Two weeks left!

Well, it has been a long road from when we started this project almost five months ago.  It has been an awesome experience to take the things that I pictured in my mind and have them built in front of me.  This project has been quite the learning experience for me, should I ever decide to build again.  I have truly enjoyed every step along the way and we are more excited then ever to have the home completed so that we may move in and enjoy it! 

Thank you for sharing in this excitement with us and taking the time to look at this blog as updates were made.  I have had a great time managing this blog and it has turned out to be a great way for me to involve friends and family that are out of town and not able to see our home as it is built.  

Please take one last look at the final build update photos of our home.  The next round of photos will be of the completed project.  We are shooting for a completion date in mid-Janruary.  Enjoy!

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The only thing left on the exterior to do is the trim around the hardi and the columns on the porch still have to be painted to match the white soffet trim and the shutters for the windows still need to be installed.  The sprinkler system is in place and ready for the final lot grade and sod.

I didn't like the exterior lights that were provided with the home so I picked out these lights from Lowes and had the electricians install them instead.  I really like the way they look on the house.

  

 

Front doors with their final stain coat

View from inside the home

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This photo was actually taken the day before they stained the front door but I like it because it shows some of the different colors in the house. 

I took this to show the detail that is in the columns and the crown in the dining.  I am very please with the way this all turned out.

Looking out the dining room window

View with the chandelier installed

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 Last Wednesday, the flooring guys went to work on our hardwood floors.  This is by far one of my favorite features of our home.  Luckily, they took great care to ensure that the floors were not damaged during the final weeks of our build and they covered all the wood with brown paper to prevent scratching.  It will be like opening a giant Christmas gift when we are ready to move in

In the office. 

Hardwood floors with foyer lighting

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The granite countertops were installed on the same day as the hardwood flooring.  I absolutely love the way these tops look with our cabinets.  We chose different granite for the three bathrooms.

Here you can see the hardwood (covered up with the paper) in the kitchen and the countertops.  I had the doorway widened which I am happy with now

This is a view of the master bath countertops.  It is difficult to see from this photo but it is a different color of granite than the kitchen counters.







 

 

 

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Master bedroom with lighting installed

Corbin's (Star Wars) bedroom

Living room.  Fireplace mantel coming next week

Media Room upstairs.  Just had the fans installed

 

Looking down the Master Hall

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Completion Draweth Nigh

Hardi will be painted a dark tan.  The yellow is the temporary color

It has been four weeks since the last post to this blog and quite a lot has happened since then.  All the brick has been laid and the hardi board has been installed.  The hardi will be painted next week so it still has its natural yellow color.  The gray colored trim under the hardi shakes will be painted to match the white trim on the eaves. 

The trim around the window will be painted white and the hard shingles will be a dark tan color.

The keystones at the top of the windows will be painted to match the white trim.

 

 Our front doors are just temporary.  They will be installing two of the doors in the picture on the right sometime next week or the next.

Walter, master trim carpenter, arrived last week and began to work his magic.  This guy has been in the business longer than I've been alive and he knows his stuff

These are the colors that we chose for the interior of our home. The light tan at the top will be in the breakfast area, kitchen, and a few bedrooms and the ceiling on my office.

The orangish color on the right will be in the dining room, ceiling of master bedroom in the tray and in the powder room by the stairs. 

The soft blue color will be on the walls of my office and on an accent wall in Corbin's room.

The deep gray/brown on the right will be on all interior doors.

Finally, the beige in the center will be in the livingroom, hallways and bathrooms.

The wood under the color swatches is a sample of the hardwood flooring that will be installed in the foyer, living room, dining room, office, kitchen and breakfast nook.

The painters arrived on Friday and did a rough spray down of a few rooms and all of the ceilings.  He will be back next week to finish the paint in the entire house.  You can see in this photo where the trim carpenter has begun to case the beam columns and beams in trim.

The cabinet guys arrived on Thursday and did an amazing job installing our cabinetry.  We had to jump through a lot of hoops and pay more than we wanted to for the glazing but I can say now that it was worth it.  They look awesome!

The doorway the leads into the kitchen in this photo will be cased in trim as well. 

This is a view of the back of the bar looking in from the breakfast nook.  I can't wait to see these cabinets when the under cabinet and over cabinet lighting is installed!

These are the cabinets that are in two of our bathrooms.  They will have a different color granite on the counter tops from the kitchen and the other bathroom.

  This is where the tub will sit inside of.  the deck will be tiled around it.  I liked the way the sunlight coming in the window showed off the color on the walls.  Since the electrical is not turned on yet, its hard to get a well lit shot on a smartphone!

The trim should be wrapped up by the beginning of next week.  They still have to finish wrapping the columns and beams and install the crown molding.  The flooring is scheduled to start on next Tuesday the 13th.  They will start with the tile and then go to the wood.  By this time next week, all paint and trim should be done.  They still have to grade the lot, add the sprinklers, driveways, landscaping, shutters on the exterior, lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures and I'm sure several other things but we are still hoping to be in the home in January!

Brick and Sheetrock

After many weeks of slow progress, things are finally starting to pick back up!  The brick masons started laying the brick this week and the sheetrock crew began hanging inside at the same time.  I wanted to wait until the cleanup crew removed the giant mound of trash that you see in this picture before I took one to post online but I wanted to put an update up here before progress got to far along.  The cleanup was supposed to be today so I will check on it tomorrow afternoon.

I am really happy with the way the brick and mortar turned out.  We sort of guessed on the brick and mortar colored based off of some photos and other homes that I saw.  The wood that you see exposed between the roof line and the brick will be covered in white trim to match the windows.  The mortar is called "southern ivory".

I chose a mortar joint called "grapevine" that adds a nice line between the bricks giving it some interest when viewed up close.


















Keystones like the one in this picture will be at the top of each window on the exterior

The bottom layer of brick has been completed around the house.  The section that is in the eaves will actually be covered in hardi shingles staggered to look like wood shingles.

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On the inside, all of the drywall has been hung on the crew is now working on applying the mud and preparing for the painting and trim for next week.  As always, you can click on a picture to enlarge it.

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These pictures are all of the living room and dining room area:

Looking in to dining room from living room

looking in to living room from dining room

Hall to master bedroom

The next set of photos is of the kitchen and breakfast nook area:

sink and dishwasher will sit here

looking over bar into living room

looking into breakfast nook

The next few are of our master bedroom and the adjoining master bath:

Looking in to master from doorway

Looking toward the door

The tray will have a light around it

Looking in to master bath from bedroom

Tub deck

Cabinet and sink will go here

The next photos are of the bonus room upstairs

The door on the right leads up the stairs

Dormer

As you can see, there has been quite a bit of work done this week!  There are plans to finish off the exterior and and the inside trim next week.  It won't be much longer (thank God)....