Wooden Countertop

Last week before we left to go out of town I was surprised when I walked into the kitchen and saw that the tile backsplash had been completed.  I am SO happy that I waited on this tile and it really is just the color I was hoping for.  The beveled subway tile in the tannish color (evening shadow is the exact name) is so pretty!

The stone columns are wrapping up as well as the fireplaces.  Also, the little dog shower is pretty much done. We have a room off the garage, before you get to our main mudroom, and this dog shower is in that room.  We saw the ideas on several websites and knew it would be perfect, not only for washing a dog, but also for cleaning muddy feet of children after playing outside.  Our builder thinks we are crazy because we don't even have a dog yet, but I explained to him we are dog people and have just been waiting to get in the house before we get a new dog!

The rest of the driveway was poured today, but the most exciting thing that happened today was when our wooden countertop for our kitchen island was delivered and installed.  I met the installer at the house this morning. I had gone upstairs to check on something and when I came back down I saw it in place and literally gasped.  It is so beautiful and I'm so, so, so happy to stuck to my guns about wanting it.  Our friend from high school owns a company that does a lot of commercial custom cabinetry and in my quest to find someone to make it for me I reached out to him.  He said he could absolutely do this for us and the end result is perfection.  A HUGE thank you to Eric and his crew at Five Star Architectural for making and installing this piece.  It might just be my favorite thing in the house to date!

And in other big news...we have a move-in date.  We will be in the house in just over two weeks!!!  Hooray!!!  This has obviously been a long time coming and I'm just a little bit anxious and overwhelmed about all that will have to be done between now and then.  Not to mention how overwhelmed I feel just thinking about getting us settled once we are in.  But, this project has been going on for about a 18 months (since we first found this property and started with the idea of building), so I am going to be jumping for joy on moving day, despite the overwhelming feelings I might have.

Lots Happening!

There has been so much happening at the house this week and I just love stopping by and seeing all of the changes each day.  On Friday afternoon we saw lots of great stuff.  

I was so excited to see our mudroom lockers installed.  I am dreaming of days with no more backpacks, sports bags, jackets, hats and shoes being dropped off in the kitchen and instead being placed neatly in their spots.  :-)

The hardwood floors also were completed this week.  They are all covered up so that they don't get damaged, but I pulled back a little section so I could see what they looked like.  We went with a 5 inch, pre-finished, hand-scraped floor.

The guys have been there working on completing the porch and all of the railings and steps on the front of the house were almost done when we were there yesterday.

Our shower is finally done and the frameless door was completed.  Because in the 10 years we've been married, neither of us have used the bathtub in our master bath (except to maybe give the kids a bath), we decided to forgo a bathtub and do an over sized shower instead.

Every time we are there the kids like to check out their rooms and see if anything looks different. On this day Harper was really excited to call me into her room and show me her closet shelving.  She told me she loves it because she can't wait to hang her clothes and be able to reach them without a stool.

Painting and Sewing

I guess you could call Robby and I DIYers  (Do It Yourselfers).  When we got our quote for painting the painter wanted a very large amount of money for each color change.  We already had two main wall colors and with the interior doors being a dark gray, that meant two trim colors, too.  I really wanted the kids bedrooms to be painted specific colors, as well as the dining room, so we had the painters do everything our main color and Robby agreed to go and paint those rooms to get it done before we moved in.  

Last weekend was the painting weekend.  He worked all day Saturday and Sunday, but got the four rooms completed.  I fretted for months over the colors and I love the result.  The kids do too because as soon as they saw their rooms they were all very happy.  

Harper's is a light lavender and her room bedding/accessories are gray, lavender and aqua. 

Hudson's is a light blue and his room will be nautical with navy, red, and blue.  You can see from the picture below, he loves his blue room and has fun running wild with no furniture! 

Handley's is a light aqua and her bedding/accessories are pinks, aqua and green.  And yes, that is a bungie cord holding Handley's chandelier together.  Ever since I bought it, 7 years ago, one of the arms has been broken.  Robby's fixed it a bunch of times and in the move it got broken again.  SO, that is on our to-do list before we move in.  

Our dining room also got painted and in other big news, the electricity is finally working to the house (after having to re-run the underground lines) so we can actually turn on our lights now.  

While Robby was painting all weekend I was sewing.  There are so many different projects I have in my head and my bag of fabric swatches is bursting at the seams.  But, my goal was to get the kids rooms done before we moved in so that then I can focus on the rest of the house.  I finally finished Harper and Handley's panels, so they are hanging out on the stools in Gigi and Papa's basement until we can hang them closer to our move-in date. 

Earlier this week the kids and I waited around for our appliances to be delivered and it was such a beautiful day that they were content just sitting in the driveway working on homework and coloring.  LOVE having our driveway done now so we can do stuff like that.  

Let there be lights!

This week I made 6 trips to Home Depot in 4 days.  It became laughable at some point.  There were a lot of little things that were needed for the lights and the electrician.  Because we decided to buy all of our lights ourselves instead of going through a supplier, all of those little things became my responsibility.  

At the end of the week though, I was happy to have it all done because it meant all of our lights, smoke detectors, and outlets were in.  

The bottom part of the driveway was also poured yesterday and we were all happy because that means no more muddy shoes for the kids every time we visit the house.

Paint, Granite, and Tile Updates!

The past few weeks have been extremely productive.  There have been multiple things happening at once, which I just love seeing.  Today there was tile going in, painters outside, and the grading around the yard had begun.

The interior painting is pretty much done with the exception of the brick fireplace and a few other little projects.  I'm loving the way it all turned out.  The walls look blue in these photos, but they are more of a gray with blue/green hint to it.  Our doors, beams, tongue and groove ceiling and mudroom lockers are all the darker color, which I am in love with.  IN LOVE!  I can't wait to see all of the doors hung because if I love them this much just standing in a row, I can't imagine how much I will love them when they are all in their place.

The other thing I'm loving right now is our porch ceiling!  The large screen porch and wrap-around porch on the house were two things on our "must have" list and with the light blue ceiling it just feels so welcoming and relaxing...and southern!  We can't wait to enjoy it.

The granite went in last week, along with our copper farm sink.  I'm excited to see the kitchen finished with the back splash and the wooden counter for the island. It's all coming together just the way I envisioned.  I often go by and just stand in there staring at how it all looks because it just makes me happy to think what it will be like when we are actually living there.

The tile started this week and it feels like forever ago that we made those selections.  Everything looks great though and those guys are making lots of progress in just a few days.  The bathrooms are all almost completed and then there will only be a few other ares to be done.

Final Selections

This week we finalized all of our selections for the house including paint, granite, and tile.  Most of it was already decided upon, but I'd been waiting for almost a month for the lady helping us with the tile selections to get in some specific samples of a beveled subway tile.  She called me last week to let me know they were finally in so Monday afternoon I stopped by to check them out. I'm so glad I waited before just settling on something else because the colors were gorgeous and the style was exactly what I was hoping for.  We're going with "enchanted shadow" and I think it's really going to complement our island color and stand out against the antique white cabinets.  You can also see a sneak peek of our main paint color, Silver Strand.

My plan was to make all of the kids' window treatments this week during spring break, but the kids and I have been staying so busy that I haven't gotten around to that yet. I did work on one little project today though.  I needed some sort of chandelier shades for the light in Harper's room and when I looked online for lavender ones the only ones I could find were $15-$25 a piece.  Crazy expensive.  SO, I just ordered a set of plain white silk ones and dressed them up a little with some lavender trim Harper helped me picked out at JoAnn.  I used my glue gun to attach the trim and love the way they turned out.  I think it will add just a little pop of color on her chandelier to coordinate with her room.

Trim and Other Details

Yesterday and today when I drove up to the house I saw about 5 trucks and vans there.  That meant lots was happening!  The trim is going up and looks so good. I feel like trim work can really set the tone and add so much to a room.  Here's a sneak peak at some of our trim in progress!  

Also, the mason workers were starting outside to repair and tie in to the existing brick outdoors and today they completed the brick fireplace. It was one of the only original things we kept from the house, but because we raised the ceiling height, there was a weird gap left between the top of the old fireplace and the new ceilings.  They carried the new brick straight up and we will have the brick painted so you will never know it was pieced together.  

I've also been working on paint colors. Y'all, I have been looking at paint colors for months and months. I've searched Pinterest for inspiration, asked friends about colors used in their homes, and made more than a handful of visits to Sherwin Williams. I thought I was prepared.  However, when our builder asked me to email him paint colors the other day, I totally freaked out. It just seems so final and I know we can always repaint, but that isn't going to be happening anytime soon so I just want to get it right.  I went back to the paint store again today and spent the better part of an hour comparing colors and now I need to go back tomorrow!  Crazy, I know. I should have just bought a color wheel.  I did get a sample size of the color we were planning to use for the main part of the house just so I could test that on the walls and reassure myself it was going to look the way I envisioned.  As soon as Hudson saw me whip out that paint brush, he was all into the idea of paint.  He waited so patiently while I was at the paint store earlier and I let him help me do a few brush strokes of the test color.  It seriously made his day!  

I've also been on a fabric hunt.  I wanted to take advantage of this waiting period before we can move in and go ahead and make some of the window treatments.  My goal is to at least get the kids' rooms done so that when we move in I won't have to fuss with them.  Again, Hudson has been my little assistant in this process and he's been SO good.  He had fun pointing to ones he liked and kept saying how much he loved the orange and yellow fabrics. I had to break it to him that his room will be navy, light blue, and red.  He didn't seem bothered though. :-)  I also discovered that if I gave him my phone to take pictures of the ones he liked, he stayed so entertained and I also got some cute pictures of him, too!  

I carried each of the kids' pillow shams with me so I could see what different fabrics would look like and how it would coordinate with their bedding.  Here's what I'm leaning towards using right now for each of their rooms.