Good Vibrations. . .

     That is what I get now every time I go to my house, good vibrations!  Each time we go, more and more things have been done and as it is all gradually coming together. . . I am loving it more and more! Yesterday, was the first time I have been to the house since last Friday. All the paint colors are on the walls, trim work and crown is up and primed, cabinets are all in place, the front door stained, all the stair rails are being painted/stained and  ready for installation.  I couldn't help but take a few photos just to give you a sneak preview.

      This is the kitchen taken from the great room. The island is 8.3 ft. x 4 ft. and will accomadate 4-6 counter stools. You can see the first coat of paint on the walls.I love it! AND Yeah! Ubatuba won out as the kitchen granite!
      The next photo is of the bar and refrigerator area. (Forget all that stuff in the foreground....you must use your imagination :) The door (closed) in the corner is the pantry, the other door opening, next to 'fridge  leads down the hall  and/or down the stairs.

Below is a photo of the bar/kitchette area  on the lower level. The opening is for a refrigerator and the louver door to the left if for the washer/dryer unit for the lower level.

Liz and Lauren, this one's for you....it is the Jack and Jill bathroom cabinets. You each have a sink, a set of doors and a bank of drawers. The blue wall color is the medium shade of blue that is on the walls of the room on either side (one darker, one lighter). Hope you like it! Rosanne, your cabinet looks about the same only smaller and your bedroom is khaki. Photo does not do it justice but I really like it! 

     We will meet again with the builder on Monday for our week's "home"work assignment. Next week we have to have all the lighting (to include chandeliers and pendants) picked out, all the plumbing fixtures picked out, all the fans (13)  picked out and carpet  for 4 bedrooms picked out! We also need to meet one more time with the tile designer to decide on the kitchen backsplash now that the granite is ordered. Oneof those days we will need to stop by and pick up the fabrics we ordered for the great room furniture. I can't wait so see it! We have also ordered ALL the new beds and furniture for the guest rooms but, according to the budget, you may need to bring your own mattress :)

    Meanwhile, the stone masons are still hard at work finishing up the stone on the front of the house. These two supports for the wooden columns are huge. I hope they have enough stone left over for the fireplace on the lower level! Speaking of fireplaces, did I mention that I designed the fireplace mantel and over mantel as well as the two bookcases on either side for the greatroom? I drew it all out, making a composite of several ideas that we both liked, gave it to the cabinet builder and said a little prayer. Remember, that is the 18 ft. wall.  I hope it turns out how I see it in my mind's eye. . .if not, oh well, I only have myself to blame. But I digress, back to the stonework. . .

     They will begin laying the tile on the deck next week and finish the screened porch once that has been completed. (We have been pricing rockers for the deck :) H has already declared that will be his favorite spot!

    The sea wall is completed and they will start building the boathouse this coming week.  The landscaper cut down 7 or 8 more trees last week and really opened the view! He is getting ready to grade the property and finish the retaining wall so the driveway and terrace can be poured.

  As a side note, we had a bit of a delay this week when I had to take H to the ER to find out what was in his eye Tuesday night. The ER told him it was a corneal abrasion, they put in some antibiotic drops, patched it and told him to see the eye doctor ASAP! Turns out to be a cornea ulcer. Without going into all details and following all the doctor's orders to the letter, H is doing fine now, his eye is healing and he has his "charm" back. We have used this time (not traveling back and forth to B'ham) getting all our ducks in a row and are ready to hit the road once more come Tuesday!

     As far as I know, we are still on schedule for an April move in. OMG! That's next month! 

NOTE TO SELF: Call movers in Virginia to give them a heads up.

Take A Look At Me Now. . .

     
     H was on site today checking out the progress of the sea wall when he noticed the copper roof had been placed on the cupola on top of the garage.  This is the second try for the coppersmith at making a roof for the coupla. The first attempt was just a tad over stated as he had constructed a cross on the top. I have no problem with letting people know this is a Christian home, but I ask you, don't you think this is a litte much?

His second attempt, with our input, looks a lot more like we had intended. A simple spirial.  It was placed on the garage today to complete the cupola. (To be perfectly honest with you, I couldn't remember that there was a cupola on the house.) But this now looks more like the plan and a lot more like us!

      Above is a zoomed in view which was taken at a distance,which makes it look very big to me. Below it looks more proportional and when I saw it in person it looked great and sized just right. Once the copper patinas with age, it should be perfect.

                                        

 The sea wall was started this week and since I wanted to include photos of it, I almost entitled this post  "A Long and Winding Road".  That is the song I have been singing ever since I first saw it. I love the way it is defining the shape of our property. It will look so nice once it has been sodded and landscaped. Our neighbor mentioned that he has "longed" to see his sea wall connected with another that surrounds the point.  Can you see what I mean by defining the point? Can you see why I am singing "The Long and Winding Road"?



     The above view was taken from the road looking down towards the sea wall where it meets up with our neighbor. You can see the roof of his boathouse on the right side of the photo. Below, is a view taken from that boathouse.

      The next group of pictures were taken from another neighbor's pontoon boat. They are our neighbors that are two doors away. Gay and Scott Phillips. It was such a lovely day on Saturday that they invited us  to see the view of our house from the water. They also invited our next door neighbors, Phil and Gail Foster, to join us and we had a wonderful afternoon looking at our house, relaxing, and enjoying the fellowship with our new friends. In fact, it was so much fun, we invited another couple when Gail and Phil had to leave, to join us for a sunset "toddy ride". What fun! We packed up several bottles of wine, put together a wine and cheese tray with some grapes and rode around and watched the sun set.  Then we just stopped the boat out on the water, drank and talked until it time for the "potty" ride back to the dock! Below are the pictures of the back of the house, the retaining wall and sea wall that I took. I hope you can click on the photos and get a better view... but remember who is taking the pictures :)

     This past week was a wonderful week for the builders and the sea wall builders weatherwise. Hopefully it will continue next week as well. Last Sunday was so nice that I just sat out on the deck (see that orange chair) and looked at the water and waved to all the boaters. H keeps asking me, who are they? I don't know, they wave and I wave back, that's just what I do. We did have some friends from our church, who were out for a boat ride, stop by and take a tour, others  just yelled from their boats, "NICE HOUSE" and after seeing this view, I would have to agree.

                                             

It's Too Late. . .





     As I thought about what song title I would use for this post, Carole King's,  It's Too Late  came to mind mainly because of all the decisions and/or things that have been done to the house to this point!
    ALL the paint choices, to include ceiling color and trim color for the entire house, went to the builder earlier this week and today we will go to the site  to see them on the walls . . . and hopefully love our choices. It's too late . . .now!
     The stone arrived along with a beautiful week of sunshine and warm weather, and  it is now on the house and looking the way we had pictured it in our minds. This was one of the choices that has had me sitting on pins and needles wondering if we made the right color choice ...and we did! We love how the siding color, brick choice and stone goes together. For any of you who don't like our color choices, I'll say, it's too late. . now!

(In case you are wondering, the copper coupola on the garage has not been added yet.)



This is a view showing all three choices together
(One of the few places all three will be seen  together)



      Inside the house, the interior doors are installed and the trim work around them is done.  The door to H's office is in and I am really glad that I will be able to "share" some of his light coming from that side of the house. (The glass still has a film like covering on it so you can't see much through it...yet.)

The base boards are all in and the crown moulding is almost done. All the entranceways are now being trimed out which really gives each room definition and I really like it.  I can't wait to see the color on the walls with the trim color next to it to see if we are satisfied with our choice of color for each room.

I wanted to post some paint color samples but I am not sure how they will come out for you to see. I will tell you that they are soooooooo much prettier in person than in these photos.




This photo is in the dining room showing the picture frame moulding  under the chair rail.
It will be painted the color shown above the chair rail with the trim color painted below. 





This is the laundry room paint color. Can you see it with white cabinets with a black counter top and a black and white tile floor?   Our builder wants to rename this room...he says it looks too nice to be called a laundry room. (H keeps calling it the utility room so I think Laundry Room is an upgrade from that.)

This is the foyer, but this color will  f-l-o-w throughout most of the house

This is the color choice for the Jack and Jill bedroom with the white furniture. The other room, with the darker furniture, will be painted the same color only it will be a lighter shade.

   These are just a few color samples which I am sure you can't tell much about, but I thought I'd try to show them since you have listened to me stress about them for several posts now.  I realize that paint colors can still be changed, and I could even change them after we move in, but so many other decisions, such as bed linens, and all the upholstered furniture that needed fabric and rugs needed to work as well. . . each depending on these paint choices, so in my book and to keep from doing this again...it's too late now!

     The meeting this week with the designer depended on these paint choices in a big way! Since we have decided to have our furniture recovered instead of buying all new stuff, we needed to select fabric for all  of these pieces. We  found fabric that I liked for the sofa, the wing back chairs and possibly the Martha Washington chair. What we needed now, was a fabric to cover MY new club chair and ottoman that will sit next to H's chocolate leather recliner. The designer found 5 fabrics to pick from. Two were immediately ruled out by me, another H really liked, but it was too much like the sofa fabric in color and design, and the last two were very good candiates. Two completely different fabrics, one patterened, one striped, but both had almost the same exact colors. Both would go with the rest of the furniture great. Cost was not too much different, but definately something to consider. H liked one, I loved the other.....but I also liked H's choice as well. The designer suggested that we now start looking at rugs. Depending on the rug selection, it may help to make the decision about the fabric. One fabric would definately not want too much of a design on the rug, the other needed more movement in a rug.  She had picked out several rugs for us to look at when we met  with her and had even had them moved to the front of the showroom so we could see them in natural lighting. She had picked out some georgeous rugs and as she suggested, the rug we fell in love with (at first sight) made the choice we needed, not only for the chair fabric, but where the rug would go in the house.  She then helped us select the other rugs needed. Believe it or not, the rug we fell in love actually ended up in the dining room! Since that room has so much wood furniture (and floors) it really need that WOW factor people talk about to make that room come alive. The dining room is on your right and is almost the first thing you might notice as you enter the house. (The first thing, will be the view of the lake staight ahead in the great room.) Anyway, this rug was a "must have" from the first time we saw it! It is a persian style rug. We also bought this same rug in a smaller size to go in the foyer. I CANNOT believe I did not take a picture of this rug! The rug we picked out for the great room is really a carpet. It has a very subtle pattern and looked great with the patterened persian style rug. . .  and when we found out it had a contrasting border that could be added, it too, was a done deal! When these choices were made, we then KNEW which fabric would go on the club chair. . . the striped, which was H's choice but I really like as well. Not a problem.
     We have been a little afraid of this part of the decorating  process, but our designer made this so easy. (Did I mention that our designer came with the purchase of rugs, fabric and/or furniture  from the store we are working from?) She has be a tremendous help throughout this whole process, and we Thank You, Elaine. The same is true with several other stores we have been going to. The tile store has a wonderful young designer who helped us design our master bath and is fast becoming a friend since I found out she, too, is a paper crafter and scrapbooker! The lighting store has a woman we are working with for these decisions as well. Thank goodness!
   OK, so now we have the great room paint color, a rug for the hardwood floors, sofa and chair fabrics selected, a new club chair and leather recliner...what else could we possibly need for this room....I know, I know....how about a TV?  So we found this store with a sale going on. . . But first, am I the only one on this planet who did not realize that the size of the TV is directly proportional to the size of the room? Well, it must be true, since we have a big room and  I (we) just became the proud owners of two 58 inch plasama screen TVs! I just can't wait to see the Crimson Tide on these babies! (insert my face with eyes rolled back)

    Meanwhile, back outside. . .

    H went to the site  this week to meet with the guy from the Alabama Power Company who will issue the permit for the contstruction of the sea wall and boathouse. Permit granted! Now with the weather gradually warming up all next week, the construction of those "biggies" will begin on Monday.  Once the boat house is constructed, maybe we can bring "baby boat" home!

NOTE: As of February 17, we have officially been building this house for 5 months!  WHOA! I can not believe how much has been accompolished in that short a time. Can you? Way to go, Carlisles!

    

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!

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.

From a Distance. . .

     I named this post From a Distance because, due to my elective surgery this past week, that is how I will be viewing the house site for another week or two. H is on his own as he talks with the builder about the things WE talk about, and he is also in charge of the camera. Just a side note about Hargrove photography:
I shoot from the hip, so to speak, when it comes to taking pictures. Anything and everything I see. If it's not good or not centered, I delete it and take it again. I'm not saying that's good or bad, it's just how I take pictures. They are more candid that way. H, on the other hand worries about the little things, like its there enough light, is the angle right, or is the subject centered, and then he decides whether a certain view is blog worthy. So with that being said, there might not be as many pictures in my next few posts.
     Since my last post, there has been much more brick work done on and around the house. The photo of the brick work in my last post was sent to me by the builder. They started it right after we left the site. Up until then all I had was a couple of photos of the stacked brick.

I was able to capture a photo of two of the brick layers tossing the brick to each other as they stacked the bricks around the house that they would use. My photo does not do them justice. I really tried to catch a brick in motion. Trust me, they really had a system going and were able to get the brick spread out in a short amount of  time.

Most of the brick will be around the foundation in the front of the house and on the back facing the lake. H did get this photo of a finished side of the garage  to show where the brick meets the Hardy board siding.

     I understand the brickwork had been postponed for a day or two due to the weather. The frigid cold temperature draws the moisture from the mortar and could cause cracks.  (The things one learns when building a house).
    The main reason H went to the site was to check out the retaining wall. It is dry stacked and the cold doesn't affect the stacking process. The "stackers", on the other hand, might have a different story.
    To refresh your memory, the retaining wall is needed on our site to enable us to get from the terrace down to the boat house. There would have been too much of a drop off unless we "terraced" it somewhat.
There was no official plan for this but as the site was escavated it was decided we would do this. The highest part of the wall may be 4 1/2 to 5 feet high, I am told. The sides gradually go down on both sides of the house. The guy who we contracted with, to do the wall, is a landscaper and we left the rest up to him. This is what he did and we are very pleased.

I had no idea what the retaining wall would look like, but I was delighted to see this. So was H, but he may have had some idea what was happening. I can already see a couple of urns with plants either on the bottom steps or at the top. The top ledge which will be flush with the ground and will need some plantings so no one will wander off the edge.There is several feet from the terrace to the top of the retaing wall. The landscaper will submitt a bid to H for the landscape work that needs to be done after the house is built.(Sure miss lawnboy.)  The steps lead down to the level that the boat house is on. There will be a sodded area at this level. Have plans in my mind for a flagpole to fly my flag that was flown from the capitol on my birthday. (Thanks to my darling daughter Liz.)

     Does this view give you an idea where the wall starts from the terrace? The terrace floor goesfrom the lower level door out to the soon to be columns holding up the upper deck. We plan to use that area a lot!
      It wasn't long after H returned home that we got a call from a man asking to submit a bid on building the seawall at the waters edge. We want it to match our neighbors as much as posssible so it will look uniform around the point. As you can surmise from that phone call,we have not had any problems getting the work done as needed. The economy is such that people call you asking for work or at least call the builder to ask, when do you want me to come? This has been a lucky break for us. Not one sub has not shown up for work due to deer hunting season either!  Good news is this means the house will be build sooner that espected, bad news is that decision time is getting closer and closer. The trim man is ready for paint colors after the hardwood floors go in (probably next week).
    The decorator asked that we get a sample of the paint color, paint a poster board and take it fromroom to room. This will help us see the color in its different light. Our builder said, heck! we'll just paint the sample color on the wall in each room and we can make our decision that way.
       So that is where we are as of today. I still need to make color choice for all the bed rooms but have decided to go with the color chosen by the decorator for all the rooms that open to each other. Check one!
Hopefully next week, I can get in and out of a car more easily and go looking at and for others things that need a decision made about!

How Dry I Am . . .

For those of you who have built a home,will agree this is an appropriate title to this post. The title mostly refers to the fact that all the drywall is in but it also refers to how the builders feel when it rains and they now have a place to go. (They have even set up a microwave in the garage :) This post is all about drywall and I warn you, it's hard to take pictures when there are walls and one can't back up into the next room to get the "whole picture" (no pun intended). But hopefully I can give you a small glance at how things are shaping up inside.
 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!