Fox Meadow: April 2012

may break my bones, but names will never hurt me!" Isn't that the saying?

Well, whoever said that......is an idiot! :) Because the name "Willow Creek" is so painful, it cuts like a knife through my heart...just twisting and turning over and over again! I couldn't even type it just now without feeling the pains in my chest. Oh the drama of my stone selections!!!!

First, let's review the "look" we are going for....different colored stones ranging from light tan to dark grey...maybe a tad bit of red...definitely some squares/rectangles...and to look like it was stacked/laid out to build a house. Similar to this shot below......which, yes, is building stone. And, no, we aren't forking out the crazy cash for building stone. So, I know there are limitations and it won't be perfect. However, it should be "good enough".

So, we (ok, just me) traveled near and far to find the perfect stone. And, I found it! And, yes the name is Willow Creek. I just love it. My builder ordered it, we did a couple sample boards and it looked pretty darn good. We were still working on the mortar color, but overall the stone was just yummy. And, then......it all took a turn for the worse. Here is where the drama begins. Willow Creek, while they say is 1"-3" thick, is really 3"-5" thick. We find this out after doing some additional work and my builder getting clarifications at the stoneyard. The problem is that my foundation is built for 1"-3"...which is standard for thin stone. Fortunately my builder was able to cancel the order w/o any issues. However, that led me on my journey back to the stone yards. And, of course, nothing compares to my beloved Willow Creek. Well, at least nothing in the same price range! There are some other options, but they would costs thousands and thousands more. So, now we think we have another option and we are waiting on the stone guys to do another sample board. We'll actually be mixing 2 stones this time around. So, we'll see what happens. But, I'm not holding my breath. Hopefully we'll know more early next week.

So, speaking of sticks....we do have news in that area as well. In the family room, we will have reclaimed hand hewn wood beams. Two huge ones running down the middle and then in lieu of crown molding, also running around the perimeter of the room. These were ordered a couple weeks ago and were delivered last week while I was on my way to the stone yard for the 100th time. Vince (project manager, who I love!) calls and says "beams are here, can you stop by to make sure we hang them how you want them". I say "sure, how do they look?". Vince pauses...and pauses...."well, they are really rough, I mean really really rough, there are a lot of notches in them all over the place...". The sound of his voice and tone as he said this to me just made me cringe. I thought, as I'm in the middle of stone drama, could today be any worse of a "house day". The stone, my beams...it's all crumbling down around me so fast....

Well, after the stone yard, we run to the house to check out the beams...stomach churning at this point after 3 hours of "not knowing how bad it was". Fortunately, I don't know what the heck Vince was talking about...these are the most AMAZING things in the world. I just love them. They could not have turned out better. And, Vince just laughed bc he said he was so worried about them, but then once they went up (that's a whole other story), he thought they were absolutely gorgeous as well. They put them up before drywall, so here are some pics from my cell phone, not sure how great you can see everything.

The fireplace is actually framed now (it will be stone and taper to the ceiling) so you can see the 2 large beams hitting against the fireplace wall....

So, on to a couple selections....I had to pick out the brick for the kitchen fireplace surround. This is the same brick I'm using as the mudroom floor as well. So, here's a shot of the mudroom cabinets with the brick floor....love it! I'm not going to want the mudroom to be a mudroom once it's all done!

The past couple weeks have been a little boring bc well, we need a stone decision! But, porches are moving along, windows and doors are in, circle drive is done and plumbers are working hard....