Hmmmm...

Well, tonight the granite looked a lot like it did when I left the house earlier this afternoon, except a whole lot cleaner and attached to the cabinets. For some reason, the backsplash didn't get done. We have a call in to the KD to see if he knows what is going on with it. The granite certainly is shiny though!
Here is the beverage area...
And the island...
And the cooktop/eating bar area...
DD's window seat is now covered in stained wood...

These are the closet shelves in DS's room - they are a bit odd in their arrangement...
The sink has been installed in my sewing studio...
We now have a furnace and a water heater in the basement...
And the doors have been installed at the bottom of the stairs in the basement...
Things are moving along. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the hardwood floors are supposed to be sanded and sealed and driveway poured. Thursday and Friday the kitchen cabinet guy and the master bathroom tiler should be back to finish up and the following Monday the carpets are supposed to be installed. I don't know the schedule for the rest of the subs - plumber, electrician, etc. but the end is in sight!

Countdown to moving day: 18 days and counting!

Granite!! (etc.)

The house was hopping today! The carpenters were finishing up the great room woodwork, working on closets, and putting the molding around the oval windows in the kids' bathroom. The painters were working on the second and third floors. The electrician had been there and most of the fans/lights were hung. One of the carpenters said that the great room fan wasn't working and would have to be replaced. The granite templaters arrived and templated for the granite in the master bathroom.

I was in my car heading down our road to run some errands when I spotted what I assumed was the truck with my kitchen granite turning onto our road, so I turned around and headed back to the house. It was indeed my granite, and the driveway had not yet been poured so they had no problem getting to the house to unload the truck. Here is the very first piece of granite (verde butterfly) that they put in place...

They ran into a couple of snags along the way. The overhang on the penisula hit the trim around the French door. The trim hadn't yet been installed a few weeks ago when the granite was templated. The sink had several cracks in it, including this really long one. Luckily, there was an extra sink onsite and I was glad I had talked with the plumber about it the other day, or I wouldn't have known it was there! They were able to use the second one and could continue installing the granite.The sink also didn't fit into the sink base cabinet, even after cutting out a "scoop" from the sides of the cabinet. Our KD was called and he came out to sort things out. By the time I left, which was before they did the backsplash, everything had been sorted out. DH and I are headed out again tonight, as he hasn't been out to the house since last Saturday. I'll get some more photos and post them later tonight.

The kitchen pendants have been hung. I love these 3 that are over the island.

I'm not so crazy about these pendants over the peninsula. The colors are very different from what I remember...
The holes have been cut in the ceiling for the 1000 cfm vent over the cooktop. It's probably overkill for an electric cooktop, but better too much venting than not enough. We still have to decide whether to put U-shaped track lighting around the vent. Our KD usually does that, but we have so much light in the kitchen already, I'm not sure we need any more.
The granite is all in place, but not attached yet...
Here is the photo of the stairs looking from the attic level all the way down to the basement (ignore that blue hose).

The stair railings are all finished now...
The fireplace mantel is up... and they hid an outlet on top of it, which will come in handy...
The lights have been installed in the master bathroom and most of the other rooms...
The furnace is in (or is that an AC unit?)...
This was sitting in the garage - not sure why we would have a portable AC unit????
The woodwork in the great room is done, except for the doors on the bookshelves behind the French doors. I love it!

Here is the wall opposite the wall in the above photo...the hole in the middle is for the TV projector.
A close-up of the woodwork over the bookshelves...
The downspouts have been connected to the drainage system...
Well, most of them - this downspout ended up coming down about 6' away from where the drainage pipe is located in the corner...
More later!

Waiting to see...

DH and I are headed to the house today to see what progress has been made. We are meeting with a landscaper at 11 and with the builder at noon. We have 3 1/2 weeks until the movers are scheduled to move us out of this house. I'm beginning to doubt that we will have a finished house to move into on that day. The builder told DH that all his guys would be working out there today.

It also seems that there is a bit of a problem with the granite for the kitchen. The KD's receptionist called to say that the granite slabs changed coloration (or something - DH was the one that spoke to her about it) so that they didn't match up where the seams are located. That means that they had to wait until yesterday for new slabs to arrive, which means they won't be installing them in our house on Tuesday like they said they would.

I really DO think they can finish in 3 1/2 weeks and now that the builder's guys are all able to be there everyday I think we'll see a lot of progress in a short amount of time.

Tune in later today...

A little bit here, a little bit there...

Well, at least the bathroom will be done soon - oh, wait...we don't have a septic tank yet...or a toilet...or installed cabinets and countertop...or light fixtures. Nevermind...

The stonework in the master bathroom is certainly coming along well though. The air tub is stoned with the oro cappuccino on the sides and the latte travertine on top. There will be a stone chair rail along the top edge of the tub (as well as on the shower) that is similar to the color of the oro cappuccino. And the shower walls have been started also - the tiler decided that the small stones (the very top row in this photo) need to be 3 rows instead of 2 rows. He also thought it would look better to stagger the rows so the center row is 1/2 stone off from the row above and below. It will give the small stones more presence in the shower if he uses 3 rows instead of 2. Then he'll use 2 rows instead of 1 up above, toward the top of the shower (also staggered). We picked out a latte-colored epoxy grout that will blend in with the oro cappuccino stones and will be slightly darker than the latte travertine stones.
The tiler and his assistant were the only people working there today. DH found out from the builder that they are closing on another house on Friday of this week, so all the builder's guys are at that house finishing up. We are the next house to finish so (hopefully) that means that they will all descend upon our house next week.

If you have been reading my blog for the past couple of weeks, you may remember that the kitchen granite was supposed to be installed yesterday. I'm not exactly clear on why it wasn't, but I think it is going to be installed next Tuesday. Stay tuned...

Kitchen templated and fun finds...

I spent about 5 hours at the house today while the granite guys templated for the kitchen counters. I was there about 8am, but I guess it was closer to 9:30am before they found the place. They worked for 3.5 hours and then took photos of the different entries into the house so the people installing the granite will be prepared for getting the counters into the house in 2 weeks. They will have to come back after the master bathroom cabinets are installed to template for the counters in the bathroom. It certainly was a hot day to be hanging out at a house with no A/C installed yet, but I got a lot of reading done!

So, I found some interesting items online a few days ago that I decided were fun enough to share with all of you. I'm not even sure now what I was searching for that I ran across these, but I thought they were great! I was probably hanging out online when I was laid up on the couch with my injured back.

I think this is a great bench! I used to collect cow things, so that may explain the theme of my fun finds!Isn't this a fun table? I somehow don't think DH will go for it... how about in front of the fireplace between 2 chairs??
I thought this lady would look great out near our driveway so people could see her as they drive up...or, we could move her around the property and have her in different locations in the woods...I think she's awesome! If we had her, DH wouldn't have to install a flag pole! :-D

Lots left to do, but moving in the right direction...

The metal copper-colored roof has been installed over the front door. It isn't completely finished, but this photo gives a good idea of what it will be like. We noticed the materials had been delivered about a week ago, so we were anxious to see what it would look like.
The kitchen is ready to be templated for the granite counter. The fabricator is coming out on Monday to template the granite. The beverage center is now installed correctly and the doors on the cabinets that will have glass in them are now on. The electrician has been busy putting the pot (can) lights in the ceiling and every now and then you can see a switchplate that has been put on.
I just figured out that the doors on the angled cupboards actually open! I thought these 2 areas on each side of the island were empty space, but I was wrong. I'm not exactly sure what I'll put in there... All the kitchen drawers (and master bathroom drawers) will be full extension - they will open all the way so you can easily access things in the back of the drawers. For us, that also means the drawers are all soft-close because our cabinet company doesn't sell one option without the other.
When we lived in North Carolina, we had some doors that could swing in either direction and if you pushed them slightly past 90 degrees, they would stay open. We asked for those hinges in the new house on the kitchen pantry door, on the double door between the family room and great room, and on the door between the hall by the stairs and the entryway. When we went out to the house today we were surprised to see these HUGE commercial swinging door hinges. The doors swing in both directions, but they don't stay open when pushed past 90 degrees.
We met with our KD's tile guy today. He will be doing the stone and tile work in our master bathroom. He was looking at the kitchen before he left and pointed out that we might have an issue with the granite counters/outlets/window moldings on the window walls. The countertops are 1.25" high and are supposed to continue up the wall for a 2" backsplash. With the outlets located like they are, there isn't any room for the 2" tall granite backsplash. He suggested several different solutions. We're not exactly sure what we will do there yet, but we're glad that he pointed out the issue to us.

Cabinets!!

My cabinets started going in today! I'm not sure how many days it will take them to finish, but the granite counters are supposed to be templated a week from today and then installed 2 weeks after that. These are the cabinets near the refrigerator. The angled cabinet on the right has 4 doors - all of them are hinged on the right. I want to see if they'll change it so the 2 on the left are hinged on the left and the 2 on the right are hinged on the right. The cabinet over the refrigerator is pulled out from the wall so that it will be flush with the front of the refrigerator and easier to access. There are 4 roll-out shelves in the bottom of the left cabinet. The sink wall (L-->R) corner cupboard, 3 drawer unit which will be for our everyday dishes, dishwasher opening, super susan unit, narrow tray cabinet, sink, 2 pull-out trash cabinets (one for trash, one for recyclables).

End cabinet and 3 drawer unit...
The beverage center area - these don't seem to be placed where they should be yet.
The family room floor is done and the office floor was also finished.
The bamboo flooring for my sewing studio, laundry room, and 2nd floor hallway is ready to be installed...isn't it gorgeous?
The KD also designed our master bathroom and his tile guy is on another job. He will show up next Monday to start the installation of our tile.

I think it's time to start packing up so more of this house so we'll be ready to move in a few weeks!

Ladders and bricks and windows, oh my!

The house is coming right along! So excited! When we stopped at the house today, there was a framer working on the roof (all by himself!), and ladders for us to climb to the second and third floors! I've been wanting to get on the second floor and actually stand in my sewing studio for a few weeks now, but alas, no one was ever working when we were there and no ladders were ever left out for us to use.Look...LADDERS!!!!!

And the bricks and windows have been delivered...the bricks have actually been in the brick yard for a month or so now, but the builder didn't want them delivered back then. I hope their delivery means we're getting close to needing them.
Here is the view from our large bedroom window...

This is the smaller section of my sewing studio. It will be even narrower once the cabinets are along the wall on the right side, but the only other things that will be in this section are a corner cabinet made by DH's grandfather and a cutting table with a stool, which will be used both for cutting fabric and scrapbooking (I am making a scrapbook of our house building project). Here is a link to the sewing studio layout http://bellsrus.blogspot.com/2008/01/we-have-second-floor.html.
This is the larger side of my sewing studio. It will house my sewing table, pressing table, computer desk, and a comfy chair and ottoman. There is a walk-in closet to the left (not shown in the photo below) and the door to my studio from the hall.
This is the attic level of the house which will be DD's and DS's bedrooms. This is the view from DD's (as of now, non-existent) window.

The framer that was working today told us that he's pretty much done all the framing himself. He usually has another guy there who passes the materials up to him from ground level, but he's done all the building alone. It made me nervous that he was totally alone today - he's working very high up without any safety equipment. If he ever fell and was injured, no one would know for quite some time, I'm afraid.

We stopped by the kitchen designer's on the way to the house and looked at granite. Right now we are leaning towards Verde Butterfly granite, but we need to go to the granite fabricator's and look at the actual slabs of granite before we can decide for sure.