Day before floors!

As we start hardwood floors...we have no idea what color we're doing. Yep, really, but we should hopefully be able to choose this on our lunch breaks tomorrow. Minor decision to leave till the last minute ;)

It's been a big week for sure. Visuals below:

Slate tile went down in the entryway from the backdoor to the kitchen. This obvi looked a lot better before we walked all over it!

The space you see off to the left there is a powder room that will stay unfinished for a little while longer as we're down to the wire on time. We're also waiting on a new backdoor, which will arrive sometime in January.

The under cabinet lighting went in – both bar and kitchen

The guest bath shower got its frameless 3/8" glass. Love the simple knob I debated over. There's a lot of other metal already going on in this bathroom with the sink.

The same Statuary marble went on the kitchen island, and perimeter countertops as well in Grey Expo silestone!

I don't have a full picture but you can see here the faucet went in. The stainless steel vessel sink goes under that.
The mirror will actually get mounted behind the faucet [soon].

The master bath got its tub trim. Still awaiting its frameless glass which will fit between the tub and the shower.

On the right side of the master bath, we got the statuary marble top, and a toilet. Still awaiting the faucets and pulls...

...(ordered these simple flat Euro tabs that go over the top of the drawer)

Oh and we have a sink... with what not our dream faucet, we've come to realize, but it will be our faucet for now

{I do love the sink though!}

Our hood and new induction cooktop are in (well the hood core is in, the shroud still to go on). We went with induction mainly because it had the look I want, combined with the cooking technology Mike wanted. Beautiful compromise!

The front door got three coats of Sickens stain, and I think it works super well.
Debated going a little darker, but as we can always go darker, but not lighter, we stopped for now

The frosted-back sidelite glass was installed, annnd....

Door is finished!! I love it every bit as much as I thought I would. Maybe to the point of obsession!

[Next up — replacing the tile you see there on the floor - we're looking for a large sheet of slate]

Dark, but you get the idea. And for all the people who told me the mail slot was placed too low
for USPS to deliver through, I must have a good mailman because I'm getting mail!

I hear my sister and her husband gave us these low Japanese maples that got planted flanking the stairs
{and will eventually get uplit}. Another early Xmas present!

This weekend Dad, Mike and I {all got a late start after big nights out} But then we hung the TV mount and tested it out. Those two also installed the remaining speakers in the kitchen.

I swept dust up from the whole house (my usual, here's hoping it's the last weekend since the floors are going in now!) and packed up everything that previously was on the floor to get them all cleaned off for tomorrow!
 

Where do you go...

...for modern house numbers?

When I put the front door in I got a lot of heckling about where how low mail slot was. I even was convinced by one person it was too low for the USPS (if this is true, then I do consider myself lucky that we're receiving mail) To help the mailman (mail person) out we decided we'd put up some house numbers.

We saw this lovely site along the way but then ended up buying from here

Here are our numbers (not in the right order)

Here's my simulation of where we're thinking they'll go. (These are about 25% too large).

Can't wait till they arrive...

This week in photos

The big thing this week was that the cabinet guy came back (finally) and the island is now the right size as well as the handles I picked out are now on, or at least 3/4 of them are on. That was a long story short after a LOT of headache surrounding these cabinets, which I'll skip over in the spirit of dwelling on the positive.

The handles were a big debate b/c I wanted them really wide on the lower cabinets, but less obtrusive on the uppers. I had to measure each cabinet and then pick out the stock size handle I thought was best - and ended up ordering like 15 different sizes throughout the kitchen and bar. I did well on all but one cabinet. Since the one black sheep is already drilled, I may have to live with it. We'll see.

Full island now in

Wine area with its new handles (wine fridge goes to the left, another one will eventually replace the lattice on the right)

And ~ the front door hardware went on! Loving loving how it looks. The door will be stained dark, and the 2 pieces of wood currently flanking it will be frosted glass.

Front door making big steps

 In other inside news:

One toilet went in (guest bath)!

and the tub and shower trim went in (master)

This means we have one toilet, and one bathtub. By the end of the week we'll also have one set of sinks and one shower, and although most of these "ones" are in different rooms, that's how we'll be using them for the first few weeks. "Good enough!!"

The light rope went up in the tray ceiling  in 3 steps:

1) turn it on so it warms up and softens it so it can be straightened out

2) Mike and I both up on the ladders, one on each corner, stretching it across and tucking it in

3) And then there was light...(and hardwood floor refinishing would make it better!)

Twenty-something sets of hinges were purchased from Home Depot, thanks to the gift cards I got from work. (Thanks BOLTgroup!)

And the fabulous doorknobs were purchased from Emtek thru Blackhawk :) We decided to splurge. No furniture, beautiful doorknobs. Makes perfect sense don't you think?

We called Cadieu tree company to drop off some mulch (best price ever...free!) to build up our beds. We'll invest in better mulch to top these off with.

Mike, my Dad and I spent time this weekend wheeling it up front

Where we created the bed shapes with it

After seeing the mulch go in, we discussed the whole landscape plan. I had visions of a west coast style landscape with tons of grasses and succulents, but reality (Dad) pointed out that our house is in the shade almost all the time, so the succculents won't work. We discussed putting a taller tree at each "corner" of the front of the house and decided on Italian Cypress – ironically my Dad saw some Grower's outlet that same afternoon and decided that would be our Christmas present. So he showed up Sunday with a few in his truck, ready to dig.

Mike unloading the trees

First two cypress go in

Front – where we are now

Lots on tap for this week as it's our last week before hardwood refinishing...More to come...

Worth every penny + more

That's how I feel about the new front door :)
A little premature to post but I was too excited not to.

When I pulled up to the house today the old door had already been removed...
I was immediately sent out for hinges before I got to work (luckily the local hardware had stainless hinges in stock!)...

Sidelites were busted out shortly afterwards

The old frame was pulled out

View from the front, ready for clean up

The frame then was rebuilt

Current view from the inside – Door slab is in, with wood installed in place of sidelites

I go pick out glass tomorrow, and am working on my stain color in conjunction with the hardwood floor color. And even though I got a ton of heckling from the crew about the choice of hardware (that's your doorknob? Are you sure it isn't a towel rack?) I can't wait to see it go in.

To be continued....

3 weeks till move in...

...But only 1.5 weeks till hardwood floors, which as many know, stops forward movement for a week...Oh and there's also this little holiday called Christmas in there, not that anyone I know is really going to feel the love from me this year (I promise to make it up next year!)

Here's where we are:

Our 4th and FINAL dumpster left! Really happy. So our still driveway looks....muddy?
Well Don the Craigslist Bobcat guy resurfaced with his dump truck and cleared us out leaving a big mud party.

The dumpster in it's last living moments along with the mud, which had to be shoveled out

The yard is a beauty isn't it? Hard to believe I know but this is MUCH better still than it was before!

{Yep, that was it before...}

For those of you who will be coming over, prepare yourself to be seeing this same sight till Spring b/c there's not much we can do between now and then.

Inside – you can see baseboards and door ways/ doors are starting to go on everywhere. I'm assured this is a step when people are nearing the end ;)

We bought this piece of insulated to replace the rusted metal 9-pane window in the office. I can't believe I don't have a photo of the before, but you can trust me it was pretty nasty. Not much is being done to this little office as far as drywall or window investment b/c it will eventually turn into a hallway leading into another bedroom. So for now, just a quick facelift.

It does flow nicely with the windows in the rest of the house that are the big squares (this is in the adjoining den)

Same window - outside

This little bath is getting somewhere:

Waiting on shower doors and mirror, the former at least I'm certain we'll have by move in.

And while the walls went up here, this powder room has a ways to go still.  This will definitely not be completed by the time we move in, but no real hurry for now, we have other bathrooms that will be in various stages of completion which I assumes makes 1 total somehow, right?

The master bath getting a coat of paint definitely helped the marble look better but we still hate the overhang. TBD on the solution still, there won't be a shower by move-in although there will be a tub.

And the front door arrives. It's upside down, not stained, no hardware, and still in the box but I'm glad it's home!

Up next: Deciding on hardwood floor colors as they happen the 19th. I'm sure this will be warranting another post.

Sample options over the threshhold as our wood changes from the kitchen to the rest of the house.

In the meantime; Gotta order new interior doorknobs and hinges, island being delivered Friday and kitchen cabinet issues fixed at the same time, countertops in the kitchen and master bath happening next week, shower door in the guest bath happening next week, and bathtub and toilets going in sometime, presumably.

Really also need some window treatments in the bedroom and our bathroom at least, for move-in. Samples arrived from Smith + Noble today, and digging these solar shades, which we had in our first apt in Charlotte and loved, and my interiors friend Margaret seconded the idea.

In more fun news, also taking advantage of the annual 15% off Herman Miller sale which ends this week. Will update with the purchases once I pull the trigger!