Happy Fall!!

I love decorating the mantle for different seasons. I got this idea a few years ago from a magazine and I will say I look forward to picking out 3 white pumpkins every year.  I just hand draw the BOO on with sharpie. The kids like that I do the same thing every year.

Kitchen Countertops are in! Well…Almost

We bought the granite for our countertops from Solazzo Marble and Granite in Columbus.  Tony Solazzo was great to work with.  They have an awesome selection of huge slabs of marble and granite and I was able to go in and pick the actual piece I wanted.  And Bella, their sweet sweet dog was always welcoming when I came in.  For the countertops I chose Absolute Black.

I looked at a couple of other blacks, like Black Pearl but I wanted as true black as I could get.  

For the black island I wanted a contrasting countertop.  This was a little tough because many of the granite pieces were either too brown or too grey or too busy.  I took home a few chunks to play with and decide.  Mainly deciding between Kashmir White and Ivory Brown.  At the end of the day I chose Ivory Brown.  

(I will say I don't think this picture is a good representation of the color.)

With all the grey I didn't think anything with the word brown would be in my selection but the piece they had was beautiful.  I picked a piece with a huge vein down the middle that had a ton of character.  BUT…. Things happen and somehow the measuring did not include the overhang for the additional seating on the end of the island so I had to go back and pick another piece.  I was thrilled with how it turned out.  Once again, I stayed in the category of granite for my pricing….YAY!!!

The grey's are difficult to work with to not make it too cold.  This countertop had just enough warmth that it helps blend in all the colors. 

Rollin'

So while I am here...

and Here…

I assumed things would keep rolling on the house.  What I didn't expect to hear about was this weird phenomenon called snow rollers back home.  Check these out!!

New-el Word for Me

Even with a  master's degree I had no idea what our builder was talking about when he would say "NEWELS".  He would tell me I had to be thinking what I wanted the 'newels' to look like but I was always left thinking……To do list: Find out what a newel is!!!

What I did find out is that it's the wood end part of what my parents always called a banister.  Anyway of course another detail to consider.  We went to Interior Wood Products here in Plain City, Ohio and looked at all of the options for the iron spindles we wanted, came up with a pattern and looked at different options of newels.  Success!!

Keeping with the style of all the woodwork door trim etc. in the house, the mystery newels were completed!!

As I mentioned the style is very square and old farmhouse.  Nothing too ornate looking.

Fireplace/Masonry Work

Now things are really starting to take shape around here.  We are using the exact same stone from the exterior of the house on the fireplace/mantle inside the house.  I had looked into using the same colors but changing to more of a ledge stone look but the price difference was not worth the upgrade to me.  We used all Dutch Quality Stone on both the interior and exterior of our home.

All of our stone products were purchased from Columbus Builders Supply right here in Plain City, Ohio.  Look at that! Another locally owned business!!

This is the Prestige Ledge Stone that I considered using.

This is the Kentucky Blend Limestone which is what we also used on the exterior of the house.















Before the joint work, this is what the fireplace looked like.  Adds so much dimension to the room.

Playing Catch Up

Since I have been a total slacker on updating this blog, it is definitley time to play catch up!  I figure I need to start somewhere so why not start with today and work backwards!!?  We will see how it goes. We are less than 1 month away from moving in!!! Which I totally cannot believe.  It seems like it was just yesterday we started yet it seems like we have been waiting forever.  

So much has been done since Oct 20 which is where I have to start posting from, believe it or not.  Today the lockers in our laundry/mud room were built and installed.

These were drawn and re drawn several times.  At first I had designed it with 5 lockers (1 for each kid and then 1 for Jeff and I).  Then I saw all these great ideas on Pinterest and Houzz that made me think i wanted a separate cabinet for laundry baskets.  I loved how organized it looked, so I knocked it down to 4 and a vertical cabinet with shelves for laundry baskets.  When the measurements came out I did not like the size of the lockers or the cabinet so we moved it to 4 lockers.  We are putting a shelf up higher to sit the baskets on.  

*for those pinterest addicts that have seen the baskets under the washer/dryer, beware.  Lot of noise when those washers and dryers are on a wood platform.  That is why we didn't go that route.  

So here are the lockers!  You can see in the second picture better that I had outlets installed in each locker.  All phones, ipads etc can be plugged in here at night.  Those of you who know me know that I am not a big device fan when it comes to the kids.  I'm hoping to create a habit that this is where things get plugged in at night.  We don't need to be taking phones, ipads, etc into the bedrooms at night.  We will see how successful this is.  I'm also hoping this habit will result in fewer LOST devices!!

The top compartment will have doors, the bottoms will have drawers.  Each locker is approximately 19" wide.  I'm hoping this will be perfect for 3 hooks in each one.  

Beam me up!!

One of the features we had figured into the great room was old barn beams to run the length of the great  room.  We had access to one beam that was long enough and we were hoping we would be able to pull the other out of the barn on the property but we couldn't find one quite long enough.  We needed 21' of beam to go the length of the room.  After a lot of searching on Craigslist I was finally able to find one that was similar to the one we already had and at a reasonable price.  Winning!!

 You can also see the beginning of the built-ins, fireplace and tv cabinet.

50 Shades of Grey

The most painful parts of the building process for me were paint colors and lights.  Today I will talk about the what quickly became the joke around the house which was 50 shades of grey.
I knew I wanted grey tones but I wanted them slightly different throughout the house.  I had NO idea grey paint was so difficult.  Trying to find grey's that are warm and don't look blue, or purple, or pink, or army green was a challenge.
It seems like every day I would come to the house with a new paint sample from Sherwin Williams….and inevitably someone would make a joke.  "Here she comes again, wonder how many samples she's bringing in today."  I could have probably painted the house twice with how much money I spent on paint samples.

This is a box full of grey paint samples:

Here is just one of the walls where I would test colors.  

I know it looks ridiculous but I am sooooo grateful I took the time to go through this 'paint'-staking process.  I have received several compliments since the house has been completed of how well all the grey's work with the warmer wood tones we have as well.  That compliment holds a special place in my heart because of how much I stressed over all those colors.

DIY IKEA Vanitiy

While the crew is on vacation for the holiday I decided to get one of the vanities I had bought at IKEA put together.  This one will go in the 1/2 bath.

Ta-dah!!

I have to wait to do the drawers because they have to make cut-outs for the plumbing to fit under the sink.  But hey, it's a start.  

Christmas Miracle or Mean Mom of the Year Award

     The new house provided a great place to hide and wrap all the Christmas presents and since we were living in a tiny tiny house, I thought it would be great to have the kids open their presents in the new house.  But how would we go about doing that Christmas morning?

     Our oldest is in 5th grade and surely this will be her last year believing in Santa Clause so he might as well go out with a bang.  

     I had a master plan to set up the basement in the new house with a tree and all the presents but prior to the kids coming to the new house we thought we might put a damper on the sugar plums dancing in their heads.  We planned to have the awaken to no presents in the rental house and lead them to believe Santa had put them on the dreaded NAUGHT LIST!!  Then surprise them with all of their presents in the new house.  

     They played into my plan nicely by being especially naughty on Christmas Eve.  Our normally well behaved children had been overcome with a holiday spirit that was anything but nice.  There was crying, fighting and even biting if I remember correctly.  It almost pleased me that they had picked this night of all nights to be as naughty as I had ever seen them.  They were so naughty indeed that I couldn't even take them to Christmas Eve service at church!  

This would make the Naught List story all that more believable!!

Here's how it went down (Excuse the videography with the iPad.  I'm aware it's horrible)

After the horrible news they opened up the gifts they had bought for each other.  Then they had a plan:

This is what I had set up at the house on Christmas Eve:

Keep in mind I had kept them out of the house for quite some time so they had not seen the cabinets or anything yet.  

And finally the big reveal:

Some thought it was a very mean trick but none of the kids took it that way.  I think it will be something we will all look back on and laugh….except maybe Owen:)

It was a great Christmas Morning! Happy Birthday Jesus!!

While the builder is away the children will play

While the crew is on break for the holiday.  I came in to find the kids had been having fun with all the shims lying around.  They must have been building some kind of track is all I can figure.

Kitchen Cabinets

     We had a great experience with  Compton Cabinet Company in Centerburg, Ohio.  They do amazing custom cabinetry work and I would recommend them to anyone looking for high quality cabinets.  We researched using big box stores cabinets to save money but for the price we made out much better using Compton.  I'm a firm believer in supporting local family owned businesses whenever possible so it was a great fit for us.  Jarrod, sat down with us and we were able to design all the cabinets for the whole house.  I knew I wanted white shaker style cabinets in the kitchen with a black island that had some distressing to it.  I gave him a few pictures and he did exactly what I wanted.

Here are some of the pics I showed him when designing our cabinets:
I chose this pic because I liked the look of the white cabinets with the dark counters and dark island.  It also has a farmhouse sink similar to the one I had chosen and much of the character was similar to what I wanted.

Another component I wanted to add was a wine rack and cookbook shelving.  

This pic I chose again for the dark island but more because our island was also going to have some seating on the end.  I also liked the style of the leg on the end.

Here is the drawing that Jarrod created of our kitchen design.  Pretty accurate except for the countertop color - ours is black.  But this gave us a good idea of what our kitchen would look like.

My favorite part is if you look at the corner cabinet, that is an appliance garage with an outlet on the inside. My toaster and mixer stay in there without being out on the countertop - LOVE!

Here is the layout

Here is the finished version - well almost.  Clearly appliances and countertops are missing.  

Researching TV mounts and Locker Styles

Next task was planning some of the built-in features of the house.  The two biggest projects would be the lockers in the mud room/laundry room and the wall unit in the great room.

This is where websites like Houzz are a great resource for ideas and finding specific features you want.

There were certain things I wanted.  First was the color.  I wanted them white to match the trim.  Ideally I wanted 5 lockers total (one for each child and one grown up locker). 

I also wanted them equipped with outlets.  I'm a big advocate for not allowing devices in bedrooms, especially after a certain hour.  So a charging station in each one would make this an easy place where they could plug in and know where there devices are and make sure they are not in their rooms at night.  

While I liked the clean look of both of these style lockers, I was hesitant about doors.  For one I knew they would get a lot of use and that's a lot of banging around.  Secondly, I did not want my kids to think they could cram anything they wanted into their locker as long as they could get the door shut.

I liked the look of the grey but I wanted a shoe cubby for each locker that was more of a drawer.

I also wanted the ledge to be deep enough to sit on.  Just taking little pieces from many different pictures helped me design the look I wanted.  

For the built-ins which would include a place for a TV above the fireplace.  I am not a huge fan of television, mainly because it prevents those in my house from getting done what needs to get done.  So I wanted to be able to put it out of sight.  I also did not want a beautiful stone fireplace with an eyesore of a television smack in the middle.  Finding a way around this proved to be challenging but here were some of the places from which I drew inspiration.

I love the barn door look, but the X's were a little busy for my taste.

I really liked the ability to slide them out.  This would provide maximum visibility.  I loved the track look but with our set up, it probably won't work for us.  But these are the ideas I took to the builder to create the final look.  

Stay tuned to see what the final look will be!

Distressed Wood Bar top

So I had a vision for the basement that was very rustic.  I wanted to use parts of the existing barn.  I had seen a blog where they took a butcher block ikea counter top distressed it, stained it and I thought it would be an inexpensive DIY project.  I planned to do concrete countertops so I was excited to put the wood, concrete and metal all together.

http://lamaisonbuck.com/2012/08/20/diy-distressed-wood-counter/

Is where the inspiration for the bar top came from.  I found the directions extremely detailed with lots of hints.  Mine was done indoors so I was able to eliminate a lot of the issue the original post.  I tweaked things slightly but did many of the same things.

This is the IKEA butcher block counter top I started with:

Fortunately for me it was the exact length that I needed so I did not have to cut it to size.





















I started with some basic distressing tools.  Log chains, hammer, nails, etc.

Then I started the staining process.  I used both gel and oil based stain as the original poster had suggested.  I would say total it took a maximum of a week to completely finish making sure everything was sanded and dry between every coat and that included 3 coats of poly.

After the distressing and first coat of stain

  Staining finished.  Now onto the polyurethane.

I love the way the finished product turned out and I think it will fit well in the decor of the basement.  And I did it myself!!!

A Couple Exterior Pictures

When I went back and looked, it didn't look like I had included any pictures on the walk out side of the house.  I also don't think I included any drawings or renderings so I wanted to add those as well but I need to find them!  Doing this in retrospect is much more difficult than doing it as I went along!  

November 19, 2013

Nothing too exciting today other than the ceilings being painted.  They work fast around here!

November 14th

Chuck has been very busy out front with more siding.
And if you look closely the black metal roof has been started as well.

I love the shake in the peaks.