Getting Closer!

I feel like we are finally approaching the finish line (with everything but the addition, which isn't even drywalled yet).  It's CRAZY though how much finish work there is because we are doing lots of paneling, crown and base moulding, custom casing with a shelf detail, etc.- it takes forever!

To help move things along, I've started painting and Gary started paneling.  This is an awful, grainy photo, but Gary installed horizontal tongue and groove paneling on one of Ella's walls, and I painted the remaining walls navy blue...

Since I took this, they have installed crown and base in her room, but I forgot to take another picture.

Gary is also in the middle of paneling Everett's entire room in a board and batten style...

The guys poured our front walkway concrete a few days ago, and I'm thrilled that it turned out exactly how I wanted!

Today they installed our front door.  Finally, what I have always wanted...a Dutch door!  I don't care how cold it is outside, the top of that door will be open every day! :)

Ok, so it doesn't look so hot now (well, it does to me, but probably not to anyone else), but imagine it in a dark navy, almost black, and the siding around it all white.  With pretty lights on each side, a porch bench and two flower boxes with some type of topiary tree in each one...can you picture it??  Or is that just me?

We also put our kitchen and master bathroom slabs on hold today!  YAY!  Another thing I can mark off my list...

It's a carrera, but apparently it's the top grade or one of the top grade carreras???  I didn't even know there were different grades of carrera...is he just saying that so he can charge me more?!  Regardless, it's the prettiest marble I've ever seen. :) 

And I want this or something like this for the master bathroom floor...

I actually wanted a chevron pattern as opposed to herringbone, but I didn't see that while we were out.  This tile is ridiculously expensive so I'm trying to find an alternative. 

Bye Bye Wall

Ding dong the wall is gone!!!!!

As you can see, they are also already laying the forms for the concrete walkway- yeah!

For reference, here is a photo with the lovely wall still in tact...

Decorating

Since the house is supposedly going to be done fairly soon (oh please God let that be true), I've been on kind of a shopping frenzy trying to get furniture and accessories to decorate the house so we are ready to go the minute we can move in.  I've been going crazy at Home Goods on accessories, and then I've been all over the place for furniture.  I'm so excited that I got these chairs...

And these counter stools for the kitchen...

And this console table for the entryway...

I'm deciding between two coffee tables and three couches, and after I make those decisions, I think most of the big furniture decisions will be made. :)

The Recent Haps

Things kind of slowed down a bit again last week.  Stuff happened, but nothing too noteworthy.  We do have a real roof now...

Which came just in time since it started raining yesterday!

They framed out the master bathroom shower and tub...and did it all wrong so it had to be torn out and re-framed today.  And I still think it's wrong, but there is nothing we can do about it.  The shower is way smaller than I thought it was going to be, and what I think is smaller than indicated on the plans, but to change it, we'd have to basically rebuild the entire addition because the walk-in closet wall would have to move, the bedroom wall would have to move, and we'd have to take out all the windows in the addition and reinstall them.  Just not worth it for a foot or two but annoying nonetheless. 

I actually don't mind it- it's still a decent size, and I'm a bath girl anyway, but I just worry about resale value since it seems like people always built these giant showers nowdays??  I'm not sure why- what do you do in there with so much space?!  It also won't have a bench, which I thought it would since it was supposed to be a lot bigger. 

The hardwood floors are going in fast- they are much darker than this photo makes it seem...

The best part about them?  There is no bevel in between the planks- they are smooth!  You wouldn't understand why this matters if you've never had the floors with a bevel (the kind of tiny v-groove) between each piece.  I HATED that about our old floors- dust and dirt gets stuck in there, and you can't get it out unless you have time to sit with a pack of wipes and go down each and every seam with your fingernail.  It's gross.

And the most exciting part for me, they are finally ripping out our front yard!!!  The bane of my existence.  The thing I hated most about the house...

I think I might cry when that hideous wall comes out.  Can I just vent for a minute?  I mean, why is that huge wall even there?  It's ugly.  It's pointless.  Why would you want to enclose a small section of the front of your yard?  With a huge, heavy, rebar filled, brick wall with several deep footings?  And even if you did that, why would you put ANOTHER one in the back of your house behind your master bathroom to make a random ugly courtyard?  And even if you did that, why would you enclose a huge section of the right side of your backyard with yet ANOTHER one of these atrocious walls??  We have had to spend thousands to get these stupid things torn out because they are so difficult to remove.  Ugh, it beyond irritates me.  Ok vent over.  Sorry. 

On a positive note, I met with a landscaper that I like and got a quote for landscaping and putting in a new irrigation system in the front yard, and I think we're going to do it!  Yay!  I do need someone to build our fence though because they don't do custom fences...any suggestions?

Ceilings and Doors

They installed two more doors, and I really love them.  I can't wait to walk in my front door and across the room see all the way to the backyard!

There is only 1 because we had a little ordering snafu, and the other one doesn't come in until the end of November. :(

Here is that door and our newly installed master bedroom french door...

They also finished installing my tongue and groove kitchen ceiling...oh my gosh, it is gorgeous!  It will look even better when it's painted white.

I'm really in love with this house.  I wish I lived there! ;)

Exterior Finishes

I honestly feel like for the last 4 months, I've spend half my life researching and buying finishes for the house- I'm sort of over it!  My latest concern is exterior lighting, heating and cooling.

We have to be able to heat and cool the California room since we plan on using it year round, but I hate all the options!  I don't care for ceiling fans, but there really isn't any other option so I ordered what I thought was the best looking...

It's not even an outdoor fan, but I didn't like any of the outdoor options so I figured this should be fine since it won't really be exposed to weather.

As for heat, I think we have to get two of these mountable heaters, but I feel like it's going to look so ugly!!!

I'd rather figure out somewhere to put the standing kind, but Gary doesn't want them...

Then, I need two wall lights and two chandeliers for the CA room and two wall lights for either side of our front door.  I already have the chandeliers (same one we are putting in our entryway), but I can't decide on the wall lights.  So I ordered these in two sizes...

I love them so I'm definitely putting them in CA room, I just don't know what size.  As for the front, I'm either going to use those or another style that I just love for some reason...

And finally, I have to decide on shutters for the exterior.  I'm deciding between wood and paintable vinyl.  I really want the wood, but they are twice the cost and obviously require more maintenance.  Here are the wood...

And the paintable vinyl...

I'm not sure if it's worth it to pay twice the price when once they are painted black or dark navy, I don't know if you'll really even be able to tell the difference?  Especially from the street?

More Progress...Shower, California Room and a Door!

Are you sick of seeing the same shower picture?!  Well, here is another one...but a very bad quality one because the light was gone, but they grouted (I chose a light gray grout), and it looks soooo good!

They installed one of the French doors!  For everyone that will stay with us, here are your doors out to the patio!

I can't believe I was even worried about the doors- they look great!

The framing for our fireplace is in...I can't wait to see the built-ins all around it.

This is what I'm hoping it eventually looks like...

The California Room has a roof!

Now that I see it fully enclosed, I think it will be big enough- it definitely could have been a bit wider and more than a bit longer, but I *think* that our dining room set and a couch and 2 chairs will fit underneath. 

The next dilemma is where to put the outdoor tv.  I think it should go on this corner wall (and my dad and contractor agree)...

We could either mount it or put an amoire in that corner because it's a good size wall.

Gary wants it on this little wall...

I'm also trying to make another change.  I absolutely hate stucco, but the entire back of our house is stucco so they were just going keep it that way (we eventually want to put siding around the entire house, but that is definitely not in the budget right now).  I think it will look so good as a sort of feature wall to do siding just in the California room where all the sheathing is- so in this picture, just where you see the wood- stucco would remain around the kitchen window and french door into the guest room and also behind the new addition...

But of course siding is a lot more expensive than stucco so we have to get a quote to see what the difference will be.  I'm not getting my hopes up since we are already ridiculously over budget. :(

It's Moving Quickly!

More shower photos because I'm obsessed.  And I love my little 2x4 subways on the floor too. :)

Our tile guy does an amazing job, but another little remodel tip is to watch everything like a hawk so you catch little things that bug you before they can't be changed.  The kids' bathroom has 2 doorways..the border tile around the 2nd doorway looks like this, which I think looks great...

But the border tile around the 1st doorway looked like this, which I hated!  That little skinny angular parallelogram shaped piece really bugged me.

My contractor kept trying to tell me how it was a skilled cut, but I don't care- I'm sure it was hard to do, but I hated how it looked.  Gary thought I was a little loco, but I made them re-do those edges, and I'm so glad I did because it now looks like this, which I think looks so much better! 

I was able to change it because I'm at the house everyday, and I caught it before they grouted the tile (which is also why it doesn't look so great yet).

They also finished the tile chair rail around the walls in the kids' bathroom...to.die.for.

That's our cute new window too...I didn't do privacy glass since I don't like the look of it so beware if you go to the bathroom in there- haha!

And now, what may have been a big mistake on our part.  Originally, we had our California room extending the entire length of our house, but our house is SUPER long so it seemed too big, and we changed the plans to cut the CA room almost in half.  I thought that was still going to be huge, but now seeing it with the roof framing, I think it might be too small!  I hope I'm wrong because it is something we cannot change.  On the other hand, everyone I've talked to who has done a remodel/new build of this extent has told me no matter what, there will be things you regret or wish you could change so if this is our only mistake, I'll take it!

Doesn't that look too small? Considering we planned on putting both our very large dining set and an entire tv seating area under there? I guess the ok news is that even if it all won't fit, we are planning on putting a regular patio cover over the remainder of the house so I guess we can put some furniture under that even though I wanted all my furniture completely covered.  I still think that if we did a CA room the entire length of the house, the house would be too dark so it might be for the best regardless.

I did not get on the roof- my contractor took this. ;)

More mess...

And our drywall is finally getting finished!

More Windows, Tile & Wood...

I am seriously loving the guest bathroom shower!  I'm almost thinking we should do it in the master...

It kind of looks greenish on the lower tiles, but it's the light gray color of the uppermost middle one.

They installed windows in Everett's room, the kids' bathroom and the kitchen today- here is the kitchen...

The picture window opening for my tub. :)

Our new elevation from the back- it looks so good!  There will be another pitched roof just like that next to it for the California room (I think it's going to be the same size which makes me think the CA room is going to be ginormous!)...

The mess that is my yard right now...

Now that we are nearing the end (hurray!) the full time job that is a remodel is now just about two full time jobs, especially with Gary traveling because I have do 100% of the pick-ups, meetings with contractors, phone calls, research, etc.  Today, I had to run all around town picking up supplies for my contractor while fitting in work for my real job!  Then I had to drive around to look at window trim and take photos because they need to know how I want the exterior window trim...this is what I found...

So I'm assuming the trim will look something like one of those?  Then of course while I'm at dinner with the kids, there are 3 more fire alarms that mean making multiple phone calls, checking order forms, texting contractors, etc.  I just took a break to quickly write out this post before putting the kids to bed and doing some work!  I CANNOT WAIT until this remodel is over!