House Progress

Lots of exciting things happening this week!

The brick on the fireplace will be going up and hopefully the siding people will get the entire front of the house done so we'll at least be able to see what it will look like from the front.  I'm really happy with the color.  A lot of people have mentioned the color "blue" when referring to it which makes Jim cringe - the color we chose was "Trout Gray!"  I guess it has a little blue in it but the more that goes up, the more gray it looks.

The trim and ceilings are all getting several coats of paint.  It looks great so far!

We decided to put the paneling in the front entry, I'm really glad we did, it adds a lot to the space.

The paneling goes all the way up the stairs and all the way down, I can't wait to see all of this painted!

The first couple of stair newels are going up and I love them!  They look so big and substantial, the look we were going for.

Part of the mudroom cabinets were installed today!  I am really excited for this part - I've never had a mudroom and I am so excited to have a place to dump coats, shoes, gloves, backpacks, etc.! 

We had this window lowered because we couldn't see out.  It's going to hinder my plans for a shelf with hooks underneath it but I think the view out the window is more important.  We will still have a bench.  Maybe this side can be for backpacks, the other side for coats.  

I literally have a 2 foot shelf with about 5 hooks on it now shoved behind a door with about 15 coats on it so anything is going to be a million times better!

We started off the beginning of Spring Break with some beautiful weather so the kids were really excited to get outside and play.  Monday was really cold and rainy so we were stuck inside.  All I kept hearing was, "I'm bored" "Who can I play with?" and non stop fighting.  As I was trying to mediate all of it I kind of said under my breath, "We are not going to survive this week."  Paige immediately responded with, "Yes you are, you don't have a Nazi holding a gun to your head."  Um, yes, I guess she's got a point, I thought.  We did read a biography about Anne Frank a few weeks ago so I'm guessing she picked something up from the book.  

Paige is always coming up with some random statement that is somehow used appropriately and accurately.  It may sometimes be a little extreme (like a Nazi holding gun to your head) but I can't believe a 2nd grader has the verbal and mental capacity to absorb complicated concepts and situations and then remember them and be able to use the concept again in another situation that makes sense (if that makes sense).  She is so quick witted, articulate and intellectually way beyond her years. But also, still such an 8 year old in so many ways.  A complicated one she is.  We love that about her. 

House Progress

Siding is going up, slowly, but surely. 

The porch walls are being constructed, that white stuff on the top is actually foam, seems crazy that that's what they make the walls out of, I guess they cover it with stucco.

Here are the stair treds with a little bit of finish on them (it was just sprayed on for testing so it doesn't look even).  

I am so excited to see how the floors turn out!

The top is sprayed, the bottom is just the natural wood.  I love the look and grayish color of just the natural wood but I guess it's hard to get them to stay that way with any sort of finish.

The painters are starting all the trim, paneling, crown, baseboards, etc. this week.  The window seats and bookcases are going in the kid's rooms.  When the cabinet maker initially installed them, they didn't go to the ceiling so we are having them built up so that the effect will really be more of a built-in look.  

House Progress - Inside

The finished, unpainted coffered ceiling in the living room.

View from the front door.

The office coffered ceiling.

Looking from the east door towards the living room, kitchen area.

The coffered ceiling a couple days later.

The column that will be next to the banquette area.

View from the kitchen area into the living room.

Somebody had just gotten their hair cut and I couldn't resist shooting a few pictures of her!

Looking into the mudroom, pantry and powder room area.

The window looking west in the mudroom that we had lowered and enlarged because once it was installed we realized we couldn't see out and the view is so nice from that angle.  You obviously can't see it through all the stuff on the windows now but it's pretty.

Looking from the pantry into the mudroom and the entrance to the garage.

Upstairs in one of the girls rooms...can't remember which one.

Master bedroom.

In the playroom area, these are the newels for the stairs.

Landing window.

The view as you come down the stairs onto the main level.

The view from the font door.

House Progress - Outside

Who is this cutie?

House Progress

A couple more pieces of siding went up yesterday, yay!

Fall Family Photo Shoot

I'm playing catch up today, chipping away at several things that have needed to be done for a while.  One of the tasks was getting yellow stains out of my white shirts - exciting, I know.  I was going through some of our pictures from the last year and realized how behind I am in documenting our lives.  I think the house has pretty much consumed me.  So, I thought I'd at least post a few pictures that my mom took when she was visiting last fall.  It was kind of an impromptu photo shoot one night after Jim got home from work.  There is a tree lined street near us and I've always thought it would be such a great place to take pictures so I quickly got everyone ready and we headed out, hoping to get at least one picture for our Christmas Card.

I loved this one of the girls.

A little awkward but I loved the colors.

This is the one we ended up using for our card.  Not perfect and I didn't like the color as much as the one above but at least we all looked semi-normal :).

Thanks Mom - not such a shabby photographer!