Paint Colors and Master Bath

We stopped out at the house this morning to walk my in-law's through it, as they hadn't been there since the first few days of framing.  We walked upstairs and were so excited to see the tile surrounding the bathtub and for the shower walls had been installed!

Additionally, ALL of the tile that had just been installed yesterday is now grouted and complete.  Ah-maz-ing.

Picking things out for the house - the upgrades, appliances, furniture, flooring - has been such an easy process for Kevin and I.  We have really agreed very easily on everything so far.  I wasn't sure that picking paint colors would go as smoothly, but I was pleasantly surprised!  This morning we finally decided on our final colors and we are thrilled about them!

Here we go:

From left to right (shown on our carpet sample):

Morning Room and Half Bath color - Rustic Adobe

Main floor (minus morning room and half bath), all of upstairs (minus bedrooms) and basement - Croissant

Master Bathroom - Travertine

Master Bedroom- Beach House

Of course, the picture doesn't show the true, true color, but you can get a feel for the neutral look we're going for.  All trim throughout the house is white, which is why I've laid the white paint sample across the bottom, to show the accent.

Three Weeks to Go ...

We met our new Project Manager on Friday.  Just as everyone else we've dealt with from Ryan Homes through this experience, he is super friendly and very professional.  We met him just around lunch time, so it was a busy time of day in the house.  The flooring people were there and we were amazed at what had been accomplished just since that morning.  Our tile in the kitchen / dinette / morning room / laundry room had already been laid (minus grout), hardwood in the dining room / half bath / foyer was about three-fourths complete, and the vinyl for the other two bathrooms was being cut.  We didn't walk upstairs to the master bathroom, so we weren't sure what had been accomplished in there as far as flooring goes.

We listened in awe as our PM told us what will be accomplished next week:

• Cabinets will all go in (we got to take a peek at them, as they are all sitting in the garage)
• Appliances will go in
• All lighting fixtures will be installed
• Driveway and sidewalks will be poured
• Fireplace stone will be installed
• Second coat of primer

Next week is huge.  He said it is one of the most exciting weeks at the house because it really all comes together.  We are going to head back out next Thursday again to take a peek at it all.  I can't wait!

The following week (week of July 26th), the following will be done:

• Siding
• Carpeting

The week after that (week of August 2nd), the following will be done:

• "Punch outs", where the PM goes around the house and puts pieces of blue tape on all blemishes, dings, and any imperfections he can find.
• Cleaning crew comes in and cleans top to bottom.

And the week after that?  Well then, we become true owners of our new house!!  We are still scheduled to close on Monday, August 9th and receive keys on August 10th!

Now it is all happening very, very fast!

Lots of Updates!

I have really been slacking on the updates.  May I blame the stomach flu that I had this past weekend?

As of right now, all drywalling is completed, taped and mudded!

This week will be spent priming the entire house.  Next week, flooring is installed!  That just seems like such a huge step to me.  Carpet will not be installed yet, though ... so flooring just includes the hardwood and tile. 

Our PM called last week to share the news that he is being transferred, so we've been assigned a new PM.  He left us a voicemail yesterday and we returned his voicemail today.  I hope that we can set up a time to meet with him in this next week or so.

Last night we went to the house to meet with the contractor that we used for SO much stuff at the old house.  We are wanting to get things all set up for he and his team to come and build our deck and patio.  We'd like this to be done starting the day after we close so that within days of actually moving in, everything is 'done'. 

Here is the decking we've decided on, as well as the railing.  Also shown is a picture that we found of how we'd like the flagstone patio to look:

I am also contacting painters to get quotes on painting the house.  This is a amazingly generous housewarming gift from my parents and we're SO appreciative, as this will save us (by 'us' I mean Kevin ... ha!) so much time and energy.  I hope to have someone lined up by the end of the week.  The only thing is that Ryan Homes will not allow ANYONE (not even a professional painter) into the house to do any work of any sort until we've closed on the house. 

Lastly, Kevin and I have started our last minute shopping for things for the house such as ceiling fans, bathroom shower curtains, etc.  We've been putting it off, but now realizing we have exactly four weeks (FOUR weeks from today!!), we need to get a move on with things.

Flooring, Flooring and More Flooring!

This afternoon we had our flooring meeting - our last and final meeting of picking things out (aside from a follow-up meeting with Guardian Technologies about some changes we want to make).  This was a lot of fun, just a teeny bit stressful, and more expensive than we had planned - but we kept focused on the fact that we want to do this the right way the first time and pick out exactly what we want!

Here are pictures of our selections:

Here is what we've selected for the master bathroom.  The soaking tub will be surrounded by the middle tile and then the top decorative tile.  The shower will have two full walls of the middle tile accented by the top decorative tile, and two full walls of glass.  Lastly, the bottom tile will be the bathroom flooring.

Here you can see our cabinet color.  (See my prior post to see our cabinets with the granite countertops).  Below it you can see the color of hardwood flooring that we've chosen, along with the ceramic tile.  The hardwood will be in the entry way, the dining room, the hallway to the living room and in the half bath.  All of these areas are connected, so you won't see a break in the flooring.  The ceramic tile will be in the kitchen, the morning room, and in the laundry room - also all connected.  At no point will the hardwood butt up against the ceramic tile, beacuse the living room separates the two areas and it will be carpeted.  The stain color of the hardwood floor is also what our stair rail and fireplace mantel stain will be.

 

Here are the two carpets we've selected - both very similar.  The top one will be in the main floor living room, on the stairs going upstairs, and in the entire top level.  We upgraded to 6-lb padding for these areas as well.  The bottom one will be in the basement, where we've upgraded to 8-lb padding.

One place where we felt we could save a little bit of money is in the full bath in the hallway of the top floor (Riley's bathroom) and in the basement full bath.  We're going to keep the standard (i.e. 'included") vinyl flooring in those two bathrooms.  Kevin wants to have a project eventually, so he said his project could be doing tile at some point in the future if we really want it.

So here is everything at a glance.  I loved the sales rep who helped us with all of this.  She has a college degree in interior design and it showed - she definitely helped steer us in the right direction with color decisions and we are thrilled at what we picked out!  (And yes, those are Riley's little legs in the corner of the picture.  I am glad she was part of the experience today, but wow - that wasn't easy!)