Not sure what is it about the mudders :( Looks like a lot of us of are going through the same pain. I Can't wait for the drywall stage be done.

Autumn, Hope your KD can hold your cabinets for some time. Mine has held them for 2 weeks today but today she said she may have to move to storage :(.

Hoosier, Hope they can hold doors for you.

All the tile we ordered for the bathrooms is here and and is ready for pick up but we have no place to store them properly :( I am hoping we can delay pickup for a few days so the drywall can be done.

ashkars mom,
Congrats on getting those pendants 50% off! I love those and I'm sorry I missed out on that sale....I will have to keep my eyes open better (those exact pendants were among our top choices)

Autumn I do think that quartz looks great. I hear you on liking something with more random movement though. Pretty views!

I am planning on a soap dispenser for the Dawn, with a never MT. I mentioned it to the Ferguson's lady and she never heard of it and I saw her writing it down to look into to sell in the future. I've never had an undermount sink before so not having that little defined spot for hand and dishsoap makes me a little apprehensive, lol.

Tile store tomorrow for us.

hoosiers-not a change that creates a chain reaction design change. :( You seem so calm and relaxed about it all.

illini-love love the undermount sink. I think that is what I liked most about our granite countertop in the last house. :)

We are planning on ordering our tile by the end of this week also. That is at least FIRM.

No worries on the quartz/granite discussion, all opinions are valid and I don't take offense. I still don't know what I am going to do. I need to get back to the granite yard and look again (I am going to really look at the bottom portion for any fissures and see how I feel about it's touch and how smooth it is). Maybe talk to ID again when we discuss which laminate to put with whatever I pick. I have a meeting with her next Tuesday to finalize counter tops and paint. I keep wondering if in 6 months when we are living there if I'm really going to think much about it since they are both nice ??? I need to decide so I can also continue my back splash search as well.

I know a couple weeks just doesn't seem possible. Stopped by the house tonight with a flashlight because the doors and trim were in the basement. The kitchen cabinets were also delivered. Took a picture of my 3 panel doors and I'm in love!

Well for once, I'm on the other side of the mudder issue... lol
our guys have been there faithfully, but there are only two of them, so they've been there over a week... it's ok, I'm taking deeeeep breaths and crossing my fingers. A couple weeks ago, mid March seemed like it was coming up fast. Right now I can kinda see the light at the end of the tunnel. But like Jennybc said...it could be a train... :)

I went to Menards last night and got the tile for the master shower & tub. I really like it. It's almost exactly what we have now lol

I got a text from my little brother last night. Well...younger, he's been bigger than me since he was 13...lol.
He asked his gf to marry him at our house on Christmas. They are planning a wedding for June of 2015....guess WHERE they want to have it???
Our new place, of course. At least I have over a year to get things the way I want them...and a goal to work towards to keep me going!! Oh boy....

People I am out of cookies and no school again today. I will be baking, there is just no way around it. lol!

Not sure if mudders will make it today or not. Snow has stopped but now we are dealing with black ice and too cold for salt/sand to work. Hmmm.

kelli-yay! Ours are due to arrive on Tuesday, so exciting!

lori-well from one project right into another! You have a beautiful setting for one. :) We have been looking at big box too and found our fireplace stone there (Lowe's in this case) for half what other places were charging. Woot woot!

Autumn.4,

Love your arches! What website did you order them from? Thanks :)

BTW I love your house!

Thanks for the compliment Ray-
We ordered them from Archways Made Easy. They were custom measured soft arches but they also have a universal for $19.95 that we used in one space (stairwell). Easy to deal with, easy to install.
They are 2 separate sites but I believe the addresses are the same. ??? Anyhow we ordered 2 from the easy archways and the kit from the other. The kit is not an eased arch if that matters.

Good luck.

Autumn

The mudders are here, the mudders are here!!!

DH kind of told them they need to be done before Monday! :-) We'll see how that goes. I was looking at my photos and they delivered drywall over a month ago and started hanging the day after it was delivered. That seems like a long time. Our house isn't that big!

Siding guys are here. Glad to see them, too!

I decided to change the tile in the master bathroom. Made sense. The hall bath is on the small side. It just made sense to make both baths with the same flooring. Still undecided on granite for master bath vanities. Called the guy this morning. I had to send him our updated vanity drawings to figure cost. The hall cabinetry has changed a bit since we had them hold the Golden Sand granite remnant. I like it because it matches the tile so well and has green specks. I'm using those BM gray with green undertone paint colors in the house. I don't particularly like dark granite. The other choice for master is New Venetian Gold. He said if we chose that color, the price would stay the same. If we go Golden Sand, it will be more since it's a higher grade.

And, I was the one who picked out everything before we bid out the house! I'm usually pretty good at making decisions so it's not stressing me out.

Lori, that's exciting about a wedding at your new place!

Kelliethee, The doors look great.

Autumn, Cookies Yum!! Love freshly baked cookies.

Lori, Glad you are not having issue with your crew. It will good to have a goal to make sure the house is ready for the wedding. I always seem to do move faster when I have a goal/deadline.

Hooisers, Yay on the mudding crew being there. We also have them here today. I am also hoping they are done by Monday. So lets hope for the best.

Got some bad news today. The furniture style Vanity we ordered for our guest bath was delivered to the warehouse and the sales lady called to tell me the vanity was not up to her standards (bad paint job) and the marble counter top we ordered had a pin hole in it :( They can't get a another carrera top until end of April and that will be too late for us. I need to find a solution for it now :( I really liked the vanity.

This post was edited by akshars_mom on Wed, Jan 29, 14 at 12:37

No work at all this week. Something about ice and working in the rafters being too dangerous. On the bright side, I might not have to write any checks this week.

lol Icy rafters don't sound much fun at all... :)

kelli… your doors are great! I would think so, they are just like ours. What will your trim look like?

Loribug…. what tile did you go with for your shower? I'm having a tough time with tile. Don't know why, I didn't have a hard time deciding on anything else. We (I) finally made a decision about the mudroom /hallway/second bath tile, but I can't decide what to do with the master bath. Maybe I should just do it the same as the rest. We are using Ragno Riverstone on the rest.

They are putting up our trim this week and the cabinets are supposed to be delivered on Friday. Hope it doesn't snow or he'll never get up our lane!

These are the closet doors in the mudroom….

We went over to the cabinet makers to take a peek, here are our drawers

Carol- The trim will be the same color but we are doing the "ranch" style trim. It's a little more square and the trim on the floors have a rounded edge. Budget was a little tight so I couldn't get the mission style of trim but I'm happy I could get something different than the usual colonial standard style.

Pretty doors & trim Carol!! ;) I'm doing the same style trim. My doors are two panel with the bead board, all knotty pine. We are going to leave them natural, and finish them with clear coat.
The trim is also knotty pine and will match the doors.

Let's see, tile....I went to Menards Tuesday night, looked at the boards that said "In Stock" picked Mohawk Sanborn in Noce. Got the 2x2 mosaic tiles for the floor and an accent border, 12x12 tiles for the rest and bullnose. In & out, half hour. Loaded in the truck, took to house, unloaded. :)

Haven't I told you guys I don't mess around?? lol

I'm being over ruled on my flooring, but that's ok. Flooring has given me more trouble than anything. I want it to look like old wood, it has got to be resilient, and not very expensive. I’ve kinda blown my money on other things…I do NOT want expensive floor.

Carol, I love your doors. What width is the trim around them?

Carol, love the doors and drawers! So exciting!

Lori, I'm telling you I can't believe you did that in 1/2 hour! I found several tile patterns we liked at Menards. Did you get the 11% Rebate? DH lives at Menards. I've filled out so many rebate forms lately!

We are doing about the same thing for our shower tiles. Going with the Marazzi Vesale Stone in Rust. 2x2 Mosaic for floor, 2"x3-1/2" diamond decorative band, and 13"x13" on the walls. We have a 42" wide bench in the shower on one end and finally decided to go with the 10"x20" tiles with a bullnose for that since we are using the same size tiles for the bathroom floor.

The siding crew got a lot done yesterday. They finished the garage side on Sunday. I'm posting a pic below - but PLEASE remember that the siding is going to be painted. This baby poop prime color is driving me nuts! :-)

They finished the front yesterday:

They still need to finish the west side of the house (to the right of the photo below) and the remainder of the rear of the house.

Then as soon as the shakes come in, they'll install them in all the gables.

Shakes but not this color:

We are using this color for shakes - Sable Brown

And, they need to build the columns on the front porch, too. Once the siding guys and drywallers are done, the stone guys can come back and finish a few areas of the stone around the house, install stone on the columns, and stone the fireplace. I can't wait to see what that looks like. I kind of designed it, so I hope it turns out okay.

Today looks like another good day to work on the exterior so I hope they show up! Plus, we need for them to get as much of that siding out of the garage as they can.

Hoosierbred, yay for progress! And I can envision the shakes in that beautiful sable color. It will look great!

So the only 'progress' we have so far is piles of dirt added to the lot with some other piles of rebar and asserted materials. Anyone have and idea of what is about to happen here? We do slab foundations here in these parts ;) I just can't figure out what the holdup is.

We are meeting with the builder today so maybe he can shed some light on it.

Hoosier...beautiful stone & siding .... :) I love it! Eventhough the baby poop isn't the right color.

I can't wait to see it with the columns. I'm waiting to see mine with columns too. Maybe when the weather breaks.

I did get the 11% rebate, mailed it off yesterday before I totally forgot to.
I've never really been a Menards shopper, but I'm becoming one. I've always gone to Lowe's b/c it's closer.
I ordered my interior doors & toilets from Menards, and now the tile. I even bought cat food while I was there...lol
That's what has always kind of cracked me up abt there is all the other randomness they have. It works though!

I'm really having a hard time sitting still lately, I need to be doing something I feel like. I've got all my stuff purchased, and now what... lol

I've been packing, but I get bored with that pretty quickly. We are only moving 5 minutes around the corner. So most things will be moved a truck load at a time, put away, and head back for more. I'm packing all of the decor, and still have lots to go... lol

OH!!! My mason jar lights were delivered yesterday!! I can NOT wait to see them hanging...I'm ready NOW. lol
The entry way light is made out of an old rusty tractor seat, with jars hanging from it. oh the wait is KILLING me.....

Oh and April... looks like they're bringing in fill dirt to get your foundation up to grade. Or that's what it looks like to me anyway. Not 100% on that! :) Anything is better than nothing!

Oh and April... looks like they're bringing in fill dirt to get your foundation up to grade. Or that's what it looks like to me anyway. Not 100% on that! :) Anything is better than nothing!

mudders have been there but I have NOT so I haven't seen what state it's in. :( I think they may have one coat done. I did make it to the tile store today. We are ready to order flooring, still working on back splashes (but I don't have to order that RIGHT now). We are having a very brief lull in the snow action. The kids did have school today but back under weather alert for tonight. Blah.

hoosier-I kept picturing something totally hideous with your baby poop description - while it's not in a finished state I don't think it looks as bad as you think. Love the color/style you chose for the finished product!

april-any light shed? Progress IS progress. :)

lori-you are a can do kinda girl! Woo hoo, check it off the list! I have been to menards before to buy a home improvement type item that they did not have and instead walked out with dog biscuits, trash bags and a bag of M&M's..... As for packing, I think it will be awesome to just pack, move, unpack. Right now I am pretty sure we will have a big mess on our hands. It's been so long that we have packed things that I have no idea where they are AND have no recollection of packing them! Any new pics of your dormers??? Huh huh huh?

kelli-nice! That is our door style and cabinet drawer style also but painted for both. You must have a flurry of activity going on now to get in there so soon. I bet you can't wait!

Loribug and Autumn thanks! Per our builder tonight, that is fill dirt in our forms. The foundation will be post tension slab and it is scheduled to be poured THURSDAY!! Woohoo! We also talked about other minor changes - adding built-ins in the game room, adding a Rev-a-shelf trash can drawer, soap dispensers, changing the hardwoods, etc. We really need to finish all these decisions. Just when I think I'm done, I see something on GW or one if my friends will mentions a cool product and that gets me thinking :). He said the change order needs to be FINAL final by slab. Otherwise, things can get messy with vendors. Fine with me, I'm ready to move forward!

april-woohoo! That is awesome! GW gets ya thinking about a lot of things......

We ended up making a quick run to the house last night to check it out. First coat of mud on! Yeehaa! I am ordering tile today and picking up primer

Lori - I forgot to say, we also happened to pick out in stock tile. I didn't know it at the time but was thrilled when they told me a 2 day lead-time to get it from the warehouse across the state. Woot woot!

My arches - oh my arches. And the dining room. I think they sand today and then second coat of mud on Monday:

Looking so nice, Autumn! The arches look great!

Our drywallers said they put the third and final coat on yesterday in the house and did a little work in the garage. They told DH they didn't have the right tools with them to do more in the garage. We do not know what different tools they would use in the garage. Geesh! However, they said they are doing final sanding in the house today. They said that would take 1-2 days. Who knows how long before the garage is finished. Prior to yesterday they had only put one coat of mud on it. You guys seem to be going faster than we are in this phase. But maybe it's me wanting them out of there!

The siding crew finished installing all the lap siding and trim yesterday. And built 1 column. The shakes came in and are being delivered at 8:00 this morning. They will start to install them today. Can't wait to see them up in the gables.

It will be good to finish this January build and move into February. One step closer to completion!

Autumn...awesome arches!! :) love them, and I'm typically not a fan.

Flooring....ugh. So I picked out a vinyl sheet that I love.(floor that I saw in the living quarters of a horse trailer...lol)
I originally looket at lvt, but I couldn't really find what I had in my brain. So then when I give the info to my builder, asking for a square footage so I'd know what to order. He tells me he hasn't really lined up anyone to do the floors. huh??
So I get on the phone...texts...& face book. Need a flooring person NOW!! We have another friend that is a contractor, and we've used several of his subs, so he gives me the info for his floor guy. They all decide that my vinyl sheet isn't going to work..yadda, yadda, yadda.... fine with me, I just want it to look like that, be VERY resilient and not cost an arm and a leg. ha...
So when I get to the house last night, there are samples and one of them is almost, almost!!! exactly what I had picked. Now just waiting on the ball to drop on the price.
I really hope it works. He also brought a carpet sample, and I easily picked on of them. I can't have too many choices. I really like it!!

The girls are picking paint colors for their rooms, I think we have gotten them pinned down. I had them write their names on the color swatches.

Mud is done, ceiling texture should start today, sanding over the weekend hopefully and primer/paint starting early next week. I'm hoping to con some friends into helping next weekend to paint the rooms we're painting.

Mudding is a slow process that seems like nothing is happening, but we're all getting through it, aren't we!! Have patience Hoosier (ha funny, that coming from me!!)

dormer eye candy:

Oh and sometime in the last couple days, gutters have miraculously appeared!! woop woop!

Autumn- Isn't this weather ridiculous? Earlier this week was the crazy cold, yesterday it got up to 32 degrees and it snowed and drifted and then again today it's negative 6 and windchills of negative 15.

Our mudder has been there.. but he is the only one doing it so I'm not sure how fast he can get done. Our contractor has been on his tail though. I think the flurry of activity will be after the mudding is all done. We have everything we need at the house so it's just a wait.

lori- Menards is the big thing around here, in our big city we have two of them within 5 miles. haha! Any time my dad goes to the city, HE has to go to Menards. He buys all his cereal there. :)

Ok remind me where y'all are kelli & autumn?

sounds like Indiana weather. It's actually above freezing right now, feels like a heat wave. lol

cereal from Menards... that made me laugh out loud for real.

I'm hoping we get a flurry of activity after paint is done. I'm waiting on floor & cabinets....which are major, obviously!! Everything else is there.... or ordered at least.

I am at my wits end. 7 days, 7 days stuck in this rental, one day of school - YESTERDAY and today another snow day. DH works all weekend and will likely not get out on time due to weather (police officer), I am going to be a nut case soon, very very soon. I did get groceries today - we were out of everything - and I quick ran to the tile store and ordered before we are snowed in again. The main roads are good but last night the wind started again and the side roads all blew shut. So first a 2 hour delay and then shortly thereafter they called it. We are expecting another 5-9" starting tomorrow. I can't take it, I can't take it! The area is rural and the main road out of town is open in spots so when it gets windy it drifts terrible. I took a pic to send to my family this morning (they live in the middle of the state and don't get lake effect or the blowing and drifting) - this is the side of the main road and that is a power line. The snow is over some of the street signs in different places. But hey, we have pavement for now! They have been working on pushing the pile back so they have a place to go with the snow that is to come. The other side of the road is only about 2 feet deep.

kelli-it is amazing how warm 20 degrees is feeling. We had that bitter cold too and it just hurts to be outside! I hope you warm up soon. We haven't seen 30 in weeks and they are saying February - colder than normal. We need that ground hog to do the right thing and see NO shadow! The sign on one of the local churches says: "Whoever is praying for snow - please stop." LOL!

lori-West Michigan. I always say I can't imagine living anywhere else but my imagination is starting to grow......and there are palm trees and such in the picture. Hahaha! Thank you for the dormer pics! I want one in my bedroom. I am sure your girls are going to love it!

With the mudding - do you think they do one part and then they have to wait a whole 24 hours for dry time - so mud then wait then sand then wait and on and on? I am not sure then they plan to be done with ours.

Autumn, The arches looks great. I think you are right about the mudders having to wait until it drys before then can sand/do another coat. That is some picture of all the snow. I can understand the frustration with the everyone cooped up in a rental with no school and no outside activities to do. This has been an extreme winter for most people either too much snow or record high temperatures (for us). Glad you could order the tiles when you could.

Hooiser, Your siding looks good and the colors you have chosen are great. Hopefully you will be done with mudding soon.

lori, the dormer pictures are great. Can't wait to see the pictures of the light fixtures installed. Looks like you can start painting soon. Hope the floor pricing is in the range you expected.

April, Yay on foundation :). GW doe give you ideas on what could be done and my DH says ways to spend more money :). But I think it is good to know what are the options we have then realize after we are done.

Carol, Love the doors and the drawers. You are getting there.

Kelli, Your door look great to. We have also had one or two mudders doing the work so it has been slow moving but we are at the end and hopefully you will be there soon to.

We are done with the final coat of mudding yesterday. One final sanding that needed to be done (either tomorrow or Monday) and then we are ready for paint and interior doors and trim :)
Our apartment we are renting is getting filled with tiles and light fixtures. Hoping the garage will be done next week so we can move stuff there.

akshars-sorry - I had to mini vent there. This is an unusually rough winter for sure. It's taxing on everyone. We haven't moved any of our 'stuff' over yet either. I am waiting for the locks to be on and secure and then I think we can store all of our fixtures in the house. Too many stories of things coming up missing to just leave it without having the house locked. Besides a ladder and a few minor tools it's empty for now.

Anyone know if your mudders are also wiping the walls down or are you doing that yourself? I think we will have to do that and I'm wondering what the best process is.

This post was edited by Autumn.4 on Fri, Jan 31, 14 at 13:03

Autumn, I asked the same question about wiping the walls down before paint. My daughter said the painter would wipe them down. But that's a question we want answered. Cause I already know I can't do it. If painter doesn't, we'll need to get someone to do it. I can vacuum and sweep and wipe the windows off, but not the walls.

We've been lucky to have our pole barn already built before we started the house. We are storing all our stuff in there. It's cramped in there, especially with DH making the cabinets.

We have no room to store the trim and interior doors. That's why they have to go inside the house. Plus, DH wants to glue up the cabinet doors a couple at a time and let them dry overnight in the heated house. The pole barn doesn't stay very warm with his electric heater. He had the lines run for radiant heat in the pole barn, but we don't have the other components installed yet.

Apparently what I've heard about vinyl being a lot faster and easier to install versus cement board is true. They installed the shakes in the three front gables in two hours this morning.

Ashkars- I'm in southwest Wisconsin, right on the Mississippi. We had some negative 50 degree windchills earlier this month and this week. Even my 2012 Civic had a hard time turning over.

Autumn- 7 days? wow I feel for you. 30 degrees yesterday was a heatwave! Everyone was outside running! I can't see the pictures on this computer but our snow piles are higher than our cars now. Weird to think that some winters a couple years ago we barely got a trace of snow.

lori- No really the Cocoa Dynobites (Menards brand) taste as good as the real cocoa pebbles! no lie!

Well no painting this weekend. Husband called the contractor and the mudder can't get the spraying done due to the knockdown ceiling.. something something. That's okay though. Our contractor, though is still pretty anxious because he thinks his wife will be having their first baby next week so he would really like to get the cabinets in. We aren't really pressuring him, especially since we just had our baby last summer and know what a blur it is! Hopefully we'll be able to paint Wednesday night since the electrician plans to put our lights in. It's going to be busy next week.

hoosiers- I love it! It is gorgeous! :) I really like shake siding. Well since we are painting I am trying to figure it out as I think it will be up to us. I don't foresee the drywallers doing it. Friends of ours have radiant heat in their barn - it sure is nice. They use their barn a lot and it really makes a difference. You can easy have a gathering or whatever in the fall and if feels pretty good in there.

kelli-I know right! The year we decide to build we get MORE snow than average instead of less like we have the past few years. Yes - snow is taller than cars and some street signs. I think of that light winter fondly. We bought a new snow blower that year and only used it twice! That was AWESOME! :) Our ceilings will be a light 'crows foot' (like what keep getting more pronounced around my eyes). We need to have the lights put in for painting too - another thing to add to the list.

Autumn, please don't worry about the venting. That is one reason the forum is for. In regards to the wiping down. I did not even think of that. I am assuming the painter will do it but I will have to check.

Hooisers, the gables look great. Glad you have the extra storage in the pole barn.

Kelli, Looks like a bust week ahead for you. I can't wait for the next few stages to start.

AWESOME Hoosiers!! :)
Wait. I'm a Purdue grad....that sounded all wrong lol

HAHAHA! Loribug, you are cracking me up!

aaaaah! it's happening sooooo faaaaaast!

I have about 10 days to prep for electrical walk through. Help!

The framers are working on the roof which they said takes them 4-5 days (they started that yesterday). Shingling may start before even the framers are done, then maybe just maybe windows by the end of next week.

E-walk through on the 11th. We have asked for two audio video proposals and we like one guy very much and our friends used him with great success also. But we need to decide for sure who we are using very soon. Exterior and interior doors are not ordered yet either. Appliances need to be finalized soon and I have another meeting with the cab designer next week with so much to go over as well. Then the tile selection meeting (it was supposed to be Wed but i had to reschedule due to snow day).

oh my.

autumn,
I love your arches!

winter.....what can one say? I am usually pretty tolerant of winter here but this is so ridic. And I saw another set of days around 12 degree highs again late next week. sorry but wtf?

Wow! You all are coming along great (besides the winter set backs). Our build is supposed to start in 4 weeks, depending on the weather. Can anyone tell me what happens first and what I can expect in the beginning? We live a few states away from our build so I will not be there for the first 3 months of the process (which actually might make it go faster!)

Thanks everyone!

robyn,

from my recollection here is what happened first:
tree clearing
excavation
foundation molds placed
pouring of foundation
power/water lines run from street
molds removed, floors poured
curing for about 3 weeks
electric run to house
framing
(that's where it ends for me because that's where we are at).

Our builder paraded a home where the couple built it from California- we're in Michigan- it was gorgeous- you can do it too!

my suggestion- work on as many aspects as you can with the kitchen especially, but any other selections you can like appliances, looking into your allowances and what they mean for lighting, electric, floors, cabinets, heating and cooling needs, etc. the more you get educated beforehand the less overwhelming the experience will be.

good luck!

Thanks Illinigirl!

I just picked out all my appliances, flooring, and cabinets. I have my budgets for all of my other areas, etc. We've been working on this build and getting it ready for 2 1/2 years now. I am learning so much on GW and from all the friends I have who have built custom homes. Honestly, some days I think it would be less stressful if my builder just gave me 3 choices in each category to choose from. lol.

My builder is AWESOME and will call/Skype me every week for our weekly builders meeting once he gets started. The first major decision I have to make while I am here is my windows. I've already picked Adobe as the color but will be finalizing everything else as the time draws closer.

I fly to Utah in 4 weeks to make more decisions. YIKES! So many more to go!

Thanks Illinigirl!

I just picked out all my appliances, flooring, and cabinets. I have my budgets for all of my other areas, etc. We've been working on this build and getting it ready for 2 1/2 years now. I am learning so much on GW and from all the friends I have who have built custom homes. Honestly, some days I think it would be less stressful if my builder just gave me 3 choices in each category to choose from. lol.

My builder is AWESOME and will call/Skype me every week for our weekly builders meeting once he gets started. The first major decision I have to make while I am here is my windows. I've already picked Adobe as the color but will be finalizing everything else as the time draws closer.

I fly to Utah in 4 weeks to make more decisions. YIKES! So many more to go!

robyn-I read your post and thought, hmm, so much really has happened since we started that I'm not even sure anymore! It seems to go very fast and very slow at the same time? I think illini's pretty much got it down as I remember. I am all about 'give me 3 choices', that would make things much easier, lol! The trick I think might be making a decision and then sticking with it. Hahaha! Will they send you pictures of the progress? It'd drive me crazy to be so far away (not that you can help it), but your builder sounds fantastic.

illini-if it makes you feel any better I thought the electrical walk through went really smoothly and not near as challenging as I thought it might be. The electrician had some really good suggestions as well and we did defer to his experience on many things. Some things needed discussion but most placements just made sense, ya know? BUT, I will say that afterward, as in the very next day I went back and already started getting confused on this and that. Hahaha! Did we do this? What is that? Do we need a plug here? Lol!

jdez-I like the brick you like on your other thread. And OF COURSE it's out of budget, that is just how it goes. ;) I'm with you though, if you can find a way to get it IN budget then it's definitely worth investigating.

Thanks Autumn! I am hoping that by the time I move there, at the end of May, the fun stuff will begin. I'm okay with missing most of the framing process. My sister lives 4 miles away so I am thinking she will be over there just as much as I would be. :) I already told my builder that once I got there I would be over all the time! He told me that would be GREAT!

Is everyone doing wood flooring in their kitchen? I was planning on it but might change to tile. Anyone?

Lzwhong, can you tell me the color you painted the island? I looked and could not find where you mentioned it. We are also painting our island gray or gray/blue. I like how yours is soft and subtle.

Thanks!!

Robyn: Our island is SW Summit Gray. It picture kind of looks a bit blue but in person it's a true medium toned gray. We are doing hardwood throughout the entire downstairs (including the kitchen). The mudroom and full bath will be tile. I have hardwood in my current kitchen (with 2 young kids) and it has not been a problem. If you like the look, I say go for it.

mlweaving_Marji : We are located in southeastern Virginia. I called several sod farms in our area and none of them have Centipede. I did read online that it's a hearty grass and affordable. I will have to do some more research next week. Thank you for your suggestion!

We had a big snow storm (at least for our area) and I haven't had a chance to go out to the house to see what progress has been made. I hope the trim guy is almost finished and possibly started the coffered ceiling.

Was going to reply but I realized it's February 1st ! Reply posted in that thread!

Do you feel like the sable brown shakes have a purplish tint to them at all?