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.