We LOVE the floors!

The tile floors are done and most of the Brazilian Teak was down, except for DH's office and some closet space in the great room. The floors are gorgeous! They still need to be sanded and sealed and then they will really be awesome! This is the family room, taken from the kitchen...
Here is the flooring next to the family room fireplace - I love the way they look together! The builder is running dehumidifiers in the areas where the wood floors are - that's the white machine in this photo...
Here is the family room, taken from the great room. The great room floors are also Brazilian teak, although the direction that the wood is laid changes between the 2 rooms.
This photo shows where the entry tile meets the great room teak. They are doing a nice job with the seams where the different materials meet...
Here is another seam - this one is between the tile in the hall near the stairs and the family room near the fireplace. The tiles have a lot of grout residue on them so the true color isn't really showing in the photos...
I walked around outside and down to the ponds. A flock of geese flew over...
We have yellow iris growing near the larger pond. There were 4 or 5 clumps of them...
I haven't posted photos of every side of the house in a while, so here they are...
The front...

The patio side, taken from the end of the garage...
The patio side...
The back of the house...
The office and guest room end of the house...
It was a gorgeous day out at the house today and it was fun to think that we might be living out there about 8 weeks from now! It's starting to seem like a real possibility now that the floors are in and the kitchen will be going in next week. I'm dying to see the kitchen go in - I'll be really antsy the next couple of days until we can get out there and see what it looks like!

What a great day for a picnic!

DH and I decided to head out to the house and have a picnic on our property. We packed a cooler with drinks, grabbed a couple of folding lawn chairs, stopped at Subway and picked up some sandwiches and enjoyed the sunny day (which, after about 10 days or so of straight rain and cool temps sure was nice!). After we ate, DH took the tractor and used the brush hog to clear some more brush.
While he was doing that, I set up camp and spent a good part of the afternoon reading a book. I still can't get around very well since hurting my back last Monday and I thought sitting out in the sunshine was a better idea than sitting at home.

Here is a path that DH cut through the brush yesterday when he and DS were out there clearing brush. Look how tall the brush is on each side - that's what he cut down with the brush hog yesterday!
The scaffolding was taken down from the back of the house. This was taken from down below the house when I walked down to the ponds. It almost looks like a finished house!
There were lots of frogs and tadpoles in the pond. Whenever I took a step, the bullfrogs would plop into the water to hide.
And I found some wildflowers growing nearby...
These plants grow in the pond. Anyone know what they are called?

When DH took a break, we walked through the house to see what's been happening. The tile is down in the kitchen, except for the pantry.
The same tile is in the entry. It's funny how different it looks depending on the lighting conditions. This tile was actually laid out on the great room floor, waiting to be put in the entryway. The drops are granite - the same Verde Butterfly granite that will be on our kitchen counters.
The drywall guys have patched the holes in the sewing studio wall from changing the window to the octagonal one, but there are still holes in the drywall in the chimney in DH's closet and in DD's bedroom wall.
And the doors, and trim around the doors, are going up, starting up in the attic in the kids' rooms...
Unfortunately, the Pens lost to the Detroit Redwings last night. We'll have to make a comeback tomorrow night in game 2!

I just have to say...

!!!!Let's Go PENS!!!!

Cabinets delayed...

Well, we went to choose our carpet tonight. We are putting carpet in the master bedroom, kids' bedrooms, attic hallway, guest bedroom, and music room. We took samples of the carpets we liked out to the house to see how they looked next to the tile that will be in the adjoining hallways. We were unable to go in the house, as the tile had been laid in the mudroom and was blocked off so no one would walk on it.

We borrowed a small piece of the kitchen/entry/hallway/powder room tile so we could compare it to the carpet samples and we can use it when we're out shopping for other materials.

The kitchen cabinets and master bathroom which were supposed to be installed yesterday are now slated to go in on June 2nd. The floors need to be in and grouted and dry before the cabinets can be installed.

We found a light for over our table the other day and have chosen our towel bars, etc. for the bathrooms, so I think we are done choosing everything for the interior of the house (whew! what a relief!). I'm sure there are still a bunch of decisions as far as choosing plants and trees for the landscaping, but for the most part I'm happy to let DH decide what to plant. The only thing I really want is lilacs - as long as some lilac bushes get planted, I'll be happy.

And the changes just keep on a-coming!

There were quite a few changes at the house when we drove out there tonight.
The garage doors have arrived...
and the stone (El Dorado Meseta Fieldledge) is going up on the chimney...
and on the fireplace...(there will be verde butterfly granite over the black fireplace box that is still showing)
The tile has been laid in the guest bathroom (still needs to be grouted)...
The wiring is on our master bathroom floor, which will heat the tile...

The tile is also down in the kids' bathroom (also yet to be grouted)...
Stone is going up on the pillars that will support the covered patio area off the back of the garage. There will be wood pillars on top of these stone bases...
Here is a photo of the brick on the back of the house that is now finished (I remembered to take my boots with me tonight!)...
And DH used the tractor to pick up some broken concrete blocks to use to keep the tractor attachments off the ground to help prevent rust. I didn't get to drive the tractor because I injured my back at Boot Camp yesterday morning. I figured there isn't any hurry - I'll probably be driving it more than I want to once we get ready to attack the brush on the property!
The painting never got finished before the tile was started. It seems like it would have been a lot easier to paint without the need to provide protection for the floors.

Thursday doesn't look good for the kitchen cabinets to go in. The kitchen tile is there, but there were only 4 tiles laying on the kitchen floor. Even if they get the kitchen tile down tomorrow, they have to let the tiles set and then grout them. My guess is the kitchen won't be installed until next week.

The Brazilian teak for the family room, great room, and office is in the house so it can acclimate to the temperature and humidity conditions in the house. No sign of the bamboo flooring for my sewing studio, 2nd floor hall, and laundry room though.

I think we'll need to start going out to the house more often now, as the projects being done now make a really big difference in how the house looks. It's really amazing how fast everything is coming together now!

Let's go Pens!!!

The things you never think about...

With all the rain we've had lately, DH decided not to go out and use the brush-hog on the long grass like he had planned to do today. We ran some errands instead.

Since the LG refrigerator that I wanted is no longer available locally, and buying it online will create a lot of issues with where and when to get it delivered, I think we'll find another refrigerator. We stopped at several stores today to see if they had the JennAir refrigerator in stock (the refrigerator handles, etc. would then match my other appliances, which are all JennAir), but none of them had a floor model to see. I think the only thing I didn't like about the JennAir when I was researching them a few months ago was that when you pull out the freezer door, the bottom of the freezer doesn't pull out with it, only the wire drawer pulls out. It seems to me that this would result in crumbs falling onto the kitchen floor. I think I'll just live with it and hope it isn't a problem. Anyone have any experience with a French door JennAir refrigerator/freezer?

We also took a look at washers and dryers, as the people buying our house wanted our current washer and dryer included in the deal. I was having a difficult time deciding between front loading and top loading washers as there seem to be pros and cons with each. The decision pretty much became a moot point when we were at the store and started thinking about the position of the washer and dryer. In our new house, the washer has been placed to the right of the dryer, which is backward from how all the doors open on the front loading machines. The doors on the dryers are reversible, but not on the washers - they are all hinged on the left. This makes it tricky to move things directly from the washer to the dryer if the washer is on the right. Make sure you have your washer to the left of your dryer if you ever build a house!

So, we'll go with a top loading high efficiency washer and dryer. We are thinking it will be the Whirlpool Cabrio washer and dryer. The dryer door hinges on the wrong side, but it opens 180 degrees and I think it will work OK to move the clothes from washer to dryer. Both the washer and dryer have pretty good ratings on Consumer Reports.

DD just called from the new house. She and a couple of her friends went out to see it. She found the French doors in the family room open and rain coming in. She said they have put the stone on the fireplace and it looks really nice. Unfortunately, she didn't take her camera, so I don't have any photos.

Who likes a bright kitchen?

So, in case you haven't figured it out yet from other kitchen photos, maybe this one will help you to realize just how much I like a bright kitchen... ;-D

The drywall people were there today, finishing the ceilings. This is the office ceiling - it looks so much better without the drywall and tape and mud showing! I'm a bit worried about the paint in this room and the music room. I thought that the last time we were out there the paint on those walls was the actual paint color, not just the primer. It turns out it was just the tinted primer. The real paint color seems very dark and I'm not sure I'm crazy about the color (the very top of the wall in this photo is the real paint color, the lower part of the wall is still the tinted primer).
The drywall (or fireproof board of some kind?) is getting put up around the fireplace.
The underlayment has been put in the rooms that will be tiled. This is the guest bathroom...
DD's room is painted with the tinted primer only so far. The window seat will have a stained board on top and I will eventually make a cushion for it.
It looked like the brick was finished on the back of the house, but I forgot to take my boots with me, so no photos of the outside today. I think the bricklayers are working on the windowsills now.

So, the builder's assistant has been searching for our LG refrigerator and is not having any luck. It seems that there is a new model out now and no one (at least locally) has the old model in stock. The biggest problem with getting the new model is that they changed the door handle style and the old model had handles that matched very well with all the JennAir appliances that we are putting in the kitchen. The inside of the refrigerator had minor changes also which I didn't care for as well. The 2 large bins are now 2 medium bins with a small can-size bin in-between and the large drawer under the bins where large trays can be stored opens differently and I don't like it, either. My guess is that we will try to find the old model online, but I wonder whether that makes repairs difficult if you buy it online.

We have paint!

We met with the builder last night to go over some details. He isn't so sure that the house will be finished when he thought it would be. The weather isn't cooperating enough to get the wood floors installed, which will hold up some other things. We told him the closing date on this house, so hopefully he can get us in the new house by then.

The painters have started on the inside of the house. All paints are Duron (Sherwin Williams). The great room is Vesper Violet below where the wooden valance will be and Starry Night (2 shades lighter) above the valance. The sewing studio is also painted Vesper Violet and the laundry room is Starry Night. Here is the great room, looking toward the entry and the music room is way in the back of the photo. (The paint might show up better in these photos if you click on the photos to enlarge them.)

The entry, hallways, stairwell, mudroom and garage are painted Wool Skein...
The office and music room are painted Universal Khaki...
The kitchen, family room, and powder room are painted Oyster Bay. Here is a shot of the kitchen with an inset photo of the granite to show both at the same time. Once the cabinets go into the kitchen, not much of the paint will even show. The kids' rooms are painted Honest Blue and the hallway is Wool Skein.
The kids' bathroom and the guest bedroom are painted Believable Buff.
Our bedroom and bathroom are painted with Quietude. We currently have this color in our bedroom -- depending on the light in the room, it can look very blue-green, or very green-blue.
The bricklayers are back. They've done more on the angled walls in the back of the house and when finished they will start putting the stone on the fireplace, on the chimney, on the posts near the front door, and on the posts on the covered area off the back of the garage.
Here is the light for over the cooktop and bar area (penisula). There will be 2, placed mirror-image to each other with the arch in the center.
And there will be 3 of these pendants over the island...
This is the master bath light, although we plan to hang it upside down so the bugs don't collect in it (I forgot to rotate the photo - you'll have to turn your monitor upside down or stand on your head to see it in the correct position). :-D

Spring is in full bloom around here - you can tell whenever you talk with someone who has allergies! Our lilacs are past their prime and are quickly fading. It was nice to have them at their peak last week while we were showing the house. I was able to put fresh-cut lilacs on the kitchen and dining room tables before people came to see the house, and they are my favorite flower so I thoroughly enjoyed them also. We'll have to plant some at the new house.