Appliances

We bought our appliances last night. After perusing the options at several stores in the last couple of weeks and researching online and through Consumer Reports until my eyes were threatening to bleed, we headed out last night planning another grueling schedule of shopping around, visiting various stores, getting quotes, etc. I figured we'd be at it for hours. Well, we did spend hours, but all at one place. We decided to visit Sunrise Appliance first, just to look at all the various options besides Kenmore, because we also knew the odds of finding a knowledgeable salesperson there were good, as opposed, frankly, to the refrigerator guy at Sears who seemed befuddled and confused.

So to make a long story short, they had slightly higher prices on individual items, but when buying several appliances in a bundle, they definitely were very competitive. We did actually spend a couple hours there, but it definitely wasn't grueling, and most of that time was me being indecisive. The sales guy definitely knew his stuff, and the price was good for what we got. It was such a relief to just go ahead and buy everything and NOT to have to run from store to store comparing everything.

We went mostly with GE Profile appliances, and I got the french door fridge/bottom freezer with the ice and water in the door and a convection oven--hey, you only live once, right? I did vary from the GE on the dishwasher because I was just not happy with the choices there. Instead I chose a Kitchenaid dishwasher with the clean stainless front with hidden panel and stainless tub. Overall, it was a better dishwasher for the price, and it is on the opposite side of the kitchen from the other appliances, so I don't think people will really notice the difference in stainless finishes. (GE really needs to update the look of their stainless dishwashers. The big plastic control panels cheapen the look for the price you have to pay.)

So, the appliances will be ready for delivery by the end of next week. I can't wait!

Oh, and one other quick update: we get to pick granite this week too. Wahoo!

Exterior Trim, etc.

In addition to the flooring being installed this week, the exterior trim was begun this week. So the soffits and vinyl shakes are pretty much done, and the guttering will be done on Monday. The guttering, porch ceiling, and some trim around the doors and garage doors is all that remains. All the exterior fixtures, doors, and windows have been caulked in advance of yesterday's rain.

The garage floor will be poured Monday, so that will help keep the hardwood flooring nice and clean. Of course, the flooring is covered anyway to protect the finish, and we just bought some rugs to help keep things clean.

Other updates: the grading will be done sometime next week, so the huge mountain of dirt that all my new neighbors are coveting will go away. That also clears the way for the septic to be installed, because that's where that needs to go, under the big dirt pile. That also allows us to get the driveway prepped. And, warning to my hubby and his back, that allows me to begin planting trees!

Flooring

The hardwood flooring was installed this week. At the same time, the outside trim was being installed, but I'll post on that separately.

I'm excited to see the floors. I was worried about the color of the flooring next to the cabinets, but they are different enough that it works just fine. Ignore the dustiness. Obviously nothing has been cleaned yet.

The hardwoods are throughout the whole house except for the bathrooms and laundry room which will be tiled probably next week.

Braxton's Room

So if Anna's room is bright and refreshing, Braxton's is calming, which is exactly what he needs! I like this color a lot. He wanted to pick a wild color for his room too, but I wasn't going to buy him new bedding. He already has Cars/race car and Spiderman bedding, so we just decided on a generic blue (as opposed to the red paint he wanted!).

He does like it, though, and it will be a nice background to his race car furniture and goes well with his skateboard ceiling fan, which is really cool by the way. This room was also the most fun to paint because it didn't take nearly as long since I had help, and after running out of paint in all the other rooms and trying to stretch it (we decided there's no way these walls were ever primed), I had gone ahead and bought an extra gallon of paint before we started. So I didn't have to stress over how much I was using. I could just really coat it well. That relieved a lot of my worry from the beginning.

Fresh Pear

"Wow," is the general reaction we're getting to this room. Some have said, "Oh my." My aunts just let out a high-pitched cackle. My contractor said he was going to send us a bill for the damage done to his retinas from the blinding paint color.

It actually looks nice in this pic, but when the bright sun is shining through that room, the paint reflects off itself and makes the whole house glow...no kidding...it glows down the hallway. And yes, you can see it from the road. I checked.

I took Anna by there to see it tonight, because even though she picked the color, I didn't know if she'd really like it on the walls. I had already resigned myself to repainting it a shade lighter, even though I really don't have the time or energy. But she loves it! Loves it! It's exactly what she wanted, or at least that's what she says.

I guess I shouldn't worry. Most of the time her room door will be shut anyway because she keeps her room in such general disarray that I'm afraid for people to see it. What do you think?

Kitchen, Full View

Here's the view of the kitchen from the great room doors (that will in the future lead out to the back patio).

Cabinets and Paint

The kitchen and bathroom cabinets were delivered and set on Thursday and Friday of this week. I was very excited to see them, and they are really beautiful. The picture on the left is one part of the kitchen. The range and fridge fill those holes. The cabinets are maple with a honey glaze and a bit of antiquing around the panels/doors.

After oogling the cabinets for a while, I did find some time this evening to paint. There are three rooms (mentioned below) that we will paint ourselves, and this one is the office/dining room. This is Calm Sky. It is very blue, but according to my husband, it's soothing. All I know is that this new dryall and coating of flat paint they used is making it hard to paint. It just absorbs all the paint it can. It's like painting new drywall. This room probably needs another coat of paint although I couldn't really tell since it was getting dark on me.

I can't wait to see how the Fresh Pear paint looks in Anna's room. I think that room will pull together nicely, especially with the bedding we just bought. I'll post pics when I get them. While those two rooms have bright colors, Braxton's room is a nice light blue. I hope it doesn't seem too light compared to all the other rooms, and maybe, just maybe, it'll calm him down a little!

Well, that's all for now. I desperately need sleep, so I'm going to go work on that now and rest up for another day of painting tomorrow.

Flurry of Activity

Early this morning when I dropped by the house to deliver some of our new light fixtures, there was a flurry of activity all around. The brick masons were loading up their equipment, the drywall/painters were there sanding and touching up some of the walls, and the electricians were there itching to get started working on the final wiring. So, needless to say, I was very excited about going back this evening to see all the progress.

Almost all of the light fixtures we had dropped off were installed, including the ceiling fans in the kids' rooms. And sometime during the day, the cabinets were delivered. While they aren't set yet, it sure is nice to see them in the house. Very beautiful. So now I'm more excited than ever.

We bought several more fixtures today. The only things lacking are the ceiling fans for our bedroom and the great room and the vanity lights for the two main bathrooms. We haven't found the perfect fans yet, and the vanity lights will be largely dependent on what faucets we choose. I'm still waiting for the booklet of those.

We also bought the rest of the paint, or all we intend to do now. We bought fresh pear for Anna's room, calm sky for the office, and stratosphere for Braxton's room. I wanted to start painting those rooms tomorrow, but with Anna's homework situation, they may have to wait until the weekend. (Let's just say that experience has shown that she won't do her homework if I leave her with mom.)

The next thing I'd love to see going on is some grading happening outside. It's time to lose the big mountain of dirt once and for all. The vinyl trim and guttering is also slated to be done next week, I think, so that will really make the outside look complete. After weeks of stand still, I can't say often enough how nice it is to see real progress on a house that has been 3 years in the planning/building for us!

We've Got Mail

Well, after a week of wondering if the mail carrier even noticed the new mailbox as there aren't any houses immediately near us and we hadn't even gotten any junk mail, I finally mailed myself something. Got it the next day. Now I'm going to go ahead and have all our magazines and other things transferred to the new house. I've been avoiding having addresses changed because I didn't want to have to do it twice, so right now, we're still depending on the mail forwarding system. And I hate to think about how much mail we might be losing.

Paint....too purple?

Many of you were accosted by me and my paint swatches a few weeks ago as I contemplated cobblestone versus earl gray or purple surf versus whatever. Well, finally, the paint is on the walls. Yippee! I really like the darker paint we chose for the feature wall in the greatroom and the buff we chose as the standard (everywhere else) color. But I think Philip has some qualms about the purple surf in the master bedroom. I happen to like it, and it will be fine for a while. In the end, it's just paint, so if he can't live with it, we'll change it.

The cabinets are scheduled to go in next week and the flooring soon after. We had planned to get in there and paint the office and kids' rooms ourselves, partially to save some money and partially because we haven't committed to those colors yet. Well, if we are to get that done before the floor is done, then it looks like we'll have to get busy real soon.

I am incredibly excited, however, to once again see progress. We had a meeting with Brad today, and he assures us that things will progress fairly quickly in the coming weeks, with the interior getting largely finished out in the next two to three weeks. Plus, the brick is very close to being finished. We've got the quotes on exterior trim, and he should get that lined up very soon as well.

Meanwhile, I have been busy studying brick mailbox columns, choosing light fixtures, perusing faucets, etc. I have my assignments: finish purchasing light fixtures, begin picking out tile, paint any rooms I intend to paint myself, start calling and checking interest rates daily to begin thinking about locking in a rate. (That last one scares me a little because it is very much akin to gambling, and I really fear locking in too high or missing a low rate because of being afraid to lock in too high!) Anyway, I have some things to keep me busy for the next couple weeks myself, which might be good for all this nervous energy that seems to keep me awake at night.

It's getting good...stay tuned.

The Mailbox

I never really thought that putting up a mailbox would be a big deal. We went to the post office, got permission to just stick one up, so all we needed was to go to Lowes and get it. However, if you know me, then you probably could have told me that this was yet another little thing worthy of my obsession.

We did go to Lowes to check out mailboxes, and then to Home Depot, and then off to a different Lowes. After probably an hour of standing in the aisle debating all the pros and cons, we chose a black metal mailbox with some nickel trim....we decided that we could use that later when we brick the mailbox in, and we wouldn't waste money. But what about a post? In the end, we decided that probably would be money wasted, no matter how we did it, so we got this plain black metal post that we could just drive into the ground, thinking it would be nice and sturdy until the brick column gets built.

Well, as you can see, because of the slope of the ground, the mailbox arm had to be extended as far as possible to be the right height for delivery, which really looks stupid. What you can't see is how much the box wobbles, even with Mr. Philip behind the wrenches and ratchets.

Oh well, despite our best efforts and all the hours of agonizing over this one, it didn't turn out quite as expected. However, it is up, allowing me to begin changing my address on stuff now, instead of having to use the temporary address. I hated the idea of changing our address twice so close together. Now I'm going to send myself some mail to test it out. Maybe I'll send myself a birthday card. Happy birthday to me!

Between the Hurricanes

Wish me luck that we get a bit accomplished this week in between the hurricanes. I haven't even talked to my contractor in the last week because I know the deal. Waiting on the rain to clear. Well, I think it should be clear for a few days until the next hurricane....which is Hanna, with Ike close behind. I was really hoping to be done with this house by hurricane season. Oh well. Pretty soon these will all just be funny stories to recount in the future, right?