Garage Doors up and running!

Today was one of those really rewarding days in home designing and constructing. The garage doors were installed and I absolutely love them!! What a relief! I agonized so much over the color, style, windows, etc. But I think the end result is exactly what I was going for-doors that don't stand out or draw attention to themselves but instead blend in with the house's style and color. Wood doors would've made a nice statement, if they were in our budget, but these work great. They also let in a lot of light, and operate quietly and smoothly.



While Marty put the door handle and deadbolt on the basement door after work, I sat on a plastic lawn chair reading in the bay window, with the small recessed light overhead giving off just the right amount of light to read by. It was a little chilly, but we brought over 5 space heaters to dry out the place for the floors to be put in, so I just propped my legs up over the heater to stay warm. The house is beginning to feel like a home. I can't describe the excitement I felt as we opened and closed our garage doors with our little remotes, or turned on and off lights. Each day we can see ourselves getting closer and closer to moving in. I've already been looking for a dining set so we can have a bunch of people over for dinner and games.

Power up!

Today the house really felt like a house. The lights in the great room/kitchen area all work now and it's pretty spectacular the difference a little power makes. Wherever I could I used energy efficient CFL bulbs (the spiral ones), but they can't be used in lights on a dimmer or 3-way switch. They fixed all my toggle switches too, so now I have the rocker switches, ahhh much better. I can't wait to walk into the rest of the rooms and turn on the lights!


BEFORE




AFTER!

Let there be light!

Today the electricians came and installed nearly all the light fixtures. I think they look pretty good. The only thing they didn't do was install the right switches for the lights. I had talked to Trace about doing rocker switches and they put up toggle switches, but I'm sure it's not too late to change them. We couldn't turn them on yet, but they're up!

Swimming anyone?

So they started installing the new swimming pool yesterday. JUST KIDDING, though its big enough to be one. It's really the Sand Gravel filter for the septic system. It's about 10 times the size I was imagining. But this is good news because that means that soon we'll have a septic system!!! Which means we can test out the Toto's :)







While I laid out all the light fixtures with the appropriate bulbs throughout the house yesterday, in preparation for the electricians to come today, Marty started putting on our door hardware. I love the front door handle. I'm not totally in love with the others, but they were the best I could find.

Painting finished!

We got all the painting finished today!! The electricians are coming on Friday to put up the light fixtures, and the painters will spray the garage doors tomorrow. Yay!!!

Ceilings done in an afternoon

Marty doing his best to paint the skylight (He does NOT enjoy painting) I on the other hand love it! (well except for ceilings, they really aren't my favorite, but you've got to do the ceilings before you can add the color to the walls). Morgan came over and worked the paint sprayer while Manda and Marty followed up with the roller. I did the bathroom ceilings with just an extender roller. We got them all done though, and even started on a couple of walls. I can't wait to get back over there tomorrow. I absolutley LOVE the color on the walls. It's sort of a khaki beige color. It looks really nice.




















Manda bravely tackels the other skylight. She later tells me she's scared of heights. You wouldn't have known it though. She painted like a pro, with NO fear! I sure love my family, and was so grateful for their help today. Marty was a good sport too, I sure love him.

Ready to paint!

I can hardly believe it but they got the texturing and priming finished this weekend, which means tomorrow we can start painting. They have these industrial heaters in the house to dry everything out. It felt like a toxic sauna between the paint smell and heat. Can't wait to air it out! We borrowed a paint sprayer and will try and get all the ceilings done tomorrow with the help of my sister Amanda. Tuesday we'll finish up what's left of the ceilings and start on the walls. It sounds like we'll have quite a few people from church over to help paint the walls on Wednesday which will be really nice. We're bringing our grill over so it should be a fun time. I'm sooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!!

It's just a toilet, or is it?

Ok, so who knew choosing a toilet could be sooo complicated. I guess it's probably the most used fixture in the house so I guess it merits careful consideration and deliberation over, but STILL, how is anyone suppose to know what to buy? There's tons of brands in different styles and colors. How does anyone choose? By reading LOT'S of reviews! The toilet you see before your eyes isn't just ANY toilet, it's a Toto. A Toto Jenny? You mean Dorothy's little dog? No, not that Toto. Though it is pretty cute. This one has the G-Max flushing technology, elongated bowl AND Sanagloss. I had never even heard of Sanagloss before, but I'm completely sold on it now. We'll see if it lives up to its rave reviews. It's a super smooth glaze they use to coat the inside of the bowl so basically dirt, mold, or bacteria can't get a foothold, which means they stay cleaner and you spend far less time cleaning, yay! That's what I like, a self cleaning toilet! Well, nearly. I think that's worth an extra 40 bucks.

Besides figuring out the kitchen cabinets this week I've been researching all about toilets, so any of you out there that need a certified expert on the subject, I'm pretty much it :) My employers have 2 Toto's in a different style and say they are the best toilets they've ever owned, they haven't had a single problem with them. I ordered ours in white, though they don't call it white, they call it Cotton. Doesn't that just make you want to sit on it? Do you think I ever thought I'd be the type to get so excited over a toilet? No! Though the silly color name reminds me of all the funny names they give paint colors. Wouldn't it be fun to have the job of naming paint colors? My colors would all be something sweet and delicious since I love anything sweet. Ahhhh...strawberry pie, cream puff, mint ice cream, blueberry milkshake, chocolate mousse, can you picture them? Don't they sound delicious.

Of course we again went over our budget, spending twice as much as we had planned for the toilets, but hopefully we'll save by not ever having to call a plumber, EVER! We'll see. The only thing I have left to decide on are medicine cabinets and the size of our cabinet pulls. Now I just want to get everything we have put in its place so it can start looking like a nearly finished house.

They didn't get any texturing done today :( Maybe they'll be coming in Saturday, or maybe they'll just be back Monday. I hope, I hope, I hope they get done this weekend, I'm getting so excited to see those colors on the wall! Stay tuned....

Nearly finished with sheetrock

The Drywallers did the final sanding of the sheetrock today and will hopefully begin the light texturing tomorrow. I was hoping we'd be able to start painting the ceilings Monday, but I think they'll be putting on the primer Monday. We'll see. We're off all next week so I'm hoping to get the whole house painted.

This picture is of one of the skylights in the family room. I love how much light they let in, as well as the view of the tall fir trees. I've also been very impressed with the quality of the work these guys have done, it's exceptional! I can see why Trace says they're the best on the Island. This stage of the process is a little boring since we're basically just watching mud dry, but as I look back at the pictures it's pretty amazing the transformation a little, or a lot of mud makes in finishing a house. I'm also really glad we decided to pay them to finish the basement, especially when I look at the sheetrock we did in the remodel of the cabin. We're definately NOT professionals!

I placed the order for the cabinets today after working on the design all week with the cabinet designer from Island Lumber. I've been modifying the plans for months so I'm glad the cabinets are ordered and I can finally stop worrying them. Of course we ran over budget (since we changed the whole layout of the space), but everybody I talk to says it will be worth it to get the kitchen you really want. I sure hope so! I'm getting very anxious about things going over budget. I hope we make it through this whole thing with a little left in the bank. Thank goodness for our little cabin that we've lived in for the last 3 years, for free! Without it, we'd NEVER have been able to build (thanks Dad for building it 20 years ago!). We also wouldn't be building if it weren't for the generosity of my mom in letting us build on the property she owned. Thanks mom! We feel very blessed, but still stressed :)


Hopefully the kitchen will turn out something like this. I guess we'll see in another month!

Busy last couple days

Yesterday was a big day for us. We ordered all of our appliances and our wood stove, as well as bought all the interior paint and new bedding to match.
I can't wait to cook a holiday dinner with the new double oven, then easily clean up afterwards with the new dishwasher (I haven't had one since I left home). Now I'll have no more excuses for not cooking meals, bummer.
We even got an extra freezer since the bottom freezers don't have a lot of space in them. Since we're putting it in the laundry room upstairs we opted for a chest freezer (full of dividers and baskets), so that it could double as a counter for folding laundry on (my boss' idea).
All of the appliances have the European style bar handles so we figured matching them with the same style cabinet pulls would look really good, though I'm not sure if I should get them in brushed nickel to match the other finishes in the house, or stainless steel to match the appliances, I also don't know what size pulls to get. Any suggestions?

I'm so glad to be nearing the end of making decisions! I think the only things left I have to decide on are toilets and medicine cabinets, yay!! The next couple months are going to be really exciting. Its hard for me to believe that the house could be done in just 6-7 weeks! What was going to take 9 months, will have taken less than 6 months to build, it's incredible and from what I've heard pretty rare for a project to finish so far ahead of schedule and not behind. I guess I shouldn't jinx myself since its not over yet :)

Can you tell a difference?

I know things don't look that different from day to day but I can see the progress and its so exciting. The mud lines on the seams are getting wider, and smoother, the skylights and corners are taking shape. Its really feeling like a house. I even like the striped walls, though I think the great room will have solid colored walls.

I'm going to look at appliances tomorrow so I can make some final decisions before we order the cabinets. I'd hate to get the refrigerator delivered only to find its an inch too tall, so I'm going to try and pick everything out ahead of time. Next week we'll take measurements of the kitchen and order the cabinets. Things are really going to start looking different fast with the addition of paint, flooring, doors, cabinets, trim, and fixtures. Hopefully we'll be able to get everything finished by the end of September.

It was my birthday yesterday and my boss let me off work early so I went over to our house and sat out on the back deck in the sun, reading and taking in all the sights, sounds and smells--falling leaves, tall tall fir trees, light streaming through the alders, birds singing, small planes buzzing overhead, and smelling the freshly stained deck, sheetrock mud, and fresh air outdoors. It was very surreal to think that in a couple months I'd be living in this house permenantly, that it would become our home--the place where we hope to have children, create memories and enjoy lots of good times with family and friends. I'm starting to feel all grown up, imagine that!

Basement media/rec room

Here is Marty's "den" down in the basement. He's been dreaming about this room for forever. We had the electricians put in surround sound speaker wires in the far area of the basement for the ultimate movie watching experience. We also had them put cable and electricity outlets on the wall for mounting the perfect flat screen TV. Obviously we don't have any of the equipment to make this a real media room yet, but at least its set up for that for the future. More mudding and taping were done today and we should find out on Friday when they'll be done and when we can start painting. Marty played around in fireworks adding colors to the walls. How do you like our "green room"?

Taping has begun

Today all the seams were mudded and taped. I am getting soooooo excited to see the finished walls coming together. I can hardly wait to start painting the walls. Morgan came by to take measurements of the main floor of the house (minus the bathrooms and laundry room) so he can order the Brazillian cherry flooring. I'm hoping it won't be too dark for the space. The permenant power to the house was also hooked up today so they can start filling in the ditches and putting in the drainfield. I can't wait to empty my garage of all the light fixtures and see how they all look in place. I hope everything goes together and that I figured in enough lights. I guess we can always supplement with lamps if needs be.