"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!

Snap Happy....

Today was filled with basketball and baseball but of course I managed to squeeze in a few minutes to run by the house and get some shots!  Most were taken with my cellphone, so hopefully they turn out okay.

First floor.....

This is a shot sitting in the family room, looking at the front door.  And that's the dining room on the other side of the stairs.

This is standing at the stairs looking down the hall.  The family room is on the right, and down the hall the kitchen is on the right and the mudroom is on the left.

 

Continuing down the hall, turning left - there is the view of the powder room in the mudroom.

 

Going towards the powder room, around the corner is the mudroom...

  

Inside the mudroom...

 

Back in the hall (opposite of mudroom bath), is a view into the kitchen....

Walking into the kitchen....back left windows will be where the banquette is, and the door/windows on the right are the kitchen sitting area where a gas stove will be on the far right.

 

Walking to the back of the kitchen sitting area, and turning around to see the kitchen range wall and the kitchen sink wall to the right (window isn't cut out just yet).

Range wall is the back wall and sink window on right...

 

View from the banquette area far left wall is refrigerator wall, then range wall at the back, and kitchen wall on the very right...

Standing in the family room looking through the wall is our master bedroom...

 Not sure if any of that made any sense...in case it did, let's go upstairs to the 2nd floor

Second Floor

After coming up the stairs, looking down the hall are 2 linen closets in the back...

At the top of the main stairs are doors on opposite sides where the boys' rooms are.

Here's Joe's room....

 

Standing in his room, here's the closet...

 

And here's Joe's bathroom. 

 

Nick's room is the mirror image on the opposite side of the stairs...

 

Nick's closet.....

I have no  idea what happened to the pic of Nick's bath, but it's the same as Joe's, so you get the idea!

Then, walking down to the other end of the hall (standing at linen closets above), the light in the back is actually going to be the hallway to my office (above garage). There is also a second side stair case down there as well...but that's not in yet, so just use your imagination!

Then to the right of this spot is the boys little study area.  It's a loft/study area/tv room/whatever you want to call it.....they'll have a built in desk across the entire back wall and then space for tv/chairs or small sofa. (behind this wall is Nick's bathroom)

And, then across from the study area, is the main laundry room....(joe's bath behind it)

And, then down the hall towards my office is the guest bedroom. This will have a full bath that also opens to the hallway to my office. 

And, here are some more exterior shots....the "chimney" is in....and they started the dormer above the mudroom...

Here is the back of the house....it was hard to get the entire house in one shot from where I was standing...

 

 

I think that's about it for now...more to come next week....

Cruising along....

The boys school bus route takes them by the house on the way to and from school everyday.  Going to school, they can't really see the house because it's tucked behind a hill (the same one I stand on with my photo buddy to get the full house shot).  But, on the way home, in a blink of an eye, if they sit on the left side of the bus, they can see the progress that day. 

At first, they could take or leave moving to the new house.  While they were intrigued by the change, because it was just on paper, it wasn't "exciting enough" for them.  But, now that they can see it going up and the changes each day, they rush in the door off the bus, break down my office door and give me an update on what happened that day - "the walls are up", "the windows are cut out", "the second floor is up"..and so on. Well, today (about 2 weeks after framing started), I received a "they are  putting  the roof on".  Really?  Already?  Seriously...that's about one week ahead of schedule.  I guess this beautiful weather has them working all day and as nice as it is, probably enjoying it!  I know I'd rather be outside then sitting behind the computer all day!

So, I ran up there today with my friend Eve.  I couldn't believe the progress in just this past week...so exciting to walk through just about every room.  They are still finishing up the second floor (my office and guest bath), but it's looking pretty good.  The real roof, windows and doors should go up next week (I think). 

I only took a couple shots bc the guys were still working, and I didn't think they wanted to be on my blog.  At least not yet anyway.  Once I become a famous blogger and actually have a business title of "blogger", then maybe they'll regret the opportunity. 

My builder has a stone wall sample for me to check out tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about that.  We are doing a lighter mortar - to reflect the old stone homes. Although he said he thought it might be a tad too light.  If I think it is, he said he'll make it darker anyway.  They also did the mortar 2 different styles for me to check out.  Apparently, one shows the shape of the stone and just has the mortar around it. But the other is an attempt at the historical look - where the mortar was smothered all over the stone and you couldn't really see the full shape of the stone. I'm trying to manage my expectations on that bc I have in my mind what that looks like (not to mention it's all around me in the real stone homes/buildings down town that I drive by every day!).   I'm really hoping it looks like what I want it to!

More pics to come this weekend....

Finally, something is going our way....

I knew it would only be a matter of time.  I mean, you can't have all crappy luck, and never any good luck, right? Plus, Mark has claimed on more than one occasion to have a horseshoe up his @&& with life, so I knew any minute now things would perk up from the excavation disaster.   And, yippee...it has.  The weather has been absolutely perfect for building!!! 

We've had such a crazy mild winter!  I mean really crazy....the boys haven't had a snow day or even a delay in school this winter. I think it's actually only snowed once...maybe twice since December.  And, I don't know that I'd even call it snow..it was more like flurries that melted before they hit the ground. 

So with this beautiful weather comes framing, lots of framing...and no lost time on the house.  Woohoo!!!!


Here's the start of the floor deck....

 

 

And initial framing this past week....

 

Master bath on the far right, front entrance and dining room in the middle, and mudroom on the left:

The boys knocking at the front door....

Here's the back family room wall.  As you walk into the house from the main foyer, you pass the dining room on the left, the stairs, and then enter straight into the family room.  Here you can see the fireplace with windows on either side. There will be wainscoting all around the room and wood beams on the ceiling.  And, the fireplace will have a stone surround with a big thick wood mantel I have yet to pick out. What I love about the fireplace is that it's actually a see thru indoor/outdoor fireplace that will be shared with the screened porch.  I can't wait for a beautiful summer night to have a drink and just relax on the screen porch with the fireplace burning. Okay, so maybe that won't actually happen until the boys are out of the house, but at least it gives me something to look forward to.  (just ignore the wood post running diagonal on the right!)

Here's a shot of the back kitchen wall.  At the very back of the kitchen, there's a little sitting area with a gas stove fireplace right next to this door and window....

The next few pics are especially for my college roommate, Beth.  Also know that my camera was completely jacked today for some unknown reason, so I didn't get the greatest shots. Oh, it's always the camera, never the photographer.....

Our neighbor was actually built in 1780 (the house is to-die-for) and there are several older buildings on the property including the ones below.  I don't know what it is about these little buildings, but I just love them.  And, my goal was to get this view.....

 

Out of this set of windows....(kitchen banquette area)....

 

So, I went in this morning and took a shot of what my view will actually be from the kitchen banquette area windows.  Because of all the construction, I couldn't stand at the correct angle to get the real view....

But, I think it turned out pretty darn good....no idea how I pulled that one off....but I did...and, I'm so happy about it!

So, here's where we are at my "same spot"...or at least close to my same spot, they moved some dirt around and I think my photo buddy either got moved or covered up....