Watching the finishing touches go into the house...
Over the past two weeks, carpenters and painters have been working hard at our new house putting finishing touches in every room. Trim / baseboards / chair rails, shelves, cabinets, columns, custom lockers, bench seating in the kitchen and our large open staircase are just some of the things the carpenters have been working on. As they finish each room, the painters are moving right in to paint the walls. Simultaneously, we have two amazing guys working on tile in our master bathroom shower and tub deck, and they will soon be moving onto the kitchen backsplash.
These weeks have been so fun as we see progress every single day, but unfortunately all of the custom finishes we have being installed are more tedious than we ever imagined and thus are taking more time than we thought. So...as of Monday our move-in date has been pushed back into January. I have to be truthful here and tell you that I was pretty upset when Scott told me the news. This building process has been full of snags and delays starting way back last January with 8 weeks of zoning and city council meetings (should've taken 1 meeting, it took 4 to pass our variances), our gas line not being turned on for 5 weeks after we scheduled for it to be done and so on. One year ago I thought there was no possible way we wouldn't be in the house for Christmas, so hearing that we won't spend a single day of 2010 in our new home was devastating to me for a moment.
As quick as my thoughts of anger arose and as fast as the tears welled up in my eyes over this situation, I felt so convicted. How dare I feel so upset when I should be just overjoyed and incredibly thankful for the amazing opportunity to move into such a beautiful home designed to tailor my family's every need! Within minutes of the disappointment settling in, I remembered what a huge blessing this is, and I continue to feel tremendously excited for the day we do get in there, and for the years I will spend living there with my family. My dreams of Christmas in our new home are gone, but I will have many more holidays there in the future where we can decorate and celebrate and make memories together. I cannot wait :)
In the midst of so much going on at the house, we've been spending some evenings recently making our final light fixture selections, choosing carpet and deciding on kitchen backsplash tile. A few weeks ago we chose granite countertops for our kitchen, half bath and master bath, and formica for the laundry room and upstairs bathrooms. I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together. It is so much work choosing all of these things--one reason I've been so neglectful of this blog.
I've been taking photos as much as possible of the new things going on at the house, though by the time some of you read this there will be much more done I'm sure! Here are some of the updates so far since my last house update:
Rust / clay colored ceiling at the top of our stair tower for a pop of color; this same color will be in our kitchen & I love it!
Baby Vitt's room! I choose lavender since I've been looking at pink and yellow for over 5 years now and wanted a change in the nursery :) I'm waiting for fabric samples to arrive in the mail and then I'll be designing custom nursery bedding, curtains and accessories with the help of Mellissa who I discovered on etsy. Click here to see her beautiful store!!
Jaden and Sienna's room! I think I mentioned before that they decided they'd like to share a room after we let them have a few "sleepovers" in each others rooms here. In this photo you cannot tell, but there is actually a chair rail w/ pegs in it separating the colors of their walls so that they can hang their gymnastics medals and other fun mementos up. On the wall to the left is also a small shelf and we recently designed and painted picture frames with the girls' hand prints at a pottery studio that will be so cute up there. We'll also put other things on the shelf--I imagine trophies some day from sports or gymnastics, dance pictures, pieces to dance costumes and so forth. All of the special things that make up who they are :) Finally, to coordinate with their polka dot bedding, the white portion of their walls will soon be filled with pink, orange and yellow polka dots in various sizes! Can't wait!
This is the playroom! Had to put a blue room somewhere upstairs...you know, just in case SOMEDAY down the road....ahem! Since Jaden and Sienna opted to share a room, they will have a good sized room just for toys, their own computer, dress-up clothes, games, books, etc. They will have hours of fun in this room I'm sure!
Our yellow room is the guest room. On the day I took this photo, I was really taken aback by the brightness and "green-ness" of this color, but we discovered it was due to the dark primer used beneath the paint. Now that three coats of yellow paint have been applied, it actually looks like it's name "light yellow." My furniture from after college, which Jaden has been using for the past 3 years, will go in here for our guests and we're going to use the bedding I had in my apartment post-college too. I'm excited to use it again--it's yellow with purple hydrangea flowers all over it.
The guest bathroom--which I'm just showing for the color at this point. This color will also be in the kids' bathroom and all of the hallways throughout the house. It's a warm beige which is neutral enough to change bathroom decor when needed :)
This is what the vanity looks like in that guest bathroom. The photo was taken before the room was painted.
Here is my bathroom vanity. Scott's looks the same and from where I was standing to take this photo it would be right behind me. Our shower is to the right of my vanity and the doorway to the left goes into my closet!
The half-bath vanity. I LOVE the scroll on it :) This bathroom is going to be painted chocolate brown, but the light colored vanity and a window above the toilet will lighten up the room. I have the perfect owl painting to go in this bathroom--can't wait to hang it up!
Jaden and Sienna's vanities look like this:
Their bathroom will be beige like the guest room bathroom and they'll each have their own vanity.
One side of the kitchen--the opening looks into the family room so while I'm washing dishes I can see the TV or watch my kids playing :)
The other side of the kitchen. We have two-tone cabinets in black and a dark stain. I can't remember if we used cherry or maple cabinets, but who cares, they look great!
The photo below shows what the tops of the cabinets will look like when finished. The crown molding has a piece of black roping in it to bring together the two tones.
Finally, the kitchen island. On this side of it are shelves for my cookbooks and some pretty dishes. The other side will have three stools for the kids to eat breakfast on. Behind it will be bench seating built into the wall and a big table for us all to eat at together. Can't wait for the first meal at both the island and the kitchen table :)
Here is the exterior now, both front and back. We originally wanted our front door and barn doors on the garage to be painted a deep red, but the neighborhood design review board rejected that :-( I like the dark brown though. Scott is actually choosing stone today for the steps between the house and the half-circle of the driveway which you see here as well as for our little front porch.
{Photos have been removed. Sorry!}
Now that there is grass it looks so much more "homey."
Well there's your loooooong update :) I'll be sharing more details as they are finished when I'm not in the middle of packing boxes here and getting ready for our last Christmas in this home. Once again, I cannot express enough how grateful I am for the work that my husband and father-in-law do so that we are able to move into such a gorgeous place!
These weeks have been so fun as we see progress every single day, but unfortunately all of the custom finishes we have being installed are more tedious than we ever imagined and thus are taking more time than we thought. So...as of Monday our move-in date has been pushed back into January. I have to be truthful here and tell you that I was pretty upset when Scott told me the news. This building process has been full of snags and delays starting way back last January with 8 weeks of zoning and city council meetings (should've taken 1 meeting, it took 4 to pass our variances), our gas line not being turned on for 5 weeks after we scheduled for it to be done and so on. One year ago I thought there was no possible way we wouldn't be in the house for Christmas, so hearing that we won't spend a single day of 2010 in our new home was devastating to me for a moment.
As quick as my thoughts of anger arose and as fast as the tears welled up in my eyes over this situation, I felt so convicted. How dare I feel so upset when I should be just overjoyed and incredibly thankful for the amazing opportunity to move into such a beautiful home designed to tailor my family's every need! Within minutes of the disappointment settling in, I remembered what a huge blessing this is, and I continue to feel tremendously excited for the day we do get in there, and for the years I will spend living there with my family. My dreams of Christmas in our new home are gone, but I will have many more holidays there in the future where we can decorate and celebrate and make memories together. I cannot wait :)
In the midst of so much going on at the house, we've been spending some evenings recently making our final light fixture selections, choosing carpet and deciding on kitchen backsplash tile. A few weeks ago we chose granite countertops for our kitchen, half bath and master bath, and formica for the laundry room and upstairs bathrooms. I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together. It is so much work choosing all of these things--one reason I've been so neglectful of this blog.
I've been taking photos as much as possible of the new things going on at the house, though by the time some of you read this there will be much more done I'm sure! Here are some of the updates so far since my last house update:
Rust / clay colored ceiling at the top of our stair tower for a pop of color; this same color will be in our kitchen & I love it!
Baby Vitt's room! I choose lavender since I've been looking at pink and yellow for over 5 years now and wanted a change in the nursery :) I'm waiting for fabric samples to arrive in the mail and then I'll be designing custom nursery bedding, curtains and accessories with the help of Mellissa who I discovered on etsy. Click here to see her beautiful store!!
Jaden and Sienna's room! I think I mentioned before that they decided they'd like to share a room after we let them have a few "sleepovers" in each others rooms here. In this photo you cannot tell, but there is actually a chair rail w/ pegs in it separating the colors of their walls so that they can hang their gymnastics medals and other fun mementos up. On the wall to the left is also a small shelf and we recently designed and painted picture frames with the girls' hand prints at a pottery studio that will be so cute up there. We'll also put other things on the shelf--I imagine trophies some day from sports or gymnastics, dance pictures, pieces to dance costumes and so forth. All of the special things that make up who they are :) Finally, to coordinate with their polka dot bedding, the white portion of their walls will soon be filled with pink, orange and yellow polka dots in various sizes! Can't wait!
This is the playroom! Had to put a blue room somewhere upstairs...you know, just in case SOMEDAY down the road....ahem! Since Jaden and Sienna opted to share a room, they will have a good sized room just for toys, their own computer, dress-up clothes, games, books, etc. They will have hours of fun in this room I'm sure!
Our yellow room is the guest room. On the day I took this photo, I was really taken aback by the brightness and "green-ness" of this color, but we discovered it was due to the dark primer used beneath the paint. Now that three coats of yellow paint have been applied, it actually looks like it's name "light yellow." My furniture from after college, which Jaden has been using for the past 3 years, will go in here for our guests and we're going to use the bedding I had in my apartment post-college too. I'm excited to use it again--it's yellow with purple hydrangea flowers all over it.
The guest bathroom--which I'm just showing for the color at this point. This color will also be in the kids' bathroom and all of the hallways throughout the house. It's a warm beige which is neutral enough to change bathroom decor when needed :)
This is what the vanity looks like in that guest bathroom. The photo was taken before the room was painted.
Here is my bathroom vanity. Scott's looks the same and from where I was standing to take this photo it would be right behind me. Our shower is to the right of my vanity and the doorway to the left goes into my closet!
The half-bath vanity. I LOVE the scroll on it :) This bathroom is going to be painted chocolate brown, but the light colored vanity and a window above the toilet will lighten up the room. I have the perfect owl painting to go in this bathroom--can't wait to hang it up!
Jaden and Sienna's vanities look like this:Their bathroom will be beige like the guest room bathroom and they'll each have their own vanity.
One side of the kitchen--the opening looks into the family room so while I'm washing dishes I can see the TV or watch my kids playing :)
The other side of the kitchen. We have two-tone cabinets in black and a dark stain. I can't remember if we used cherry or maple cabinets, but who cares, they look great!
The photo below shows what the tops of the cabinets will look like when finished. The crown molding has a piece of black roping in it to bring together the two tones.
Finally, the kitchen island. On this side of it are shelves for my cookbooks and some pretty dishes. The other side will have three stools for the kids to eat breakfast on. Behind it will be bench seating built into the wall and a big table for us all to eat at together. Can't wait for the first meal at both the island and the kitchen table :)
Here is the exterior now, both front and back. We originally wanted our front door and barn doors on the garage to be painted a deep red, but the neighborhood design review board rejected that :-( I like the dark brown though. Scott is actually choosing stone today for the steps between the house and the half-circle of the driveway which you see here as well as for our little front porch.{Photos have been removed. Sorry!}
Now that there is grass it looks so much more "homey."
Well there's your loooooong update :) I'll be sharing more details as they are finished when I'm not in the middle of packing boxes here and getting ready for our last Christmas in this home. Once again, I cannot express enough how grateful I am for the work that my husband and father-in-law do so that we are able to move into such a gorgeous place!
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