Getting closer!

So much is happening very quickly each day! Lighting, stone work on the fireplace, carpeting…

Here are some pictures from this morning.

This is day four for the stonemasons. Are those beams gorgeous?!  Mike and Bob did an amazing job on them and we absolutely love them.

The kitchen still needs its final touch-ups which happen tomorrow. It also needs to be cleaned.

Lighting was installed this morning in the bathrooms!

Yes, the laundry room is rather bright, even at night.  Just wait until the curtain and furniture are in!

Nathan’s room is painted and the bedding he picket out looks awesome!

I will be adding some decorative horizontal stripes like in the picture below. That will probably happen over the next few weeks.  I used a program on the Shewin-Williams website and worked with Nathan to create the mock-up below. I uploaded a picture then drew in what I wanted! Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Also this weekend the carpeting was installed! We were super excited about that. The boys all love it.

Here is Jeff’s office.

Well, Wednesday is the big Moving Day! I better get back to packing things up!

Thursday’s projects

Exciting things happening!  The stone arrived and the fireplace was begun. The decorative faux beams started going up in the Great Room. What a difference it makes! Lighting continues to be installed and the painting is looking great!

Here is a picture from the hallway looking towards the kitchen from last night.

The stone mason arrived with two assistants and what a major production this is!

There is a real skill in laying the stone so it is level and looks right with the seams. We are so happy with this stone because it looks like we wanted: lots of variation in size both width and height. This is real stone from a quarry in Crossville, TN. When it arrived some boxes were soaking wet from the rain and the color of the stone was very dark. Others were almost white like the photo above in the wheelbarrow. Whew.

Other things were going on too with painting. We changed the trim color in Ben’s room to a darker version. The guest bedroom was started and the theater as well.

The theater was completed last night and the carpet and rubber exercise flooring is going in on Monday. I can’t wait to see the tiger stripe carpet on the platform!

We decided to change our move date to Wednesday next week. That way we give the team another weekend and a few more days. It will make our move in much more comfortable! I think everyone was happy with that change.

 

Random pieces from today….

Another big day at “the ranch” with lighting and plumbing going in. Loads of painting going on also.

One thing that Mike did that made a HUGE difference was to remove the iron fence that was outside the main windows overlooking the rear yard. Here is the gate in it’s new location.

Now if feels much more spacious!

He started working on the faux wood beams for the Great Room and did a mock up of the size. The stain will be darker.

Lighting was really getting going today too! Ceiling fans were also installed.

These pendants are the ones we will use for our island

 

Yes, the master bedroom has a gold ceiling.

Be sure to put your sunglasses on to see the laundry room! It is a bright coral color. I think it will look great when the lighting and table are in place.

(I don’t know why spots are showing up on my camera lens sometimes!) It is a solid color, I promise.

Bob painted miles of crown molding today!

Ben’s Gray bedroom. The trim is painted a darker gray now and I will get a better picture tomorrow!

I was super excited to see the faucets going in place. This faucet is the Delta Touch 20 where you can touch it anywhere on the handle or spout to make the water stop or start!

Tomorrow the cabinet folks come and will put the doors and drawers and make it really look like a kitchen! The electricians will continue to install light fixtures and the appliances too.

Counting the days now!

Look what I saw in the front yard!

It was a gorgeous lovely Fall type of day today. This is what I saw when I pulled up to meet with the flooring company about the final stain color choice at 11 am.

This photo is just as it was taken, no enhancements! Lovely!

Then I went inside to meet with Randee, owner of Carolina Flooring & Carpet. She has been very responsive to my questions, priced fairly, and was my contractor’s recomendation. She met with us earlier to show us a color of the stain (Special Walnut) and we liked it but felt it might be just  a bit dull. So, Mike, our contractor, put down some English Chestnut and it was great! She wanted to be certain that was the color we liked best, so we met today to do a final consult. The floor team was there working on filling cracks and pushing nails down, and sanding. Talk about a LOUD machine!

The English Chestnut was gorgeous! They even put a coat of the satin poly on top so I could see the slight ambering of the color when it is on. I had taken my cabinet sample with me to test it with the floor to make sure it wasn’t matchy-matchy and that it also didn’t clash. It was a winner!

This picture just doesn’t do it justice! It will be gorgeous without being too red or too gold. Actually, the kitchen cabinet color is the darkest shade of the grain in the floor.

The electricians were there working outside again and they were able to get many of the exterior lights in place. They continued to work on the electricity for the gate and landscaping too.

See the new lights? The criss cross pattern was based on the original light that was hanging in the front. I will get a picture of it next week.

I spent some time prepping the Pool Bathroom cabinets for painting and then painted the first coat of Dover White. Sherwin Williams has the best paint! The coverage is superb. I painted the hall bathroom cabinets the final coat today. Probably didn’t need it, but since I have been painting in the dark, I felt it was better safe than sorry. I am also planning on adding another coat if it needs it when we have light again.  I just love that Brevity Brown! Looks just like chocolate.

I stopped by to pick up the paint for the Pool Bathroom cabinets. I have been working with the Selwyn Ave. location of Sherwin Williams.  I wanted to tell the folks who have been working with me there how much I love using it! The coverage was amazing! I thought I might need a couple of quarts for the hall bathroom cabinets because I was going from white to dark brown. Nope, two would have done it. Plus, I used only half a quart. Mind boggling. This paint was so thick and creamy.

Pictures soon, it is just hard without lights. Speaking of lights, I asked when we’d get some turned back on. They are all in place in the ceilings but no bulbs. Dave, the electrician, said that it would be after they paint the ceilings. Argh….

Miscellaneous stuff going on while the contractor is out of town

Yes, Mike had a family vacation scheduled before taking this job, so he’s off in the islands somewhere having a great time! At least, I HOPE he’s having a great time.

25 days until we move!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch….  (10 points to the first person to tell me where that line is from!)

I got busy and painted the bathroom cabinets in the hall bathroom a lovely chocolate brown. Remember how much I hated that bathroom?  well, now I think of chocolate when I look in there and that is not all bad, is it? In fact, I think I may end up actually liking this bathroom by the time we are done!

Pictures will be soon, I promise!

Bob, our second in command, is also busy with repairing the outside wood siding we ripped through to move the kitchen door.  There was white vinyl siding up all across the back.

We moved the door closer to the bay windows, and we saw that it had the original boards underneath.

 Brick red paint!

So, we decided to have them make it look like it did originally. It will also match the workshop are a bit better.

Here is what it looks like now…

I am really at a loss about how to hide that giant gray electrical box we had to put outside to the right of the carport door.

Right now our plans are to replace the door with one that has more glass and is without dividers. We’ll also be adding a third pane of glass from to the slider from floor to ceiling to let more light in that room. The siding will be painted for sure, probably in a neutral gray, taupe, beige-type tone? We’ll paint the trim white to continue what is going on elsewhere on the house. The workshop should be painted to match too. The brick area is a 5 foot wide strip from the side yard to where the sliding door opens. I think the grill will end up living there.

Other things happening…

Motion sensing flood lights went in!

The electrical work for running power to our gate started.

The fireplace was starting to be covered in durock in prepration for the stone!

Starting to feel more like an entry now.

I know you really want to see pictures of the chocolate cabinets, and I promise….I will get some pictures for tomorrow’s post.

Before and Current Picture of Great Room

35 days until we move.

Before we started construction, we had multiple rooms. We had a living room, dining room, kitchen and family room.

Now, we have one large space that will contain the same rooms. We will not have a formal dining room, just a single large table overlooking the backyard window.

Drywall is up in the Great Room & Theater!

What an amazing feeling to walk in and see the drywall up on the ceiling and in the new tray ceiling of the kitchen! I had to walk outside and cry! You know how it is to have a dream of what something could be like, but not sure if it really will live up to your expectations? What a relief to see it actually happen.

Here is the theater! The support beams are still to go in and the brownish red metal poles will be removed then. We also are having the heating ductwork relocated behind the wall.

A video really helps you get the feel for the space. Hope you don’t get dizzy!

Ceiling Work

I find the ceiling in our new house completely amazing. The way that the baffles are going in to direct the hot air up and out of our home, wiring the lights and speakers for the sound system, and supporting it with steel beams…just awe inspiring!

Here are a few pictures showing the various stages.

The tan baffles lead hot air up and to the ridge vent on the top of hte roof.

Insulation covers these. It’s already much more comfortable in this part of the home! We were able to use loads of the old insulation, so we felt good about recycling. We did have to purchase a limited quantity of new insulation too.

46 days until the move….

Started talking to the moving companies yesterday to see about quotes and pricing. So far, I have been pleasantly surprised. I know that we’ll handle most of the moving of pictures, lamps, china, clothing, and valuables. The builder says we are still on schedule, though there may be a few things outside that are not complete.

Yesterday we saw the insulation going in, which we were able to save from the previous ceiling, and it seemed cooler in that Great Room already! Very green, re-using the insulation.  Mike moved the carport door, and the HVAC folks were there moving the vents from the middle of the floor to new locations.

Lots of electrical has been run. One problem we didn’t consider was that when you remove all the walls… where do the light switches go? I had no idea we had so many! There are ten light switches in this location.

The Great Room is finally a GREAT big room!

Last night Jeff and I stopped by and saw that the roof was supported and that all the temporary supports had been removed. It was so exciting to see the space at last!

The electrical had begun in the kitchen and there were a few questions we had about it. Tomorrow we’ll be discussing the decorative beam placement in the vaulted area because the original plan interferes with the lighting.