Random Mish Mosh

This week the plastering was finished.  Again, super quick, and it looks great!  We are ready to paint!  Tomorrow I will be going to get some paint samples and begin painting small areas to see if I am on track with the choices that I have been making.

Kevin, the crazy plaster guy.  Here he is on a board high above my stairway- WITH stilts on! I told him that I hope he doesn't let his mother ever see him doing things like this!  It's dangerous for my boys to see too! :)

It's one thing to pick out lighting, paint, tile and carpet separately.  It's totally another thing to pick these things out and have them all mesh together well in good design.  I also have my current furniture to be matching with my choices.  Last night, Jeffrey, (our nephew and the architect) and his beautiful wife, Carly, came out to see the progress.  Carly, is a designer (lucky me, I know!).  I brought all my samples (shown below) and she graciously gave me input.  I am having her design the powder room and she will help decorate the girls' room, but she is guiding me through many other decisions that have to be made, as well.  I always feel better after talking with her.

 My floor often looks like this.  I have learned that lighting changes everything!  I let it sit and look at it often during the day.  It was even better when I took my samples yesterday to the house to see it in the lighting there.

Here are a few pictures of random things that are being done.  We have been thrilled so far with the choices that we have made.  It's hard to see the big picture when you are choosing building products, but the big picture is coming together well!!

This is our back screened porch.  We choose knotty pine for the ceiling and will finish it with a dark stain.

This is the covered porch just off of the screened porch.  Bead board that we will have to paint white.

We also love the trim that we chose for the windows!  It's the little things that make a big impact!

Here is our chimney that we are STILL in love with!  Looks even better with the siding finished!

Larger view- you can see where the porch is on the left.

One more thing.  Michael spent a ton of time researching wood flooring for our screened porch.

This is what he came up with.  Very similar to Ipe (pronounced e-pay), but not as expensive.  It is beautiful and will not be as cold as tile.  

Hoping that things will keep going fast- paint, flooring, doors and trim and then my kitchen!!!!  Wow- this is getting exciting!

Update on our projected move-in date:

If you don't know this, my Brother and Sister-in-law are moving into our current house.  They had their amazing house on the market for a short 5 days before it sold!  They were able to push their buyers off until June 2.  Right now, we are hoping to move mid May.  It will depend on when cabinetry comes in and how far the other interiors are.  God has made the timing on everything work out so perfectly, that I don't doubt that we will move in as planned.  I may not have counter tops, or all the odds and ends finished, but it will certainly be livable! 

A picture of the front of the house.  My favorite way to see it- with contrators' trucks in front of it!  I love the plaster truck logos:  "Mud-Slinger" and "Got Mud?".  A shout out to Lloyd's Plastering- they are good, quick, clean (as clean as plasterers can be!), and really nice guys.

ICE.......and a bit of Mud

Back in February, we had a weekend with 40 degree temps.  While we thought that this was a good thing at the time, we didn't realize that some of that snow would melt and come into our basement door.  The problem was that the weather turned so quickly in the fall, that they never graded a pile of stone outside the basement door.  This caused the melting snow to flow into the basement, covering a large portion of the floor with about 2 inches of ice.  I say ice, because the water quickly
turned to ice as the temps plummeted to freezing again!

We knew that we needed to take care of this small ice rink in our basement before everything thawed out for good.  As soon as we turned the heat on, it started to thaw.  One of our contractors thought it would be a good idea to break up the ice as it became soft. Then shovel it out the door instead of waiting for it to become water and push it down the drain.  It ended up being a ton of work, but a good way to get rid of it.

A couple of the contractors started the job that morning, but the heat wasn't melting the ice as fast as we thought.  So, Ethan and I went out that afternoon to start chipping away at it.  Kevin, our framer, helped, Michael came out when he had a break from work, and Aaron came after school.  It took several hours, but we shoveled it all out.  With the heat on, the rest of the dampness on the floor dried up within a couple of days.

In many places the ice was almost 2 inches thick!

Ethan chipping away!

Our pile going out the door.

Almost done!

Kevin "sweeping"ice!

While we worked, Isaac had some fun with his four-wheeler.  A little too much fun.  I have a feeling my washing machine is going to get a workout this spring.

Just so you know, he is standing on the pile of ice from the basement. This was taken right outside the basement door.  Back inside, things are happening..........stay tuned!

Walls

SO excited to get to this point!  I have heard different things.  "Your rooms will look smaller when the drywall goes up." and "Your rooms will look bigger when the drywall goes up."  I wasn't sure what to think.  I think that some rooms look bigger and some look smaller!  It depends on the shape of the room.  Before it's plastered, it's all dark gray, so all the rooms can tend to look dark and small.

The heat finally went on, so as soon as the drywall is done, they will start to plaster.  I can't believe how fast these guys are!  A day and a half.  I even made them cookies on the second day and delivered them at 1:30- they were already done and gone!

The girls standing in their room!

Hearth room

Living Room

Kitchen looking into the dining room

Hallway- will make for good sprints!

Our bathroom

Our framing crew has been working hard on the outside of the house putting on the siding and trim for the windows.   Here is a sneak peak of the exterior!  We are so pleased with the way it's all coming together.

Isaac finally got Michael to bring his four-wheeler out to the house.  What better place to store it, than the living room!

Next, our issue with ICE!

The Granite Dilemma

So beyond the foundation, the joists, the walls and trusses, there are many interior decisions to be made.  Most of these, so far, have been easy.  The thing that has been difficult is getting my kitchen to perfection.  This part of the house is very important to me.  As a family, the kitchen and hearth room will be where we will spend most of our time.  As a cook, it will be where I will live!  I have for months poured over a website called "Houzz".  It has countless pictures and ideas for decorating, remodeling and building.  The pictures that I countinue to go back to are the ones that I am trying to build my kitchen around.  Here are some of my favorites:

Traditional Kitchen by Downers Grove Design-Build Firms Oakley Home Builders

Traditional Kitchen by Solon Interior Designers & Decorators House of L Interior Design

Traditional Kitchen

I love the crisp clean look of a white kitchen.  My first choice would be to go with marble countertops.  While this would be beautiful, it would not be practical.  Marble stains and requires much more maintenance than granite.  I have instead chose to have a marble subway tile backsplash.  What I have not decided, is if I should go with black granite around the perimeter and light on the island, or if the black on the island would be a better choice while using the light for the background.  Hmmmmm....... I have wasted entirely too much time on this decision.  I just want it to be the best decision that I can make.  Here are some granite photos taken during my many trips to the the warehouses.  I plan to make one final (I hope!) trip this week.  This is what I started with last fall:

It would be stunning, but might be "busy" and I could see myself tiring of it.  I picked this before I had a complete vision for what I wanted the kitchen to be.

Early in January, I picked this out, and then realized that the backsplash that I have fallen in love with would clash.   Too bad, this could have been a nice choice with a plain white subway tile.

Just to throw this one in, I loved it, but again, too busy for the backsplash.  The slab wasn't big enough for the island anyway and it was already reserved by someone else.  It is very pretty though!

Then there is this!  Bingo!  I loved this because it has a marble look without the upkeep of marble.  It is beautiful, and is actually quartzite, not granite.  What I DID find out is that it is more expensive than granite.  So, if I use this, (I have it on hold) we will use it sparingly.  This means only on the island, or only on the perimeter.  This is the reason that I started to think about pulling in some black and also the reason that I went back to all my Houzz pictures.  I compared all the white kitchens.  What I have found is that I like having the two different color countertops.  It creates interest.  When the dark is on the island, it grounds the kitchen.  When the dark is on the perimeter, the marble bscksplashes pop.  I don't this that there is a wrong answer here.  The deal breaker here will be whether or not I can find the dark slab that I am looking for in a large enough size for my island.  If not, than the piece you see above will have to go there.  It is just the right size.  The black granite that I will pair it with will be either Brown Antique (actually black, not brown) or Aqua Grantique.  We will be choosing a "honed" finish.  This means that it will be a matte surface instead of shiny.  Here are some photos:

  

Traditional Kitchen by San Francisco General Contractors Bill Fry Construction - Wm. H. Fry Const. Co.

Traditional Kitchen by Minneapolis Kitchen & Bath Designers Casa Verde Design

Right now, I am leaning towards the second picture, but I think that Michael prefers the upper one.  I will see what there is to choose from this week.  I will be very glad to have this decision behind me.  It is time to move on to another room!!!!  Sorry to bore you with this- but it is part of the process!  More exciting adventures to come!