House Chronicles 1

We can't wait for move in day...but until then, we are living through the progress of the building process.

Our house will essentially look almost exactly like this.  This house was taken on a drive-by in another development, hence the crappy quality, but it does show the orientation of our home (which is the reverse of the models and drawn plans).  The main house color will be Wedgewood blue and unlike the picture below, the shingles will be white (instead of brown).  The front door will be red!

This was my inspiration photo.

Of course the stock door colors to choose from were more maroon, but it's nothing I can't doctor up with a can of paint once we move in!

Picture these on the front porch...

And because I love having options to change things up: 

The door could go yellow in a few years!

We picked out a whole slew of things for the interior, some of which I don't even remember.  People have often asked "wasn't that overwhelming?".  And for a few reasons, no!  1.  I love houses and have been dreaming about building my own for years.  2.  This is not a custom home, so we didn't have to pick out every single thing (though that would have been fun, too!)  3.  Price made a lot of our decisions between 1-3 choices and we didn't really even look at things that were far out of our price range.   4.  Some of the options just weren't "us", so we'll add a bunch of things after market (some larger lighting pieces, fans, sink faucets, mudroom lockers, etc).

My motto with this house is slow decorating.  So, some of the decisions we won't make until we've lived in the house for a while.  (let's hope I can stick to this)  Our tastes have also been evolving over the past year and we are trending towards a much more minimal home - so a lot of our choices in finishes and furniture have this in mind.  For example, I have long loved white hex tile floors, however in our bathroom at my parent's house, they have white tile and since I shed like and animal, I've realized these floors would never work for me.  I'd be vacuuming 2x/day!

On the other hand, practical or not, our cabinets are WHITE and I'm in love.  I've wanted white cabinets for at least the last 10 years (and white trim - also something we picked for this house) so I am happy.  There were few things I "had to have" and this was at the top of the list.  

The main level floors look a little darker in this picture than they are in real life.  This is the sample in the middle left just under the carpet.  The color is very "rustic farmhouse" with a tinge of gray.  

Our kitchen counters are pictured in the bottom L corner and are a sandy color.  We went back and forth with dark or light, and at the last minute chose light.  We upgraded a bunch of things in the kitchen at the last minute and sadly silestone was not in the old budget, but this granite has a lot less movement and variation than some others were saw.  

The top R slab is for the bathroom counters.  The girls bath will have a cocoa colored wood vanity, while ours will match the kitchen.  The vinyl sample is what will be in the bathrooms until we get around to tiling it.   

They started digging a few weeks ago and then it promptly rained nearly 4 inches the next day!  With that behind us, framing began and is scheduled to be done August 1st!

The front view

Side view - the 3 little windows are in our flex room - aka playroom/office when you first walk in.

The bump out off the back is the "morning room".  It will house our kitchen table and has large windows on 2 sides and sliders out to our future deck on the other side.  It's no porch like we had in our last home, but I think the space will be really usable and adds a lot onto the living space of the house, especially since it also bumps out the basement and adds 3 more large windows down there.

Back view