Color!

It's amazing how much color adds to the house and makes it start feeling like a real home. The color we picked for the whole house is Whole Wheat. It's a nice color and we saw a few of Jamie's houses that she decorated where she used the color throughout the house and we really liked it. I was also surprised at how green it can look in certain light. But, paint colors are amazing at how they change based on the light. The stairway looks like it's a completely different color, but it is getting reflection off of Amber's pink room, so it changes the color yet again.

It took me a little to get used to the color, but we are going to like it a lot. Once we get the cabinets, floors, carpet, tile, etc. in, it will take on new shades again, I'm sure. It's a nice neutral color that isn't white.

We selected "Mannered Gold" for the bonus room and I absolutely love it. It turned out really nice and is a good neutral, but fun color for this room. I think it will bring out some gold in the carpet we selected as well. We'll have fun with the day beds in the dormers also in this room. Yay!!

Countertops & Other

I met with the granite fabricator to find a remnant that we can use in the Powder bath and the Master bath. I found a great one that we think is big enough for both bathrooms. We had to buy 2 full slabs for the kitchen and butler's pantry. I'm hoping we have enough left over so that we can use it for the bench in the master shower. If not, we'll likely go with some kind of Corian product for that. I'm hoping we can use as much of the granite as possible. We bought it, I'd hate for him to get to resell the remnant for $19/sq.ft.

Other news from today:

1. They delivered the cabinets and are storing them in the garage. We opened a few boxes to take a peak at the Alder and the Cherry - they look great and we can't wait to see them installed!
2. They delivered the Hickory flooring today too. We got 3", 4", 5" random mix to vary the widths. It's going to look so good!
3. They also delivered all of the Alder trim today. The painter will stain the trim to match the cabinets.
4. We met with the indoor railing person and finally decided on a solution for the railing. We're going to do wrought iron with Alder newell posts.
5. We finalized the tile and carpet and stayed close to budget.
6. They finished connecting the water line and installing the water meter last week, so today they also finished grading the road and adding road base.

Things are coming together fast now, we just can't imagine why all this finish work will take 2 months to finish. Seems like they're close. They will have the Hickory floors laid by Friday (no varnish or finish yet). Then I guess they'll set cabinets, then varnish the floor - we're doing a natural finish on the wood.

Greenbelt

The boys wanted their rooms to be 'Greenbelt'. That was just too bright, so we went with Artichoke. They like it, but keep asking me if it's Greenbelt. Do I tell them? Regardless, they love it and I love it, so it's a win-win. (See Amber's room down the hall?!)

Pink!

Amber's room is pink. It glows from the rest of the house. I absolutely love it! The ceiling will be a few shades lighter and then we will put a bead board on the bottom 36" with the lighter color to match the ceiling, bathroom and closet. This is going to be so fun!