvermist SW 7621

Rice Grain for the entry, dining, great, den, kitchen, study, laundry, and office nook:

Rice Grain SW 6155

All trim will be Dover White SW 6385.  

After a few weeks of nothing really to see, other than a new coat of drywall mud, I'm ready to start seeing some progress!  Cabinets delivered on the 22nd!

Exterior Paint Problems

Help!  It seems that my choice of windows are causing a bit of a problem with our paint choices, so that means we're back to the drawing board.  

Not the best picture of the stone, but it's a natural fieldstone with lots of grays and tans.

This was our first choice, SW Backdrop. The problem is it's way too close to the Atrium Clay window color.  Also, it looks much more gray in this picture than it does on the paint chip.  

We like the color but now thinking it would be better on the trim.  So what should the main color be?  Nothing too light.  Nothing too gray.  Nothing too brown.

SW Accessible Beige

SW Backdrop

SW Balanced Beige

The middle color is what we're thinking for the trim.  Would you do the Accessible Beige or Balance Beige for the main brick color?  Next question- what color would you paint the hardieboard shingles?

Day 114

May 29- Day 114

I've not been by the house all week, but I have been to a softball or baseball field for the last 6 days.  Can't complain; I got to spend the weekend watching my boy play and the other days watching my Spartans in the district and regional tournament.  The last week of the school year is always better when your sports teams are still competing!

I met with trim guy last Tuesday and decided on the following:

• Tongue and groove (stained) to go on vaulted ceiling at entrance and den off kitchen.
• Tongue and groove (painted) to go on master and daughter's ceiling.
• Tongue and groove (painted) to go on ceiling of covered porches.  
• Cedar board to go on wood box beams in great room, on columns in dining room and front porch.
• Interior doors.
• 6" baseboards in the great room and dining room.  4" baseboards in the remainder.  
• Crown in the dining room.

Up next- Paint!

Drywall Day 107

I went by the house last Friday (May 15) only to find our builder, framer, and the code inspector there.  I assumed it was just a routine inspection, and it was, but there was a problem.  The height of the ceiling going up the stairs was about 7 inches lower that it needed to be, a slight problem since there was nowhere to go (the roof is directly above this part of the ceiling).  The only solution was moving the stairs.  Keep in mind that I'm pretty tall (about 5'7), had on heels and had plenty of clearance walking up the stairs.  Luckily, I think our builder and code inspector came to an agreement to let this one slide.
Updates and to-do list:
HVAC, Electrical, Exterior stone and brick- Finished!

Cabinets/vanities- They are being made.  I need to pick out a vanity for the upstairs bath from a big box store as it will be cheaper than a custom made vanity.

Lighting- Everything has been purchased or is ready to be purchased except for the fixtures upstairs.  I will likely do ceiling fans with a light kit in the bonus.  I'm not a fan of ceiling fans, but it makes sense to have some extra air circulation up there.  Also have the light for the upstairs bath to pick out and the sconces for the built in beds.
I picked up this little cutie at Lowe's on clearance for $15 to put in the playroom.  It's 23" wide and so fun!  I'm not sure how long that room will be used as a playroom, so I didn't want to spend much but wanted something different.
  

Faucets- I still have some work to do on these.  I really love this Kingston faucet for the powder room, but need to find it in a Delta, and from what I've seen, it's a bit over my price point.

This one is Delta and would work, but it's $272.00!

Tile- I'm having LOTS of trouble on this one.  The more tile I look at, the more confused I am, and when I start trying to compare prices, I get even more confused.  I really need to come in under budget on this.



Drywall was started on day 107, but pictures are from today - day 116.  I have no idea where they are in the process.  I believe it has to be sanded 3x, but not really sure, and it was getting dark when we got there so it was really hard to tell too much.
Unfortunately, it was too dark for a good picture by the time we made it around to the front of the house.

Front doors and dining room.

Kitchen.  Doorway leads to powder, office nook, pantry, and laundry.

 This doorway leads to great room and dining room.  To the right of door is beverage fridge and cabinets; to the left of the doorway is fridge.

 Den off of kitchen with vaulted ceiling which will be stained tongue and groove.

Laundry room.  This room will have two entrances, one from the hallway between garage and kitchen (across from office nook) and pocket door leading to hallway to kid's room.  Coat closet to the left of washer and dryer.  

Office nook across from laundry.  Cased opening with built-in desk around/under the window.

 Pantry beside laundry and across from powder room.

Master bedroom on opposite end from kid's bedrooms.  

 Master closet.

Master bath.  Double vanity on right.  Shower straight ahead.  Toilet room on left.

 Bonus room.

Built in beds in bonus room.

Exterior and a few interior pics - Day 100

Today marked day 100 and look how far we are in this build!!  Brick is almost finished.  (It will be painted.)  Stone almost finished.  Roof complete. 

 Insulation complete and drywall ready for installation.

 Stone redone to suit the husband.

Stone Foundation

May 12 - Day 97

And so it finally happened. . . a trip out to the house only to find something we did not like.  If you'll remember from a previous post (Stone Link), my husband was very particular about the size of the stone used in the foundation.  We made special contact with the builder and the mason about the look we were going for.  We arrived at the house Tuesday night to see this:

Now I could have lived with it, but not Daryl.  He immediately sent our builder a text that was answered by a phone call just a few minutes later.  While Daryl was explaining what he didn't like about the stone to the builder (stones are too large, mortar is too thick), the mason pulls in our driveway and after a quick chat promises to make it right.  This, my friends, is what you call good business.

Our big pile of Tennessee Natural Fieldstone.

Ready to put those bricks on top of the stone foundation!

More pictures of the exterior rear of the house.

May 14 Day 99

The revised stone layout with smaller pieces and less mortar.  LOVE it!

Exterior Pics Day 96

Sunday marked day 96 and I think we're making pretty good progress!  I took the "good" camera, so the pictures are a little better than the last ones I took with my cell phone.  

This is the right end of the house.  The transom windows are in the master bath.

Back of the house.  We had a little issue with the roofline, which is why part of the house hasn't been shingled.  That was fixed today and the roofers should return soon to finish.

Only one interior pic to really show.  Can you guess what this will be?  As far as the kids know, they're  "built-ins" and I guess they are, but they will be so excited when they realize what they really are!!