Drywall will be done today and we've put up a whole herd of tools that won't be needed anymore for this little project. Can't wait to get out the painting supplies :D

Schicksal-amen to that! So ready to paint. We are hoping to start spraying doors and trim this weekend. We shall see how long prep takes, ugh.

Akshars-you worried for nothing, your space is so pretty and well coordinated, the granite you chose is perfect, coordinated but not busy. Loving the 2 toned kitchens. When are painters projecting that they will be finished?

Thanks for the kind words on the board and batten. I really love it. :)

We hit 50 degrees yesterday and took a lunch break on the covered porch. It was so nice and so peaceful. Downside to woods-a lot of snow still. :(

Interview today towards the granite place. May stop and see if the slab is still there, kinda scared....have my blanco sink samples with me. I need to just do it already.

Autumn4 - Just do it. Then post pics so the rest of us can covet thy stuff. Ahh...can't wait.

Autumn4 - Forgot to say good luck on the interview. I guess that's more important...lol.

We had a cleaning weekend at the house and DH dismantled the spraying booth. I'm really glad he insisted the painters use it. We now have a very sealed floor section from all the poly spray! :-)

We reorganized the garage so the painters can work in there while the hardwood floors are installed starting today. DH finished building/assembling the last cabinet yesterday (my huge pantry cabinet). Every time I think he is done, I ask him if he had this or that made. He has about 8 shelves left to make for the kitchen wall cabinets. He said those won't take him that long. He's just trying to decide what material to use for them.

We are going to have to buy some cardboard I guess to cover the hardwood floors. We know we are going to run out of cardboard boxes we had. Do all of you cover your floors after installation? Do you use cardboard?

Hoosierbred, we cover floors in something called Ramboard. It comes in a roll, but lays out flat. It is like the cardboard on the back of notepads, if you know what I mean. We taped it together at the seams. We actually took it all up once for the floors to get finished, labeling each piece, then laid it back out like a puzzle. We got it at the lumberyard.

Any advice on how to get paint (neatly) out of a 5 gallon bucket into a roller tray? I was thinking of using a pitcher to scoop it into the tray, at least for the first few fills because the bucket weighs at least 50lbs. Then of course, immediately washing out the pitcher to clean the paint.

Random email-so this is my thought (I received it too) - if you have the button checked please email me replies to this thread and you have an out of office message going in your email maybe it is the auto reply? Otherwise, yes very strange and I deleted it immediately to be sure.

jdez-I got on the highway heading home (automatic still thinking about the interview) and that is the OPPOSITE direction! Ugh. I think I will go Wednesday or Thursday first thing after school drop off. Thanks for the well wishes, it went well I think?. Definitely not as intense as Friday, lol!

schicksal-nope. I was just thinking about that this morning. They do make those handheld paint pitchers (for trimming) and I was thinking so how do I get the paint in there as I am sure we will need 5 gallons+ of a couple different colors. As for getting it into the paint tray, I am going to make hubby do it - that is my solution for now!

edit: grammar - sounded like I was slurring - lol!

This post was edited by Autumn.4 on Mon, Mar 31, 14 at 11:21

Autumn - Can't wait to see your granite selections and choices. Can you share all your pics when you do go to the stone yard? I LOVE looking at people's granite and counter options. Good luck on the job!!

About the emailâ¦. I haven't checked anything off and I am even wondering how they got my e-mail since it is in private mode in my profile. I think that GW got hacked over the weekend. There is no other explanation how they got my private e-mail.

Updateâ¦. Plumbing trucks are at my house and lots of pipes got dropped off but I can't see what they are doing! My sister will drive by later today and take pics. I'll share them with you later.

Off to tennis and to close on our house we just sold! Have a great day everyone!
Robyn

I've seen the spouts that are supposed to screw on to the top of the bucket but the reviews I've read for them aren't great. Either way, that's why we paint before we have the flooring in :)

Autumn 4, are you referring to the stairs and the foyer? One issue I ran into is the outlets don't line up. I would have to move one central vac inlet in the foyer. I don't mind the stairs are a different pattern that's actually what I wanted, but a couple of the squares in the foyer are not perfect because of electrical outlet and central vac inlet. The carpenter didn't nail them yet because he is waiting for me to decide if I want to relo those. What do you think?

Autumn4, Glad the interview went well. I was just at a granite and marble place trying to finalize our counter for master bath (will be pre fab) and I saw a few Alaska white and Bianco Antico prefab slabs and I was thinking of you. Hope the granite you like is still there. I agree with you in regards to the email. The painter is supposed to finish today and the come back when everything is completed for touch ups.

Robyn,
Here are a few closeupâÂÂs of the granite

A few of more paint choices:
Guest bedroom:

Master:
Seems darker in the pictures than real life. You can see the difference in both the pictures also. I think now I can relaly see how much difference a light in a room can make in the color.

Pors-yes I was referring to the stairwell being a little different, sets it off in a good way. We actually just ran into what you are talking about and here is what we did but keep in mind we had 2 corners, one inside and one outside. The panels that were on the same run are identically spaced. The others that but to a corner are close but not exact: you would have to measure to notice IMO. The one thing we goofed, chalking up to learning curve is that our light switches were going to bump into the upper trim. So we shortened those two spots by a half inch. One you can't tell and the other I think you can but we weren't about to start over. I wish we would have realized that when we started-would have just shortened them all by the half inch. :(. I will take a pic of how we did our corner and post it, maybe it will help your situation. We did not butt 2 in the inside corner, originally we were going to but googled and tis way fit our spacing better. I can post a pic tonight before bed. Sorry rambling, hard to post from phone.

Hey, what is everyone doing for bathroom fans? We spec'd Nutone but now we are looking at Panasonic for $700 more. Worth it, skip it, I am sort of out of choice making energy today. :) Love the paint and trim ^^^

Panasonic all the way. I've had a wonderful experience with them in the past. The kind with a night light is cool too.

Oh man, add that to my overage list. :) My guy says they are pretty quiet too but I figured he was going for the obligatory upsell. Ok, we will go Panasonic. I don't have to decide for a few days, perhaps others will chime in too. Thanks!

mfatt-I am not sure what we have, electrician put them in. I can check - they are sooo quiet I love them so far. They are definitely better than anything we have ever had. YES!

pors - so this is the only section that we had corners in. The others were butted up to doorways so we didn't have to deal with how to start and stop around them. They 2 that are on one run are 15" apart but the areas that included a corner are CLOSE but not exactly 15. None of the wall sections were the same size so we just went with what looked 'right'. They are all similar in spacing from section to section but not exact, I think it looks fine.

So from left to right here is the outside corner:

Then the middle section with 2 'panels':

Then the last corner:

Sorry I didn't take a pic from afar showing the whole thing, duh.

Robyn-here is my fav that I had on hold but with winter so harsh I didn't get back on time plus the job sitch I figured it was probably for the best I wait a bit:
Alaska White:

Blue Flower - liked this one as well had some 'shimmer' but I think the Alaska was a great match for our white perimeter and gray island:

The plan is to go on Thursday morning and see once what they have now....

Ooh, I love Alaska White!!!!

Autumn, please check and let me know if its easy to see the make of the fans. I would appreciate it :)

I guess it's better late then never... I had intentions of posting but it has been so busy trying to get all the final details in order... We have been doing this for a while and it's time for it to be over. If the weather would cooperate for another couple weeks we should be able to move. Wow. I am so ready for that to happen.

I don't have a lot to post since my GC moved off my job for two and a half weeks. Here is the front with the sidewalk and driveway halfway done. I've decided to bite the bullet and continue our driveway another 100' or so. I can't wait to drive to the house and not get mud all over my vehicles...

We wanted a more traditional looking house that would fit in nicely with nature. No bold colors and nothing too dramatic on the outside. I was going for simple and solid. I think we did okay. I'm sure our monotone exterior isn't for everyone but when the green grass grows it will look much better.

We finished the entryway painting over the weekend. By we, I mean my cousin who paints for a living. He has some real talent and helped us tremendously with colors and such. I really like the light my wife picked out too. She did a great job of finding lights that looked great and didn't break the bank...

I have been waiting years to have a downstairs where we could have a pool table and some arcade games. I found out that it's always a buyers market when it comes to pool tables. I bought this table off of Craigslist. The local pool table mover wanted $500 to move the table and put it back up. I watched a couple YouTube videos and decided to do it myself. I talked my brother-in-law and son into helping me and we tore it down and moved it. I called to find out how much they wanted to re-felt the table and they quoted $260... a couple more videos and I pulled that off as well. I am pretty pleased. It is dead solid level and looks great. I can't believe the seller threw in the light, cues and everything for $700. When I was at the pool store the light alone had a $599 price tag...

The last picture is one I've waited my entire life for. I've always lived in houses someone else built. There were names and handprints in the concrete but it has always been someone I didn't know. Not any more... Our driveway has my children's handprints. That makes me happy.

Good luck to everyone in April. At this rate we should have 6 separate posts in April.

Saftgeek-

Autumn, in the other thread, you said "amberm-I forgot earlier - do tell about your DIY beds for your kiddos. Drawers underneath or? I would love to know more in case we get a wild hair and go more diy."

Either you meant to say bench, or you were thinking of someone else. I have no plans to DIY beds. I'll assume you meant bench.

It's too soon to know for sure exactly what we're doing. But, assuming there's money (haha!) I'll get some cabinets with drawers and add my own top. If I can't get cabinets, I'll build cubbies like other people in this discussion have been doing. Even if I do get cabinets, they don't come with a top, so I'd have to figured something out. Or have something fully custom made, and I know there'll be no money for that.

I spent yesterday thinking the whole build may not happen. We finally read the 8 page document from the city instead of relying on the architect's summary. They are making all kinds of stupid suggestions, like adding fake stone in random spots on the facade, and railings around our ground level front porch. They have suggested making the front porch bigger, but we can't because of their own rules. They are particularly concerned about the side facing the side street. The architect has suggested a vertical stripe, which makes me so angry. I've fought stupid random stripes on the house 3 times already. I get that they are a staple in modern design, but the random highlighting of illogical features is what often makes modern architecture so ugly. In this case, it's a splash of colour that draws your eye to the window in the master closet. Why on EARTH would I ever want to highlight that? It's nothing special. It looks like we ran out of siding. But since the city wants us to add more interest to the side. DH thinks it looks fine, and it's cheaper than adding windows into a wall we had planned to hang art on. He's requested that it be something we can easily remove once we move in. (And that's totally allowed, we can paint the whole house bright green after we move in, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. But they can hold up our whole permit over ridiculous opinions on aesthetics, and force us to buy decorative elements that we'll just throw out later.) I don't think the architect understands that when I say "Easy to remove" I mean, on moving day, I want to pull out the ladder and remove 2 screws and be done with it. He's talking about making it even with the siding. I guess I need to be on site when the siding goes up to make sure they go right over it.

But, they may still decide that it's not enough, and we may still not get our permit.

I love it! We hope to have a pool table in our finished basement sometime in the future and I look forward to my boys stamping their hands in the concrete somewhere too. I think your house looks great, I am partial to blending in rather than standing out as well so I appreciate monotone in some settings. Where did your wife find her lights?

Mfatt-dh says broan but I will double check tomorrow!

Amber-hmmm, I will have to go back and check!

Saftgeek-wow. Very nice! More pics more pics! Love the handprints too. I hope I remember to do that!

akshars - Thanks for the close up of the Fantasy Brown. I wonder if that will be too creamy for my kitchen. We are doing White Dove perimeter with Steel Wool middle island. Gray Crackle back splash and probably a griege wall. Hmmm. What are your kitchen colors?

Autumn - Alaska White has also been on my list as a top choice. I called the slab yard in Utah today and I will be visiting on April 19th. He said that if I am going with a lighter granite it would be a good idea to put it on hold very soon as this is the season so many people are doing their remodels and builds. He said they have some Fantasy Brown and also are getting some Glacier White in soon!! Which has been my top choice for awhile as well. I cannot wait to see them all in person. He said that they could hold them for 30 days, no charge, or I could reserve each slab for $300 each and they will hold them until they are ready for them in July or August. I think that sounds great to me! He said that if I change my mind I will just have the credit go towards different slabs.

Saftgeek - I love the exterior of your home. I don't think it's boring at all. I think it looks very nice, and although I am more bold, it would be something I might even choose. Cool deal to get a great pool table! We will be looking at Craig's List, too, this Summer. It would be perfect for the basement!

Nothing to post about our build today. I couldn't even see what they were doing. I did see a random worker from another property walk over to our portapotty, though. That was pretty funny. I thought maybe he was walking over to work on the electrical. Nope! Just wanted to use our facilities. :) I'm totally fine sharing that.

Have a great night everyone!
Robyn

MFatt16 - Our lights came from Lowes and Home Depot. We have a similar one to match, which sits over the dining room table...

I have two T-5's in the basement garage and one circle fluorescent in the media room, otherwise all of our lighting is LED. Funny thing is our local utility starts selling LED bulbs 4 for $18 as of April 1. After spending wayyyyyy too much on LED, it gets cheaper once I'm done with that stage. Go figure...

Here is a pic of the rock wall my friends and I put up a while back. It was a lot of work. The labor estimate to put it in was $8k. I figured it was stacking rocks... only on a bigger scale. There was a bit more to it, but overall it really wasn't too hard. Now that some of the dirt work has been done, and the concrete is getting poured, I like it even more. It blends in with the surroundings very well. I can't wait to see it once I get the grass going.

In addition to the basement, I plan to spend a lot of time on the screened porch. I wanted to do something totally maintenance free so we went with suspended concrete. I had the concrete dyed so it would blend in with the brick better. There will be a 16' x 20' patio right outside the great room. We will have a fire pit and chairs there for use when the skeeters aren't too bad.

Last pic for March (I promise) is of the front entryway. I wanted to use cedar in the arched ceiling but the GC thought it would overshadow the door. I am planning to stain the door a dark brown. I hope that will make it pop.

Some followers of GW know I had a pretty bad year last year with the loss of two of my sisters to cancer. It was a running joke in my family for the last few years that I was never going to build. Three Christmases ago two of my sisters each gave me one brick. They told me they wanted to get me started and I could have another brick every birthday and Christmas. It was pretty funny. For some reason I saved those bricks. When my bricklayers were working on the front porch I asked them if they would lay them in, right next to the front door. I told them one of the bricks was given to me by my sister who had just passed away. When she gave it to me I know It was meant to be a joke. I don't think anyone can imagine how special and important these two bricks are to me. Even though my sister didn't get to see my new house, she is always there with us. When I see those bricks I think of my sweet sister and what a wonderful person she was. She was only 52 and wasn't ready to go. When you get a little stressed about all the craziness in your life take a moment to think about how blessed you really are to be able to build. What a wonderful thing we are all doing and how great is it to share with one another.

Good night GW...

Saftgeek-

amberm145 - that sounds terrible... it's like the city has all the drawbacks of an HOA but none of the benefits.

saftgeek - it's hard to tell but, have you moved in already? Either way that's very cool about the pool table. The previous owners of our place tried to sell us one but we wanted nothing to do with it, since it would have been stuck right in the middle of the family room-turned-pub.

I'm pretty sure drywall is done at our place. While sanding the existing painted walls I found a couple of dings, two outlets with a hole that's bigger than the faceplate and one short section where the old caulk line from the fake Victorian baseboards is still there. Not a big deal, I'll have it cleaned up in an hour. Then it's time to vacuum the walls and floors and start priming. Our timeline is to complete all the painting by the weekend, then start putting flooring in. As long as I can get over the fact that I hate painting ceilings and pick a shade of white it might be doable.