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!