Day 132 - 06/26/2007

Wow...what a week and it is only Tuesday.

The metal roof is complete, our front porch columns are installed and our front door is stained. With the exception of the garage doors, gutters and some paint on the columns, the exterior of the house is complete.

Here is a close-up of the front porch...you can really see the columns, roof and front door from here. Don't forget you can click on the image for a larger version.


Oh yeah...and today we got cabinets. All of the kitchen cabinets, the master vanities and the upstairs vanities are installed along with the sink/counter-tops for the master bath and upstairs bathrooms.

The stain color we selected turned out to be exactly what we wanted. The cabinets are dark, but not too dark. There is quite a bit of red in the stain, so this lightens the cabinets. The counter-top shop will be out this week to make a template and will deliver the counter-tops in the next two weeks.

The painters have been busy as well. You can see that they have added more paint to the tray ceiling and began trimming the walls. Hopefully, by Friday, they will have the first coat of paint on all of the walls.

Here is Mandy's vanity. We chose to build her a corner cabinet that sits on top of her counter. There is an electrical outlet inside this cabinet. This will allow Mandy to leave her hair dryer inside this corner unit and plugged in. It is a large step from the cabinet and counter-top space that we currently have.

This is one of the upstairs bedrooms. They have the wall color in the room as well as the closet.

This is half of the Jack-and-Jill bathroom upstairs. We don't have a linen closet upstairs, so we decided to have one built with the rest of the cabinets.

This is a shot of the other half of the Jack-and-Jill bathroom. We chose a brushed nickel hardware for this. The hardware in our bathroom and in the kitchen is very dark, so we decided to have some fun with this.

Day 130 - 06/24/2007

The rock is finished which means that the metal roof can go on the house. The metal roof man (Junior) has a few spots left to complete, but with the exception of the columns and some trim paint, the exterior is close to being complete.

(Don't forget you can click on the picture to see a larger image!)


The rock was a bit darker than we thought it would be, but we are very happy with it.


We decided to splurge a bit on the hand-rail. The stark-white spindles would have really stood out. We gave the trim carpenters an idea of what we wanted and they did a fantastic job!

Day 128 - 06/22/2007

The tile-man (Dewayne) finished our tile work today. The shower turned out great, as did our tile floors.


Here's a close-up of the shower wall and floor.


...and the tub-surround.


We were trying to decide what we wanted to do around our fire-box. We decided to trying slate instead of regular tile and are very glad that we did. The trim carpenters did a beautiful job on the mantle and the slate really looks nice in the great room.

Day 126 - 06/20/2007

Sorry, sorry, sorry...It has taken me some time to get these pictures posted. We are in the final stretch with our current house and trying to get it ready to close. We will rent back until we move in to this house...hopefully by the first of August; just around the corner!

The painters have started with some wall color. They put this up there so that we could see what the color would look like besides what we had on our 1" x 2" card from the paint store. This blue is the color that we will have in our bedroom and in the dining room.


We were going to have the orange color in our kitchen, but was advised against it after we picked our cabinet stain. We'll see if we made a good choice.


The next few weeks should be fun. They are finishing the trim work, installing the hand rail, finishing the trim painting and installing cabinets in the next 10 days or so. The house is really starting to feel like home.

Day 119 - 06/13/2007

We finally have our back deck complete. Mandy says that I'm never in any pictures, so she took this one of me.

What can I say?

The trim carpenters are finished with the house. We should be having color on the walls early next week.

The tile man made good progress today. The kitchen is 80% complete and he has finished tiling the powder room.

Another shot of the kitchen.

Here's the downstairs powder room.

Our stair parts were delivered today. Hopefully they will begin to lay the treads and put up the handrail soon. We have picked our floor stain, so it will only be a matter of time before they are sanding and staining the floor.

Here's Mandy holding one of the balusters we have chosen. We will mix these scrolls with baskets for a nice pattern.

Day 114 - 06/08/2007

We finally have our front porch poured. This means we are one step closer to having our stone laid. The roofers still have to do some work to prep the roof where the rock will be prior to the stone going up.

Hopefully that will happen soon as we have finished drywall inside and our metal roof is still not on. The builder's do not want to put it on until the stone is laid (sensible), but they are flirting with a disaster if we get a heavy rain.

The carpenters were busy today getting the deck started. They are letting the boards dry a bit before they screw them down.



Hey...look at me on our screened porch!

That's nice! I like it.

Here's the last time that you will see Mandy in the kitchen. :)

The trim carpenters have been busy the last few days.

Another look at the trim carpenters work. Absolutely amazing.

Here's a look down the upstairs hallway. The hardwoods for the landing and hallway are finished and the treads and face boards should be installed next week.

Day 112 - 06/06/2007

Wow! What a great surprise...my sister from Austin, TX (top left), my aunts from Maryland (top right and in middle), my sister from Chattanooga (bottom left) and of course, the Boss.

They were all in town and happened to be at the house...I was WAY outnumbered...did not stick around for long!

The lumber has been delivered for our screened porch and back deck...things are really starting to pick up some speed...we'll be in the house before we know it. Hopefully, it will be by August 10. We have to be out of our current house by then. It might be close.

Over the next few weeks, the house is going to take on an entirely different look as the exterior and interior paints go on, tile is laid, stairs are finished and stone goes on the front of the house.

I am going to try to get pictures up here more frequently, but Kathy...don't hold me to that. ;)

Day 110 - 06/04/2007

The painters got started on the exterior of the house. This shot is a little dark, but the exterior will be a mossy-green color with white trim. The trim won't be stark-white, but it won't be a cream-color, either.

Just a neat shot over the study.




Daisy, as always, is in the driver's seat.




They have filled in the front porch with gravel. Hopefully this means that they are getting ready to pour the concrete for the front porch.

Side note: The camera obviously focused in on the brick on the right-hand side of this picture. I didn't realize how much blue there is in our brick...

We now have a back door! That should also mean that we have some interior doors...

Yup...here's the doors to the study...

...and to the closets in our bedroom...

...and they have started the trim carpentry around the windows in the upstairs bedrooms.

Just a close-up of the detail work around the windows.

Here's all of the baseboards waiting to be installed.

Daisy is not sure if the window is square, but doesn't want to say anything right now...

This may give you a better idea of what the color will look like against the brick.