All the Trimmings

We stopped by the house after church this morning and were greeted with more trim on the interior. It's really starting to take shape in the hub of the house. In the kitchen, all the windows, the pantry, and the doorway to the dining room have trim around them. It looks very different than the 2-D drawings of the trim; it's much dressier than I ever imagined. As usual, Mary was right... it's exquisite!!


The tile in in master shower also continues to take shape. But even partially installed and with no grout at all, I think it looks fantastic! I am anxiously awaiting the final product on our shower (much like the rest of the house, actually!) as it's sure to be amazing when it's complete!

Getting Trim for Thanksgiving

Although some of us have Black Friday off, I'm thankful for everyone that was working on our house today! We met the finish (not Finnish) carpenter, Jim, out at the house this morning and reviewed all the trim and finish carpentry with him. We also walked through the kitchen and determined the best location for the island to allow us the most space all around it. We were thrilled to get a compliment from Jim on what a cool house it's going to be. He gets to work on different houses every day, so it was awesome to get a compliment from someone who has seen so many other places.

We also got to review the tile with our tile installers today and the progress looks amazing! Our powder room is finished and they were more than halfway done with the master bath. The fireplace and kitchen backsplash will be installed once the wood around them has been stained, so we have more tile to look forward to in the very near future.

Our house felt so much house-ier today with all the detail work starting. We can't wait to check in again later this weekend to see what else gets accomplished!! For now, there are a few additional photos below...

All the pocket doors and closet doors were installed. They look pretty sharp even without trim around them yet!

Here's a view of trim around the laundry room doorway and around the laundry room window
This is the floor tile in the master bathroom - it looks even more spectacular in person!

Wood You Like to See Our Cabinets?

Since Thursday, progress was made on the exterior of our house - the columns continue to take shape and more siding went up on the south side. However, the really exciting stuff was inside the house this weekend! All of our millwork was delivered on Friday - I thought that the view from the loft captured it best (above).

All of our cabinetry was also delivered on Friday! After months of living surrounded by stacks of everything we own, the sight of piles of stuff at the new house really made it feel like home!! Actually... it was fantastic to see the detail-oriented stuff get delivered - we're really anxious to have it all completed so we can move.

And speaking of moving... the below pic is what we found when we went downstairs to go to church this morning. Some ne'er-do-well in our apartment complex backed into our car and drove away without reporting it. So instead of being on time to church, we got to hang out with the local police and fill out a report. Did I mention we're anxious to move?

And now... on to more enjoyable pics of all the wood stuff that is at our house awaiting installation and finishing.

This is the powder room cabinet - just a cute little guy!

A pile of kitchen cabinets!

Aaron inspecting the dining room cabinets

Me showing off the built in cutting board and garbage area in our island

Want A Ride in My Porch?

A porch is most likely the closest thing we'll ever have to a Porsche... but the advantage is that we can fit way more people in our porches!! We went to the house last night expecting to see a lot of changes to the interior... and were more than a bit disappointed to find no major differences (no paint, no additional tile, nothing). All we could scrounge up was one completed column on our front porch. So in a last ditch effort to not leave totally disappointed, we decided to head onto the back porch to see if any siding work was done on the south side of the house. It wasn't...

But we were thrilled to discover that a lot of progress had happened on the screen porch (located off the dining room). The ceiling was up, the posts were in the process of being wrapped with composite siding and the house was sided around the sliding doors leading to the porch! Different than what we thought we'd see, but still very exciting! The porch is going to be a fantastic place to hang out and enjoy 3 of 4 seasons here. We have Mary (our architect) to thank for this brilliant space!!

Tiles Bring Smiles

We stopped by the house last night on our way home from church and brought the trusty headlamp along to scope out the progress. No changes to the exterior... because all the action was happening on the interior! Our walls were primed and looked great! And our tile has been delivered and is being installed!! The pictures above are of the tile in the powder room!! That room was almost done yesterday. Prep work was started in the master bathroom, so I can't wait to get back out there later this week to check it out!! This is our first real flooring in the whole house - very exciting!!

It's a Texture Thing

On the exterior of the house, progress continues to be made on our stone work. The stone along the north wall is complete, but there are four columns that are still being worked on. It sort of looks like a puzzle that they have to piece together, at least based on where they left off on Friday.

On the interior of the house, the taping and mudding has been completed on the drywall. Texture was sprayed on the walls and ceilings (a medium knock-down texture). In addition to looking awesome, it means that painting can start! The ceilings and closets were painted on Friday and the colors will be going up next week. All of the detail work will be starting after the paint goes up and I can't wait to finally see the selections we've made over the past year start to get installed.

Time to Get Stoned

Thanks to a guest photographer, we have pictures to post on the blog today!! I wonder how much more it would add to our builder's fees to get daily pics...

As you can see, they started on the stone on the exterior of our house! This is going to run along the front of the living room wall and will also be on four columns - two by the master bedroom and two by the front entrance. If you want to jog your memory on its location, you can see most of the white space set aside for stone in the last blog post.

We are thrilled that it warmed up enough to allow the crew to install the stone. This was on the list of potential things to be completed next spring if Mother Nature didn't cooperate. One less thing for future Ally & Aaron to worry about!

Steady Progress

I was definitely right about setting our clocks back... Makes it almost impossible to get to the house during the daylight hours on weekdays. But we were pleasantly surprised on Saturday to see the progress on the house. On the outside, most of the siding is on the front (only waiting for it around the front door) and the west side of the house is complete!! We have one whole finished side!! The crew also started on the east side of the house by the garage, so hopefully, we'll have more than one completed side soon.

On the inside, the mudding and taping has continued on the drywall. It is nearly complete and sometime during the upcoming week, the texture will be sprayed onto it. Also, the electricity was hooked up this week (finally!) which means that they were also able to install our furnace. You can thank us for the nice weather we're having - now that we have heat, it's warm enough outside for the crews to not need it. But I guess now we're ready for the next cold snap!

Shake and Bake

The good weather on Thursday (which was offset by awful weather on Friday) allowed the crew working on the exterior to make a lot of progress on the front of the house. All of the shakes are up on the front... and they look pretty exquisite! You can also start to see where the stone is going to go (underneath the living room windows and in columns on the west side of the front). The more that is added to the front, the more our architect's drawings seem to come to life! It's pretty amazing to finally see the real life version of our paper copies!

On the inside of the house, the drywall crew did sanding and then put on round two of the mud. We are anxious to see the drywall completed so that more interior work can move forward. It is impressive how quickly the drywall crew can cover the walls for the whole house. I have heard stories of how long it can take a DIY'er to complete. I'm glad we've got professionals on the case!!