More Pics, no blogging

More Pics...blog later

At least it's just one room..

Although, it is one of the more important ones...

I've been stressing out lately as I'm watching the house start to come together.  I'm really wondering if our finish and design choices could have been better.  For the most part I think they are ok, and some things are turning out REALLY REALLY good (the entire kitchen and guest bathroom, laundry room tile, closets, interior doors) but some things I'm not so sure about (paint color, wood floor color, brick) so it's both exciting and nerveracking to see it all blend together until you start to see a finished  product emerge.  Exciting because this is the culmination of everything you've been obsessing over, and nerveracking because... well you had your shot to make it perfect and maybe you didn't do as well as you could have...

Luckily, while I don't think everything turned out *perfectly* I do think that almost everything (so far) has turned out at least pretty well.  With one exception... the master bathroom.

The tile did not look like this on the sample board

The list of things I don't like about the master bathroom is long and detailed.

1. From the beginning we didn't like the layout of this bathroom very much at all.  At this point I simply cannot remember why we didn't speak up about it.  We definitely had an opportunity to change it when we first sat down and looked at the architectural drawings, but for whatever reason we were timid or accepting and our attitude was one of "we don't like it, but we like everything else so we'll deal with it"  HUGE mistake.  The bathtub is too big, the shower is too small (not to mention weirdly shaped) and the placment of the shower is just flat out WRONG.  It's adjacent to the master bedroom and the door to the bathroom opens directly into it.  (pet peeve of mine).  This REALLY ticks me off because the single most important thing I cared about when building this house was the shower.  I really wanted my perfectly sized shower and what I got was so FAR removed from what I wanted that it's like really craving pancakes for breakfast and being served a wall clock.  Not even the same general category.    
2.  The construction isn't all that great.  It meets code, but it was definitely rushed in spots and some corners were cut.  The rough plumbing was a jagged mess, the framing isn't completely level and plumb (in fact that is so bad that a glass installer we had take a look at the shower said he would be unable to even make fabricate a door, although I think his problem was mostly with the weird shape) and the material choices are cheap.  (greenboard instead of cement board?  Really?)
3. The tile is AWFUL.  This one is squarely on us, but the tile we chose did not turn out well.  It's FAR more red than we anticipated, it doesn't go well with the granite and it's much much too "busy" for how much of it there is.   It's almost seizure inducing. 
4. Our shower door isn't in yet, but I'm getting the impression that it might not turn out well.   

 There are a few things I like about how it turned out.

1. The vanity "corner" is just about perfect
2. We were smart enough to wire it for cable and in ceilng speakers
3. The overall size 

Hey, the one area I like!

.I feel like this is the biggest area where we failed in our design and our direction to the builder.   So, while the bathroom is by no means unlivable, it isn't what we wanted and I get a little sinking feeling whenever I walk into it because I think that when you build a house from the ground up, you really should end up with something you love through and through.

Theresa is just stressed out and doesn't want to deal with it, but I'm a bit different.  When I see a problem, I have an obsessive need to "fix" it.  I can't fix this, at least not right now but imaging how I *would* fix it is almost as good.

So... as silly as it sounds... I'm already putting together plans to redo it, move the pieces around to a better layout, add some cool features, add more storage, etc... .  Probably not right away, we'll see how the current bathroom works out in practice but I'm going to have my "perfect" bathroom planned out, ready and in my back pocket if we decide to pull the trigger someday.   It's actually been a lot of fun planning everything all out.  Luckily... we didn't spend much money "upgrading" this room and a lot of the money we did spend (fixtures, etc..) would be reused in the redesign,  so the only money we would have "wasted" is the $600 we spent upgrading the tile.

We certainly have better things to do with our time and money immediately, but maybe in a few years I'll start itching for a project.  Or maybe we'll decide that the we don't mind the room so much once we start using it, or maybe the house will settle funny and the tile will crack and we'll be forced to redo something...  Who knows.  It's just fun to think about!

I hate whoever designed this shower with the firey intensity of 10,000 burning suns

Still going

The house is coming along... the pace is really picking up.

The granite was installed last week and the painters are back to do their finish work this week. Electrical and plumbing should be finished soon.

We've had a lot of little detail problems in the past few weeks. We've found out that some of our trim was dinged up and needed replacing, we found out the electrician forgot to wire for pendent lights, we found out a door was installed with an incorrect swing... stuff like that. Most of it we've caught in time to have it corrected, some of it we didn't.

We picked our lights out last weekend, and I'm pretty sure thats the last real decision we have to make. Everything else is pretty much decided... I think both of us are just done with this process. It's taking too long generally, it's taking too much of our time personally, it's stressful and it just always costs money. Of course we knew it was going to cost money, and it hasnt gotten out of hand and for the most part I think we spent our money intelligently. I think we "wasted" maybe $1000... which isn't bad.

Tile...Getting Close....

So we have tile....I love the tile down stairs (laundry room and garage entry) and the guest bath....no so sure how I am feeling about the master bath....Brad shares the uncertainty. We are hooping that the next time or the 3rd time we see it we will LOVE it....I guess only time will tell. These pics are not a great representation of the floors...the flash def. changed the color and finish.....but we definitely think there is a lot more red tint to the tile than we ever expected....







We also finalized (again) our hardwood floor color and i think we are both positive it is the right one (today was the first day I am excited about it, for a while i thought it was just "safe" and not fun....)

I Can't Stay Away!

I love going to the house every day to see what progress has happened.....Monday I went at lunch to bring the carpenters lunch and than had to go back after work to see what else was done....I found out this morning (Wed) that Brad went last night so I HAD to go today after work. After I walked around and took a couple pictures I thought I better get going before traffic got too bad....But I did not want to leave....I thought about how soon it will be all done and we will be moved in so I better just enjoy it now! It's like watching a kid grow up, but I won't be sad when it is all grown up or finished....But I am enjoying watching it all come together!

We are meeting again with the flooring guy Sat to rechoose our flooring...Brad and I are on very different sides on this...should be fun to see what Bruce the flood dude can find us!

We are also going to finalize our island placement and granite overhang for the eat at counter on the island....should be .....interesting?

Picture Time!!!!

Guest bath
Kitchen with island...not sure how it and all the appliances are going to fit!
Master Bathroom Vanity.....I already emotionally attached to the right side, so even though it is smaller then the left I am keeping it.....also we got a bonus drawer in between the two vanities.
Butler's pantry
Our awesome walk in closet!
The view of the other side! The side we are fighting over!
Brad's Closet for his officer....added extra shelves! Our carpenter was awesome!
Our Pantry
Our added shelves in our pantry.....awesome carpenter.
Our kitchen!

Fireplace with straight lines!

Wasn't expecting this...

The finish carpenters are working away putting in our molding, interior doors, trim, etc...  and it turns out that the builder planned us an absolutely great closet.

My current rental has some really nice built in closet organization in the bedroom closets and I was planning on doing something similar after we moved in, but 80% of it is already done.   It's not *quite* what I hadd planned, but it's WAY beyond what we expected to get and it's a great start that I can add on to with very little effort. (and very little expense!!)    I'm sure Theresa will post pictures shortly.

Turns out we're also getting a lot of extra crown molding.  Personally there are only about 3 things in the entire universe that I care about less than crown molding, so that doesn't exactly get my heart pumping, but it's still nice and I think Theresa likes it.

Other things that are happening:

• The cabinetry should go in next week. 
• We've checked out ABC warehouse and Lowes for our appliances.  Both have relationships with our builder, but ABC seems to have Lowes beat on prices by quite a bit. 
• Our tile is officially paid for and might also get installed next week or the week after.  
• Our vent hood and ceiling fan have been purchased and are awaiting installation.