The Finished Product

The project is FINISHED! October 1st was the day we broke ground, and we closed on the house on February 27th. It was an amazing, awesome experience! Absolutely NO REGRETS!!

We finally painted the house (the weather FINALLY cleared up) this past weekend, and here are the final photos.

 Some feng shui in the door. :)

WE hired Castaneda painting to do the exterior....and it was totally worth it. They had the whole project done in 8 hours!!! They're super-fast and very, very talented. The detail work was amazing!



The brick walkway we put in ourselves.




We still have no topsoil or grass, but we did get a bid from somebody this week. We'll be putting in a patio and plenty of shrubs & trees.

So this closes the door on this intense, amazing, rewarding project. :) It's been fun!!!

Back-tracking

So, since the last post, we have had our open house, and have progressed rapidly towards moving in. Here's a few pics to show you how FAST the last 2 weeks have been.

 Beautiful appliances installed

 The kitchen is looking amazing!

 Chandelier & pendant lighting installed.

 Some deals @ Costco scored & unpacked for display in the living room.

 Driveway added (actually this was more like....a month ago, but I never added any pics, so...)

 Our family project: brick walkway. Very exciting to see this finished!

 Outdoor lights added.

 Carpeting installed: this happened just 4 days before the open house. I'm amazed they got the entire house done in ONE DAY.

 HAHA!! Ben's Valentine's Day present from me. :)

Studio sign up, and bringing business in!


I'll post more pictures later of the final product. We are waiting on the city to install the gas line before we can have occupancy of the home. Also, there are a couple minor details in the house for the finish carpenter to wrap up (such as, you may have noticed, there are no knobs on the kitchen cabinets). Also, the septic as-built inspection did not transact as expected. Grrr......

It's "as good as done," though. And I like to just go over there and hang out in the beautiful rooms, imaging where to put our furniture. :) I expect to be in the house by the end of the week.

Almost Finished!

Wow! The last two weeks have gone by SO FAST. After the painting marathon, we had contractor after contractor come by, and the house was literally BUZZING with work. (picture, saw-mill set up in the living room)

Trim is almost done, plumbing is 90% there, the vinyl floors are in, washer and dryer work, all the toilets flush, and sinks work.....it's pretty amazing!

Ben installed the appliances this week (we purchased our own online)

One thing important to note: The fridge is cabinet-depth. It was a little extra $ to get it, and you end up with about 6" less space to store food in.....but it's WORTH IT. With this kitchen design, a regular fridge would have stuck WAY out into the needed maneuvering space. I was surprised to see that even with the cabinet-depth fridge, you still see a little sticking out into the room on the pantry side.


Cabinets:  Adair gave us a wonderful, wonderful deal of the gorgeous raised-panel beech cabinet for no extra charge---IF they came without stain. I mentioned this before, saying how pleased I was, I wanted to stain/paint them black. Et Cetera. After hundreds of hours of research, changing my mind 8 or 9 times, looking at the developing light in the kitchen, and finally seeing the gorgeous green paint on the walls, I ended up feeling there was not quite enough light in the kitchen area to do a great job with all-black cabinets. So, I went with the look in this photo:

So far, I've painted all the faces and doors with a creamy "polar bear" white. Next step is to add a rich chocolate colored glaze just to the crevices. This will age it and soften the glaring white a bit.The island got a great satin black--2 coats, and Ben added the bead board and posts to the end for some detail. I'm DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY with it!!! The only thing that could make it better would be some sparkling white corian countertops (or granite or marble. )

The cabinet saga was a long, drawn-out process. I gave myself originally 4 days to do 40 cabinet doors plus faces. It ended up taking me more like 40 hours. I worked every day (but one) from Thursday to the following Sunday (tonight), and I still have 2 doors to finish up with top coats. My shoulders are killing me. Oh yeah.......and glaze them all. :)

The upstairs cabinets are pure white, while the downstairs are cream. I'll post more pics as I walk through tomorrow. Off to get my shoulders rubbed down and take some tylenol!! Painting cabinets in a 2100 sf home is NO JOKE!!!!!! (but totally worth it!)

Electric Finish and PAINT!

 Yellow inspires creativity and stimulates the mind. It is an "energy" color. That is why I chose it for the studio. Two pianos will sit side-by-side under those high windows.

 Great room/kitchen

 Ben's office. 

 The purple guest room. :)

 Restful grey master bedroom.

 Pop of "spa" color in the bathroom.

 Purple guest bathroom. :)

Tomorrow we'll be mounting the new studio sign on the front lawn, and installing the mailbox underneath it. It will be OFFICIAL. :)

More Progress

This week Ben drew up plans for a front porch. So far, this is what we have:

Then it snowed!!! So, we're just waitin' on the weather to clear up. In the meantime, I'm working inside on "mental" projects, such as refining my paint choices, experimenting with wood stain (cabinet practice) and working on my sign.

We also got the attic space insulated, and here's a photo Ben took by sticking the iPhone up into the attic space: 

The drywall is mostly dry, and the cracks are mudded. We expect to see texture next week....and possibly even start painting before the weekend!

Insulation and Shingles

So here we are post-Christmas, ringing in the new year with insulation, and a "finished" exterior. The siding is done, and it is looking VERY CLOSE to the autocad picture.

Studio double windows. 

We decided to insulate the garage ourselves. Ben is going to get started on that himself this week. I'm so glad my husband is good at this kind of stuff.  Doing this side by side with experienced builders is such a great introduction to the world of building. We love this process....there's nothing quite like seeing your home go from the ground upwards.

 The sheet rock is coming up next......  :)

This last one is a cool shot of the underside of the house. Ben stuck his phone down the crawl space access and clicked a shot. You can see the foundation walls that were out in broad daylight a mere few weeks ago. Very cool. There is a moisture barrier in place (the sheet of black plastic), now, helping to keep us dry from the ground-upwards.

Siding and Doors

Just some pictures of the progress this weekend.

We have doors, now!! This week we're doing the not-so-obvious work like septic, gas and electric trenches........

and some beautifully obvious work like SIDING!

The primer color is kind-of Bleah....can't wait to see our colors. We're still vacillating between a brown and a grey. Can't decide!!

Christmas finds us moving out of our rental in Yelm to stay our last few weeks with friends in Lacey. Luckily, they live about 1 mile from the building site, and I will be so relieved to be able to keep better tabs on the house this way. Also, we will be able to save while not paying rent. :) :) :) That's always good!