The Fun Part Finally Begins!!!

So, in the past few weeks, it's really shaping up and looking like a real house!  We've had the exterior just about finished, all hvac, plumbing rough-in and wiring done and recently drywall!  Here are some updated shots....

Exterior - roof just about done...we still need to get the metal roof on the front porch....stone is finished and siding is up.  Another coat of paint finishing up today/tomorrow.... 

Back mudroom entrance....

Closer shot of screened porch (obviously still need to screen it!)

Here are some interior shots....

Entering foyer from front door...

To the left is dining room...

The right door above is the butlers pantry...with a really cool barrel vault ceiling that you probably can't see in this pic...

First floor hallway...family room is to the right, kitchen down the hall to the right...back stairs to my office and boys rooms...

Closer shot of family room.  Beams are covered so they don't get covered in drywall dust...

Down the hall entering the kitchen...

Closer shot of banquette space.  Right now, it's got a great view of the dumpster.  We won't miss it when it's gone, but apparently the rest of Leesburg will.  Randoms are dropping off their old grills, tires, you name it... and just driving up our driveway, tossing it at the dumpster for my builder to clean up.  Nice, huh?.

Shot of where range and sink will be...

Left of range where fridge and pantry are...

 

Fireplace in kitchen...

 

Hallway connecting Kitchen and Family room (bn fireplace and fridge walls). To the right is my little desk area that has the really cool barn door on it....

Master bedroom/bath...

Heading upstairs....view from main stairs down the hall to my office

View from my office down the hall to boys rooms and the matching prison cell at the end....(probably should have planned windows better on that dark end of the hallway)

Nick's room and shower....

Joe's room and shower...

And, of course, the 2 possible locations where we'll hold solitary confinement as needed.....the boys study area and laundry could only fit these tiny windows...ugh!!!  Now that drywall is up, it's much darker then I expected.  Fortunately, we have several recessed and light fixtures, but still, who wants to hang out in either space right now!!! (these were also taken with my crappy camera, so that's part of the terror you see as well)

Really???????????????????????





Here are some shots of tile selected...

Mudroom brick and cabs...

Boys tile is the one on the top...cabs are about the same color...

Guest bath...subway tile on bath/shower surround and other for the floor...

Master bath...long subway and trim for shower, small travertine for shower floor and larger tile for master bath floor

Just do it.....

So, the stone saga continued for a few weeks as I selected every stone that wouldn't work.....too thick, no corners, delivery wouldn't happen til June....you name the issue, I picked the stone to match! Finally, I threw in the towel and told the stone guy to just go do it. "I'll be in Atlanta, why don't you just find something that will give me some color variation and still go with the other exterior selections I made.  At this point, just get it done and lets move on." 

Here's where we are...so far so good.  I am going to check out the mortar color today to make sure it's not too dark....

Most of the recent updates aren't that exciting in pics....geothermal is installed, septic is done and plumbing/wiring are close to finishing up.  The roof is almost finished...we've been waiting on the stone guys to finish the chimney and above the porch roof and trim painting is almost done....

Here's a close up of the trim color with the siding color.  I just wanted a very subtle color variation.  We are actually doing smooth siding, but the sample I have is in the cedar style.  Siding should be able to start soon as well.

 

Layout

So, I'm not the best at this blog thing and couldn't figure out how to post pics to the side!  Well, at least so you could actually see the pics!  So, here's the floor plan of the house.  Hopefully this helps to figure out what you are looking at when I post pics of all the framing!  It's still a little hard to read, but I think if you double click on the pics, you can see them even bigger.

The basement is a bit of a dungeon w/very few windows.  But, we had the option of walkout basement (which would result in a lot of steps off the kitchen and family room/screen porch)...or walkout kitchen/family room.  And, for us, our preference was definitely to keep the kitchen/family room at ground level....

"Sticks and stones...

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....

Back yard flagged for geo trenches....

Front door is in....will be painted a deep burgundy color....

Mudroom door is in...will be stained a dark walnut with strap hinges...this is where the log siding will be.

Entry, Dining Room and foyer shot....

Shots "around the room" of the kitchen.....

 

Master bed/bath.....

 

Boys rooms and guest room....

My office above the garage...

Back of house & screen porch

 

The next few weeks are hopefully stone, roof and siding, along with finishing up hvac, geo plumbing and electric. Whew!