This and That

In my constant attempt to APPEAR to be organized, I didn't include a few pictures in my previous posts because they didn't go with the theme. So here are a few things I've been wanting to point out... mostly unrelated but not really worthy of their own posts.

First, my HUGE kitchen island. I love the granite and finally got to see it all cleaned up over the weekend. The sink is under the cardboard... we may be getting a different, deeper sink so no pictures of that yet. I'm really excited about this island. It's going to be my main cooking space. I am already dreaming about the trays of cookies, bowls of buttercream icing, pie crusts... and probably some non-dessert foods too!

Second... Do you remember this post where I was debating on the cooktop backsplash? This was one of the areas I was REALLY opinionated about and of course, what I wanted was $$$. We don't know why its so hard to find pyramid shaped tile dots??? We see them in lots of magazines but they are hard to find and of course, when you find them, they make the backsplash cost more than all the tile in the rest of the kitchen combined. Sigh. Anyway, I am very happy with how it turned out. You can see a further back, full kitchen shot in my last post. Here's the close up. Thanks to Jennifer for all her hard work researching to find what we needed to make this happen. I am sure she will never use metallic pyramid deco tiles ever again!

Third... This is a standard in the homes Ryan and his dad build but its a big, huge, fantastic deal to me. Pull out trays for my pots and pans. I love to cook and cook a lot. I am so excited to be a little more organized in my kitchen (ha, I hope it lasts).

And last, but not least, one of my other minor requests that Ryan gave in on. A plug in my vanity drawer. I wanted to have a plug in my drawer so that I could keep my hair dryer and flat iron plugged in at all times. Now, I am a little worried about the flat iron, I might need to unplug that every day for safety but at least the hair dryer is always plugged in and has a little home in the top drawer so it never gets left on the counter. Ryan laughed when I asked about this but once he realized I was serious, he found out how to get it done and made it happen... and he put one in his top drawer for his razor too!

Now I have this song in my head...

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things

Let there be light...

Friday night, Ryan and I went to the house after dark. It was the first time we were able to do this because we finally have lights! All of the fixtures were hung on Thursday and Friday. Ryan would not show me any pictures so that I could see it in person for the first time. I'm glad he did. I don't have a picture of the dining room fixture because it had a missing piece so I'll post that later. Everything looked really great and we were very pleased with the couple of items we had to pick from a catalog. Here are some pictures...



Hanging fixtures in each gallery opening

Fan and recessed cans in the living room

Breakfast room fixture (selected from a catalog)


Kitchen Island Lanterns
Our trip to the house Friday night was interesting in other ways besides all the new lighting. It really set in with me that we are some of the first people in this area. Our street was soooo quiet, dark, still, etc. It was nice and it was a little creepy all at the same time. I am what some might call a "city girl". I guess after living in a big city (meaning not Jackson, MS -- "The Bold New City") and now in the burbs I realize there are both city girls and suburbia girls and I enjoy getting to be a little of both. But the looming thought of living in what feels like "the middle of nowhere" is a new thing to me and something I never thought I'd do. I always thought I'd have a neighbor on either side.

I know that one day, in hopefully not that long of a span of time, my neighborhood will be full of other homes and families. Our street should have 24 homes on it. But it was a little bit of an eye opener. We are, for now, the only people on our street or the street behind us. There are several sold homes in other parts of the development, one a couple of streets over is going up now.

The positives are how quiet it will be while at the same time we (and Admiral) can make as much noise as we want. We'll get to know our neighbors as they move in -- I hope to be the official welcoming committee and Mom wants me to run for Mayor! It is very serene. I am sure there will be mornings and afternoons that I can sit on my front porch and watch deer drink out of the pond. We could really see the stars. But, I do hope that I soon start complaining about waking up to the sound of nail guns, saws, loud music, etc. Because this will mean that more houses are going up, the market is picking up again and neighbors are soon to come.

Until then, please come visit (well, after we move in early October), bring your kids and pets, stay the night, make as much noise as you want, enjoy the new house with us!

Full View of the House!

We went to the house on Sunday and were surprised with our first FULL VIEW!  Most of the unwanted trees have been cleared away and finally we can see what our house looks like from straight on.  I think we'll keep the Port-O-Let as yard art.

Tile Pictures

A few pictures of the tile...
Master Shower Before and After... :)

Master Shower, view from bedroom

Master bathroom floor

Downstairs guest shower

Upstairs shower

Wine room with brick on walls

Floor tile and view of Butler's Pantry (right after we got lights!)

Slate wet bar in gameroom

Faux Paint...

Ryan just sent me this picture of the fauz paint in the little niches at either end of the gallery hallway between the family and dining rooms.  You can also get a little glimpse of the tile.  We also have faux treatments in the powder bath and on the furniture piece in the breakfast room.  Pictures of those later.

Moving... part 1

We moved out of our current house on Saturday.  After a week of hard core packing (plus all the boxes we packed when the house first went on the market), everything was boxed up and ready for the movers on Saturday morning.  It was a really long day of moving almost everything we own into storage.  The movers were SLLLLOOOOOOWWWWW which made it even worse.  But, by 4:30, the house was empty, the storage unit was packed and all our every day belongings were at Ryan's parents house.  We will be living there until the new house is ready... which is looking like early October!

 

I have new pictures of the progress at the house that have not made it from camera to computer yet.  I hope to do that one night this week.  Things change daily out there so there is a lot to update about.... granite, tile, lighting....

Metal roof in progress...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ryan Paul

Kinda hard to get full effect from this pic but trust me...it looks awesome.

Sold!

Shutters!

::since Ryan won't post on the blog himself, I'll just include his email to make it look like he did ::

 

:)

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ryan

Shutters are installed....


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

A little more paint and stain...

...and probably at least one more to come.

But first, I'll correct myself in case you didn't read the comments in my last post. Ryan notes: "I still have to paint the facia later this week and I will be installing the metal roofs Wednesday of next week...THEN the exterior will be complete." I consider myself corrected... I am just a little anxious. Can you tell?

Back to the paint and stain... Here are a few more pictures of the exterior that we took on Saturday.


Shutters

Garage Door


And some pictures of the interior paint and stain.

Action shot of the beams in the family room being stained

Final product

Breakfast room beam.
(Just before I took this, the painter was taking down the piece of wood he had between the two ladders. He had one leg on each ladder in a pretty wide split. The ladders were shaking and he was totally unfazed. Of course, my heart was racing for him!)

Study wall and ceiling colors

Media Room wall and ceiling color.

There are no pictures of the main wall color yet. We went out on Saturday to pick a new color after the samples of our original pick turned out to be way too peachy. After some serious comparison of various color samples in various lighting next to a few pieces of our tile, we finally settled on Sherwin Williams Macadamia.

Cedar Staining

Ryan just sent me these pictures of the stained cedar elements on the front of the house. I have pictures of the garage doors at home that I will put up soon. After the shutters are installed (this week) the exterior of the house will be complete!