And the Beat Goes On. . .

...and so does the progress on my house! I can not believe it has been more than two weeks since I have been on site! H has been my eyes and ears for this portion of the construction since I can not walk the "grade" of the property yet.
    As I have been recuperating, H has been to the site several times to talk with the builder, check on the progress of the brick work and retaining wall (both which are now finished), to meet with people to give him bids on the seawall and boathouse, as well as to take these photos for you and I!

     Have I mentioned how much I like the retaining wall? :)  I can not wait to see it for real! There are still a few more scraggly trees to be cut  which will give more presence to the wall from the lake although we have not seen it from that viewpoint yet. (H has done the best he can, without falling in the lake, to take these pictures for me.) They have also finished the brick work on the columns. NOW it is time for the stone. I can't wait to see that! As you know, most of my apprehenshion has been in putting the house color, brick and stone work together....so far we are more than pleased.

    Now, moving inside we find the hardwood floors have all been laid! We picked white oak as we were told it stains very well plus we have already seen it in our friend's home and loved it. These are just a few pictures of various rooms to prove this has already been done. :) I was so excited when the roof went on, amazed when the walls/drywall was installed and now just plain overwhelmed that we have hardwood floors! I can only imagine my emotions from here on out!



View from foyer towards great room



Great room view from kitchen



View from foyer looking toward kitchen

    The trim and all the interior doors were delivered the day this photo was taken and H says there was a "ton" of it!  We now need to think about tile. . . I guess it was a good thing we had spent several hours at the tile store with a designer this past week picking out tile!
   We will need another appointment as it seems 4 1/2 hours is ONLY enough time to decide on tile for three bathroom floors, a deck, screened room, lower level great room and a laundry room! We are having second thoughts about the lower level great room floor tile but were more than pleased with our choices for all the other tiled areas.  We picked all rather basic tile but basic tile comes in all different sizes, shapes, colors and design plans we found out! We  also found out, from our builder, that the "tiler" charges more per sq. ft. depending on the pattern and number of the cuts made to make the pattern. That was when we decided which rooms deserved the extra costs!
     The deck, screened room and great room will be laid in the off set pattern. Most of those areas will be covered with carpet/rugs and/or furniture so a "fancy" pattern would be lost anyway.  That leaves the bathrooms and since the bathrooms are smaller and fairly simple, we opted for laying the tile on point  that makes these rooms look larger and  that would give it the "umph" they needed. (cha ching $ ) My  laundry room, however, will be a little more cost due to the pattern I want on this floor. I have always wanted a black and white laundry room which has a black and white tile floor. It is now a DONE DEAL!  I made this decision and I'm sticking to it! The floor will be mainly white with a smaller black tile randomly  laid through out the room.  (cha-ching cha-ching $$) The cabinets are white with a textured black laminate counter top!  Wall color TBD. I am so excited!
     The next appointment for tile will be this Friday so we can plan the master bathroom. Since we will be tiling a lot more area than the floor, we need ed to make a special appointment just for this room. We know the color of the stained cabinets and  the granite color for the vanities...now we just have to find a tile design to make it all work. We are talking floor, shower walls and around the garden tub area and it all needs tile! It might be helpful if I knew the color of the master bedroom, but that won't be determined until the designer gives me a price for the bed linens I fell in love with.  I really want the bathroom to be an extention of the bedroom. Might have to go to plan B.
    The backspash for the kitchen may need a special appointment as well. Even though I know the color of the kitchen, the backsplash may be determined after I pick out the slab of granite for the island and countertop. The granite choice is now being revisited. . . so much for the Ubatuba I THOUGHT I wanted.
     Meanwhile the builder is waiting and waiting and waiting for my paint colors. I am getting soooo close, (really I am) to putting it all in my mind's eye but I still have a few things to consider before I commit. The main color for all the rooms that  f-l-o-w, has been chosen. Its all those other rooms that are holding me up.   The dining room will depend on the color fabric chosen for the great  room furniture.  Thanks to my niece and daughter, listening to me sound  it all out, I made a major decision today and that takes care of 3 more rooms! Maybe if I give him a few colors he can get it on walls for me to see. . .unfortunately I still don't know when I can get down to the site to give my decision.  I know, for a fact, this week is out! Hopefully, Denny, I can give you my colors next week! Bare with me.