Day 25-27

We are FINALLY closed on our house, hence the lack of updates on this blog!! It has been a LOT of moving and prepping our rental for our life here for the next couple of months!

We are really going to miss this home! We went through a lot of "life stages" here - we will miss the neighbors, the kids, the friends, etc....but we are super excited to extend our friendships with all of these people to our new home :)

The big accomplishment over the last couple of days is that the shingles are now done and the windows are installed! YAY!! We are super excited about this, because that means that the weather doesn't have to be such a factor anymore on our time frame!

This is the double front door that we are doing - I am not sure if these are the permanent fixtures, but I am in LOVE with them...and the transom window above them! They let in so much light - it is something I always wanted! I am so glad we decided to do them!

We took my parents out to see the house and they have the vapor barrier done on the basement floor. We are doing in-floor heat downstairs instead of a fireplace, we are hoping it warms it up down there!

Hoping to be better over the next  couple of weeks with updates, but life isn't slowing down much!! 

Day 24 - Roof

The final roof is started!! YAY!! We are super excited to have the roof get done because that means that weather is less of an aspect we need to worry about in moving forward with the home being built! It is honestly really hard waiting on rainy days - so this will keep the progress moving foward!!

We had a couple of questions come up from our builder today - they wanted to know if we wanted an entire glass shower door in our master bath, or if we wanted to tile half of the wall and make it a smaller door. We decided to stay with the original design of an entire shower wall/door as that will make it more open and bright. We are excited about our choice :) The other question was pretty basic in that we have to change the type of door into our master bath because it was designed in a weird way - so we decided on a pocket door in order to conserve some space!

Hopefully getting back to the house tomorrow to see even more accomplished!

Day 23 - We have STAIRS!! YAY!!

Being that it was Sunday, when Jarret and I went out to the house today, we didn't expect ANY change from Friday!! So, it was a SUPER pleasant surprise to see that their stairs were completed this weekend!! YAY!! That meant that I could get upstairs to see the framing of the bedrooms :)

This will be Tristan's room. I am absolutely in love with the large windows that all of the rooms have!

This is our master bedroom. It will have double doors, which I am super excited about because it feels so spacious!

Master bath

This will be the boy's bathroom. It is one room that I am kind of anxious to see come together because it feels small currently. 

Jarret's room - facing the front of the house

Overall, the upstairs looks GREAT! Our closet is one of my favorite parts of the house, but of course I didn't take a picture :( Also, our laundry room is upstairs...so it will be really nice to again have the ability to quickly put clothes away once they are done!

Day 22

We went out to the house today, but it was a quick visit, as we didn't see much that had been done. As you can tell from this picture, they have the porch and entrance covered. I love the peak!

Also, they finished the peak on the back of the house above the dining room. It is all coming together!

Short entry today, but I didn't do much with house decisions today and the work is coming along slowly and steadily!!

Day 21 - Slowing Down

The progress seems to be slowing down a bit. In all honesty, it has rained here every single day for the last 6-7 days, so I am surprised that they accomplished much at all this past week! But, they definitely did!

With that being said, Tristan and I had a play date today that took us out past Oronoco, so we stopped in to see what was happening with the house. There was one guy there and we couldn't really tell what he was up to, so it definitely wasn't something that my untrained eye would notice ;)

Since yesterday afternoon, they DID add in the landings for the stairs. I am so excited to see this staircase come together- it is going to be STUNNING!!

I also tried to get a picture of a little more of the framing upstairs, but it was hard :( They are done framing up there, so my personal goal for them (HAHA!) is to get the roof on and the stairs done by mid-next week. Anyone else think I should just be the general contractor? No, ok then ;)

I was inundated with emails today - our flooring quote (so far!), our plumbing fixtures quote, and our final cabinet choices sheet. YAY!! It feels like it is all coming together now - I love seeing the continued progress!

Day 20 - Countertops & Blinds

My pictures aren't super exciting today as they don't show a lot of change/progress. There WAS a lot of progress done today, but unfortunately, it was on the upper level of the house and I can't get up there yet :( I am hoping they build some stairs soon!!!

I am struggling SO MUCH with the countertops to put in our home. I am absolutely obsessed with marble, but everyone has told me how difficult it is to care for! So, I am trying to be strategic about where I use it! This piece was sent to be by our countertop company and it will be used our powder room. I am so excited for it!!

The rest of our house will most likely be MSI Calacatta Quartz and Alaska White granite (for the laundry room). Trying to be keep it clean and neutral with our color schemes!

Like I said, not a lot has changed from the front...

But they got the side wall up! And you can see how amazing the windows are going to look!! I love them!

It is all coming together nicely :) I can't wait for the stairs to be done so that I can get upstairs and see the progress! Hopefully that and the roof will be done this week!! 

My question for today is: what window treatments are you currently loving? I am thinking roman shades for most bedrooms, beyond that I am struggling!! 

Day 19 - Stairway Lighting Help!

Another day full of progress at the house! They got the upstairs started, so the look of the home is coming together!!

From the back :)

And this is a picture of the wall by the stairway - going up from the foyer to the upstairs. I am OBSESSED with our foyer - it is wide, bright, and open! I cannot wait to welcome people in with the dramatic staircase and bright windows!!

I am having a hard time picking a light for our foyer and stairway - thoughts on this Kichler Larkin Indoor Pendant?? Any other ideas you love for the foyer/stairway??

I am hoping that they frame in the upstairs soon - but unfortunately, we can't get up there because the stairs aren't built yet :( Soon - I hope!!

Day 18 - Roof

Today was a super fun day to go out to the house because they got the roof on above the garage! These peaks look really high to me because I am used to our house (not a walk-out). Everything just seems so much taller because of how high the house needs to be in order to accommodate our floor plan. 

View from the back of the house. 

They also put the plywood on for the floor of the upstairs, so hopefully we will see more framing done with that tomorrow!! It is so exciting seeing it all come together! 

I picked out our garage door today and plumbing fixtures. Hopefully more on that sometime this week!! 

Day 17 - Flooring!

We went out to the house after dinner tonight, but it didn't look like much had changed. So, I am mostly going on to focus on some things that I picked out today and get your opinion on things I could use some help on!!

To begin, I picked our hardwood flooring out today. On the top picture, you can see the hardwood we are going with. We decided to do a hand-scraped hardwood. I love the texture and I love how it can hide the "dings" that the boys make unintentionally when playing on the wood! Do any of you have hand-scraped? What is your experience with it? I also picked this particular piece because it is a true brown color and it has wide planks, which I LOVE!!

The bottom of this picture is our carpet. I don't know (or care!) much about carpet, so I let Mathew (our flooring guy) help me out! I wanted something neutral and soft - so we picked the bottom carpet. It has gray and brown flecks, so it will work with all of our color schemes throughout the house and also not show everything the boys do to it! Haha!

 Below is the color options we have for our house. We are doing a custom siding that is going to be painted, so we need to choose three of these color options. We are for sure doing the "Black Fox" on the peaks, so we need two others. Any favorites?? White trim is going around everything, so it definitely needs to be darker to contrast with the trim. I would love to hear your ideas!

Now, onto the house. They put plywood up around the garage today. Holy cow - our garage is TALL! We had no idea it would be this tall, but it is clearly because it is a walkout...the house needed to be built up in order to accommodate that part of our floor plan. 

They also got the trusses done on the top of the main level. I hope that means that the upstairs is coming soon!! YAY!!

There clearly won't be much progress this weekend, but hopefully lots more FUN to come next week!!

Day 16 - Framing!!! YAY!!

Sorry for the SUPER long break in the blog, but we were in Hawaii :) It was a wonderful vacation and we had AMAZING friends send us pictures and updates, but keeping up on a daily basis while we were gone was impossible. And that's okay!! It was super fun to go out to the house today and see all of the progress!!!

Front of the house - garage and double front door :) They are still missing some of the front where the stairs will go!

This is in our basement - I took the picture because we decided to do a box tray ceiling in the basement to open it up even more :) In our current home, our basement isn't used a ton by us, so we wanted to make sure that this space was the best it could possibly be!

Looking into the basement family room from the walkout door.

Our foyer - stairs will be to the left. 

Looking ahead into our family room - we have a lot of windows in the back of the house to help us enjoy (what we hope will be) our backyard oasis ;)

Powder room on the main level, off the foyer

Looking at our kitchen and into our mudroom. As I was explaining to one of my girlfriends tonight, when we designed this floor plan, we really emphasized the open concept. The kitchen is open to the family room and dining room with only a small wall distinguishing the foyer from the rest of the house. 

The family room - and if you look closely, you can see the fireplace framed in!! 

Mudroom - it is very spacious - I am super excited about having more room in this area than we do in our current house!

Looking out into the garage. 

Basement family room. 

Exercise room in the basement. 

Basement bedroom :) Love the large window looking out!

We will try to utilize the space under the stairs as storage!

Storage and utility room.

 Overall, lots and lots of stuff was done over the past week and a half and it was SO FUN to come and see the progress!!

Also, my dining room chandelier arrived!! I am super excited about it because it is made out of capiz shells, so it will reflect the natural light beautifully in our dining room! (This is just a picture of it off the West Elm website, but I am loving it!!)

We will be better about going out there more frequently for the rest of the month!! We are staying pretty local as we close on our current house in two weeks!! YAY!!

Day 6

Basement is DONE!! YAY!! They were pouring some more concrete today, but the basement is finished! 

As you can kind of tell from the picture, there was a lot of action at the house today, so I couldn't get up close and get great pics :) 

Now, we kind of wait to see if all of the black dirt that they pulled out will be enough to "build up" the house 6 feet or so. Let's hope it is so that we don't have to spend all of that extra money on dirt and can spend it on some fun house upgrades!!