Peace of Mind

One difficult aspect of building when you have small children is visiting the site.  If you have children who are good listeners, it won't be a problem.  If your children are strong-willed and have selective hearing, it's not fun.  At long last, one of the most important pieces in the house has been installed.  I no longer have to panic because my children want to run to their rooms while I'm looking at another part of the house.  The second floor railing overlooking the stairway is in! 

Of course, there is trouble still to be found and they will find it. 

A great time to build!

The counter tops are arriving on Thursday!! The fixtures will follow soon thereafter.  We're nearing the end of the build.  We've got about 30% of our current house boxed up to avoid a mad rush in June.  We've booked our movers.  We've locked interest rates on our mortgage loan and have set the closing date.  I can't believe that rates are still so low.  What a great time to build! 

Trim Work

The trim work continues.  All the trim is taped up and ready to paint white.  The tiles for the fireplace surround arrived at the house.  I imagine the counter tops will be ready soon.    

The big photo of the week is the stairway.  We're still waiting for the railing and balusters, but it looks so nice!

Houzz.com

I'm a huge fan of the design website at houzz.com.  The woman who sold us the lot told me about it and gave me advance warning that it's addictive. She was right! I have since spent countless hours on it, reviewing photos of paint colors, built-ins, backsplash tiles, flooring, patios, kitchen stools, etc.  If you want to see how your paint color will look or how to design around bright blue walls, you'll find lots of examples.  If you want to see what's trendy, houzz.com will tell you.  If you want to find that perfect lighting fixture, you'll find it. Because you can't always visualize how your choices are going to come together when you're building from ground up, the website has been a great resource.  Even if you're not looking for anything in particular, their weekly e-mails highlight specific projects and are worth looking through. The only words of caution I would pass on about houzz.com are the same ones that were given to me:  "Be careful.  It's addictive!"

Built-ins

We've got the living room, guest room and mud room built-ins going in.  They look great!

The ceiling and columns in the dining room are in.

In addition, the front columns are taking shape.

And the patio looks pretty much done.  I love it all!

New tops and tile

After sleeping on the new counter top choice, I decided that the pre-selected tile wouldn't work after all.  The tile had too much yellow and the tops had too much gray.  I decided to explore other options.  It turned out that we have a little more time than I thought for installation of the backsplash tiles.  Sonja from Cabinet Works dropped off the Windermere sample and Tim at Randy's was very helpful with finding new tiles.  I am really happy with the selection! (And actually quite grateful that the Lincolnshire was on back-order!) 

Patio under way!