Ain't No Sunshine. . .

     And due to the fact there "Ain't No Sunshine" there has been no major progress made to the outside of the house. . .mainly stone work. The walls have been prepared and when the stone arrives, they will begin. But if the truth be known, even if the stone was at the site, it has been way too cold for it to be put on the house.       

     I have been able to go to the house twice since my last post but there hasn't been much to take pictures of. The only photos I have are of the trim work going on, but until there is paint on the walls, they really don't speak to me yet. I think most, if not all, of the interior doors have been installed and shimmed. The trim is going around those doors and crown moulding and base boards are being cut and measured.

     On my second visit, the builder had  put some paint on some walls to give us an idea of what it would look like in the light at the house. Our first reaction was that the colors we selected were too dark. After some thought and discussion with friends, we realized that a small patch WOULD make the paint look darker on walls surrounded by white (unpainted) drywall but would lighten up as the whole room would be painted. With that said, I think we will be going with our originial color choices. Whew!  I was not looking forward to going back to that "drawing board".

 And...the stair rail  has been started. See Rosanne, this is the stairway down to the lower level. It is located right behind the kitchen bar area. The doorway you see leads to the kitchen from the garage, past the laundry room and power room which is the doorway on the right.

  Breaking News!  I have just about completed paint color selections for the entire house. I have promised the builder that I will send him these selections by or before the week's end. In order to help me decide what colors go where, I have made a spread sheet for him to have for each of these rooms. On it he will find the name of the room, the floor choice (hardwood, tile or carpet), paint color for wall, ceiling and trim (to include closet colors) for each room. I have also included a special "note" section for each room. For instance, the notes for the laundry room will not only tell him my wall color choice, I have listed the color of the cabinets, type and color of the counter tops as well as the appliance color. ( I even enclosed a pieced together sample of how I want the tile laid.) I know what some of you might be thinking . . . but believe me, I did this as much for ME as for the builder!
     One of the reasons that I was able to select the paint colors is because I have finally made decisions that are now permanent. I ordered ALL the bed linens for each of the rooms that needed a paint color. When they arrived, and I was then able to make the paint color choice for the walls in each room. Then I also found a young woman who will paint some of our old furniture to make it look new. . .  or should I say it will be newly painted to make it look old since she will be painting and distressing it in a "shabby chic" manner. After I found her, and the Pottery Barn linens arrived for that room, I kinda got on a roll.   I then KNEW what I was to do for the adjoining room. We bought new furniture for that room, ordered the bed linens and then things started clicking! Wanta sneak preview?

    Forget the bed, focus on the bed linens. This room will have the "shabby chic" white bedroom furniture with a touch of  solid color added around the room in the form of  pillows and painted side tables here and there. The wall color is the exact blue/green shown in the toile quilt. Love it!



This table will be painted the color of the walls and then distressed.

    The adjoining room will go with this room. . .kinda. The furniture is expresso (or a deep stained color). After buying the bedroom suite, my neice sent me a link to a bed in the Restoration Hardware catalog  that was very similar but at almost twice the cost of what we paid for this entire bedroom suite! What a deal!
In this photo of the new furniture . .  . forget the bed linens.

The room will be painted  a shade lighter than the other room.  The bed linens for this room will be quilted as well, but is a solid kahaki color with white sheets. Both rooms will have  the same blue/green fabric pillows to tie them together along with the same color carpet. Thank goodness Renovation Hardware was having a sale! I found these linens as well as the sconces for the master bathroom on line.

     The Jack and Jill bathroom will  be painted the medium shade of these two rooms with the white and blue towels sets to be shared by both rooms. How am I doing so far?

    The lower level great room was almost done before we started. The existing sofa gave us the color of the room. The addition of a sofa table and two end tables (bought when we first got here to be use in this rental) was done, so all we needed was more seating. We purchased the two leather recliners mentioned in an earlier post (one for upper level and one for lower level) this past weekend.


This chair is for upper level, the other one is quiet similiar but photo didn't turn out.

      So all we need now is a matching fabric to recover the green leather chair and ottoman. Hopefully that will be decided on Friday when we meet with the designer to continue the fabric choices for the upper level great room.  Once these choices are made, I can then decide the color of the last room. The dining room.
     This week's mission is to finalize all paint colors, pick out remaining lighting (chandeliers for dining room and foyer, wall sconces for hall and stairways and pendants for over the island), plumbing fixtures for all bathrooms, and  look for a vanity for the powder room. Before the month is out we need to pick out and buy rugs for the house...there is a sale on until Feb 28th!  Hope we get to all of this, if not, there is always next week!
      I know the saying goes "Make hay while the sun shines" but in this case, all our "hay making" has been done because the sun wasn't shining.  At least, there is no snow to keep us from going out and about. Just cold weather.
     A shout out  in the way of a big THANK YOU to the (Atlanta) Lowmans and (Memphis) Stones. Today  I purchased some beautiful table linens to match my new kitchen decor with the generous Christmas gift cards  you gave us from Ballard Designs. I also bought a much wanted stairway basket to place items in that are going up to the Croft.  I love it that you guys have added a special touch to our new home! Your visits in the rooms I have created for you will be even more special!