For several days, I have had some anxiety about what things will look like when the drywall goes in and have prepared myself for how "closed in" or small things will look when this happens. My first impression was WOW! When I walked into the great room after the drywall was installed, I can now see exactly how high 18 ft. ceilings are! It was not smaller, it looked huge!
Maybe I could gauge the size of thing more than I thought! Anyway, I was more than pleased at the size of each room!
The kitchen is now becoming real to me. We have finally "locked" in on the style of cabinets for the kitchen. We opted for the stained cabinets with a glaze rather than the painted cabinets. No particular reason, except we loved the richness of the stain and went for it!
The view above is looking at the kitchen from the great room. The 8 ft island is in the center of that room. The bar area is to the right of the two doors coming back toward the great room. The window is where the sink will be. One of the doors in the photo, it to the pantry and the other leads down the hallway going to the garage. There is a powder room and the laundry room off that hallway as well.
I tried to take these photos of the dining room to show the window and to show you the front door. Hope this gives you an idea. Love the size of the dining room! I can now use all 8 of my chairs and keep a couple of leafs in the table! Still trying to visulize the chandelier over the table. The foyer will need a nice chandelier as well, but maybe not quite so formal as the dining room.
Below is a view of the lower level great room. Can't you just see that big screen TV over that fireplace watching some Alabama football hearing Roll Tide in the background!
I did not try to take pictures of the guestrooms on this level because I couldn't get a decent view, so you will have to take my word that they, too, are drywalled. I did get a photo of the guy on stilts putting a skim coat in one of the rooms.
As I said, when I saw the rooms drywalled I didn't feel like they were too small because in reality I know the sizes of each room, and even if they looked small, I know that they are bigger than any rooms I have previously lived in. The only exception. . . was the master bathroom. My first impression was that it was somewhat smaller. But in all fairness, it had seemed smaller before the drywall went in. This room is not large like some of the "spa" type bathrooms you see in some new homes these days but we knew that going in. Our bathroom has a large shower, (with two shower heads and a bench seat) two separate vanities (across the room from each other) a nice size garden tub (with jettys) an enclosed toliet room, and a really nice size linen closet but not alot of empty floor space. This works for us!
The other room that took me off guard was the croft. As I walked up the stairs into that room, my first impression seeing the wall that closes off H's office made me think, what happened here? Then, I pulled up a bucket, made a bench for me and just looked around that room. There is no way this room is TOO small for me. If the truth be known, the entire Croft space would have been too much! Now, that is not to say that I would not have used every square inch of it...but did I really need it. No. Plus I have gotten a lot of mileage out of telling everyone that I am decided to share my space with H. What a great wife!
In this view, you can see the dormer that I will be using as my work station. The entire recessed area is a little over 6 ft wide x 4 ft deep. (The door on the left of the photo leads into H's office. ) The rest of the room will be my area but what you don't see is the sewing nook, a closet and a powder room. I didn't take any more photos up here as they wouldn't have shown you much but I promise I will share as this room starts taking shape. In fact, I have plans for this room to take on a whole blog itself... entitled "Stairway to Heaven" :)
Finishing up the drywall is about all that is going on inside the house these days. But when that is done in a day or two, the builder is asking for colors! YIKES! We made an appointment with a designer/decorator on Tuesday, talked for about 3 plus hours, showed her the house plans, gave her our ideas, told her what furniture we had to use, what furniture we need to buy, and talked about our style and lifestyle. Then we met with her again on Friday to discuss color selection. Since the house is so open and will flow from one room to the next and even downstairs, the paint color should flow as well. This means I must really LOVE the color I select. We have not decided on anything for now, but with the given ( all we discussed on Monday and with the ONLY piece of furniture that is upholstered. . . and will be used) she came up with an interesting color choice. Would it have been what I would have chosen, I'm not sure. . . but is is a color we like? I think so. Our homework is to buy some of the paint, paint a large poster board with it and take it to the house and put it in each area it would be used and see it in that lighting (we have a northern exposure coming in from the lake side). This is the side of the house with all the windows and will get a lot of light. The color itself took on a whole new "hue" when we took it out of the showroom and into a room with a northern exposure! If we in fact choose this color, we have the option of lightening it and/or darkening it as we go from room to room. This idea I liked. Will keep you updated on color choice, but for now, I am not revealing the color family until it is a go. Some of you may think I have really come "out of the box"!
Now for the outside. . .The brick has been delivered and our builder sent me this photo to share with you. The stone will go on as soon as the brickwork is completed. It's really starting to come together for me. As I had said before, I have no idea what all of this will look like when it is all put together. I know I like the color, the stone and the brick. . .but all together. . . on my house. . . forever and always. . . has taken me to a great big leap of faith. So far, as it is coming together, I'm feeling good!
Believe it or not, there is a winter storm predicted for this area starting tomorrow to include snow and ice. YUCK! Thought we had left that all behind in Virginia. Hargrove luck, I guess. With that being said, house progress may slow down somewhat. That is probably just as good as my "elective surgery" is schedule for Tuesday and I will be unable to walk "down to" or "up from" the site for a few weeks anyway. So there will be no photos (unless H takes them) for blog posts until then. I do plan to keep posting while I recuperate but not sure what it will be about or how long between posts. I plan to use this time to re-organize my thoughts and try to think through room plans. Wish me luck!
Finishing up the drywall is about all that is going on inside the house these days. But when that is done in a day or two, the builder is asking for colors! YIKES! We made an appointment with a designer/decorator on Tuesday, talked for about 3 plus hours, showed her the house plans, gave her our ideas, told her what furniture we had to use, what furniture we need to buy, and talked about our style and lifestyle. Then we met with her again on Friday to discuss color selection. Since the house is so open and will flow from one room to the next and even downstairs, the paint color should flow as well. This means I must really LOVE the color I select. We have not decided on anything for now, but with the given ( all we discussed on Monday and with the ONLY piece of furniture that is upholstered. . . and will be used) she came up with an interesting color choice. Would it have been what I would have chosen, I'm not sure. . . but is is a color we like? I think so. Our homework is to buy some of the paint, paint a large poster board with it and take it to the house and put it in each area it would be used and see it in that lighting (we have a northern exposure coming in from the lake side). This is the side of the house with all the windows and will get a lot of light. The color itself took on a whole new "hue" when we took it out of the showroom and into a room with a northern exposure! If we in fact choose this color, we have the option of lightening it and/or darkening it as we go from room to room. This idea I liked. Will keep you updated on color choice, but for now, I am not revealing the color family until it is a go. Some of you may think I have really come "out of the box"!
Now for the outside. . .The brick has been delivered and our builder sent me this photo to share with you. The stone will go on as soon as the brickwork is completed. It's really starting to come together for me. As I had said before, I have no idea what all of this will look like when it is all put together. I know I like the color, the stone and the brick. . .but all together. . . on my house. . . forever and always. . . has taken me to a great big leap of faith. So far, as it is coming together, I'm feeling good!
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