Driveway

In April, the weather started warming and the girls were anxious to get outside. But...we were still surrounded by dirt and sand without even a driveway to play on.

We went hillbilly with it for a while. Pulling out the beach chairs and sand toys and making the best of the sand drive.

Carolyn didn't mind the sand

Eleanor on the 'dune'

Finally on May 2, we got our driveway and we have been thoroughly enjoying it. It's absolutely amazing how much you appreciate the little things when you don't have them. Next up is the walkway and back patio then for the grand finale GRASS (and shrubs, etc but grass is what we crave).

Pouring the driveway!

Are they done yet?

Moved In!

Yes, we finally made it! We moved in to our new home on Super Bowl weekend. Here she is:

Great Room

Close-up on Fireplace

Kitchen

Breakfast Nook

Carolyn's Room

Eleanor's Room

Our unorganized office


Master Bedroom

Master Vanity

Master Tub


Master Shower Area

Master Closet

Laundry

Kitchen

The kitchen is coming together fabulously if I do say so myself! I'm so pleased with how the floor, cabinets, countertop, wall color, light fixtures, and backsplash look together. The backsplash is a natural slate in various sizes. I found it in the bathroom of Tile Mart and fell in love. We'll be using the same tile as the backsplash for our whirlpool tub.

We went with a quartz countertop from Cambria. Cambria is "the Cadillac of quartz" per our salesman at Hannapel and the only quartz made in the USA.

Another nice feature in the kitchen is the microwave in the island. It frees up counter space and is also more easily accessible for the little people in our house. Hopefully the reasoning behind its placement doesn't backfire :)

Vanities

Our vanities were delivered Friday and Matt wasted no time getting them set. I'm very pleased with how they look. In the master bath we chose and quarter-sawn oak and in the 2nd / girl's bath we went with a white finish.

Siding = Done! Hurray!!!

Front

Matt was so happy last night when he came home and announced the siding was DONE! It really looks great. Now we can focus on the final details inside...

Back

Hardwood

Cabinets

Courtesy of Phil Anderson at Cut Above Wood Design.

Siding Looks Great!

We went with Sherwin Williams Green Sprout and the shakes are Edemame - since it turned out so well, I suggest picking out paint colors when you're hungry.

Porch

Our porch has been Matt's major project for weeks now. And it looks great! I love the stone and the columns that Matt's been building are exactly how I pictured them. Check out the picture. The column on the far left is the only one completed when I took this picture.

Stone, Sheetrock, Siding Trim, Oh My!

Matt has been working a lot recently on the exterior of the house. A lot of trim and the bead board for the porches. He's still doing trim this weekend and doesn't expect to be finished any time soon. There's just so much of it to put up and Matt's a perfectionist, which is fine by me. It'll take longer, but since we expect to live in this house for the rest of our lives, it'll be worth it.

View of the back of the house and porch which Matt and his dad have been focusing on lately (thanks Mike for all your help!!!)

The stone guys have finally started the exterior stone. I don't know how much of a feel you can get for it by this pictures, but it looks amazing! It'll wrap around the bottom 3 foot of the entire house, the whole kitchen wall and the porch columns.

Here it is on the kitchen wall

And the garage with hardware

A huge improvement to the interior of the house has been the installation of sheetrock. It's in it's final stages and should be finished this week.

The Frog (Family room over garage) aka the girl's playroom

View from the foyer of the fireplace

Fascia & Soffit

Matt started putting on the fascia and soffit as you can see above the garage.

While he's been working on the outside, we've gotten plumbing and most the electric and audio/data/security wiring.

Front Porch

Matt's been spending a lot of time on the front porch lately. He poured the steps (for the back porch too) and built the column forms which will be wrapped in stone.

Then last weekend he cut the hole for the fake window. Which is a real window that he spray painted the inside black so you can't see through to the porch rafters.

Garage Door

We purchased a garage door from Quality Overhead Door and had it installed a few weeks ago. It's a really nice door which folds into 3s rather than 4s which is more typical. I love the windows and the detailing. It also has some cool hardward that will be put on after we trim around the door.

Windows in, porch poured, front door set

I haven't updated pictures in a while, but a lot has been going on with the house. Since Matt finished the roof, he set the windows and poured the front and back porches. We used a brown tinted concrete which looks really nice.

Matt finishing the roof

Matt pouring the front porch

Inside the house has been moving along as well. HVAC and plumbing are roughed-in. And our fireplace is in.

Today, Matt set the front door. It looks nice but still needs to be stained. The next big project for Matt will be siding. We have to decide on a color this week - I'm thinking a green but Matt's set on going with a brown.

The front door (prior to staining)

Front of house

Shingled

Matt finished the roof yesterday. He started Memorial Day weekend and had a few friends help out. Then he spent every night after work until dark doing as much as he could. I know it was hard work for Matt and he's happy to have it done, but his girls at home are especially happy to have him finished too. But the next project awaits him...

Wow, it's really taking shape now!

The house is looking great! I don't know if the pictures do it justice, but it looks huge in person. It seems a lot bigger than the 2100 square feet it actually is.

Front

Side

Back

Roof Trusses

Front of House

The roof trusses got put on today. Wow, does that make our house look big! We already sit so high up and now with the roof on, it look ginormous!

Back of House

Eleanor looking out her bedroom window

Vaulted ceiling in our great room