It's Showtime!

This is it, folks. The one where the house becomes a home. Because I think most of you would much rather see rooms with furniture in them then the blank canvas that we started with on move in day, I've decided it's time to show you House with Furniture. I took these photos about one week after we moved in, so you'll have to excuse some of the boxes still lurking about. 

Up first, our family room:


This room is begging for an area rug and that mantel is feeling rather naked. We'll work on that- don't worry. I'll show you the other wall once our nice tv stand arrives- you don't want to see the temporary solution we have there in the meantime.

Let's walk down the hallway to the living room, shall we?


Here we are! This is the room where our cute little chairs now live. I think I'll be getting rid of those book cases ala Craig's list in the future, but a good fix in the meantime. 


Now for the dining room- a somewhat sad state of affairs: 


Note puny builder issued chandelier and hand me down dining room table. I can't wait to get my hands (and wallet) on this room. It's begging for attention. My dream is to get some of it done before August when the wee bean arrives, but we'll see what time and money allows. 

Quick look at the powder room with mirror and one last peek downstairs at the laundry room now that we have appliances and some shelves:



You are probably not very excited by this room, but I am. Did you know that I've never owned a washer and dryer?! I've been part of the laundromat scene (or taking it to mom and dads when I go there into my 30's) until now. What you see here, friends, is my joy. We got the fridge, washer and dryer at a great discount from GE thanks to the fact that I have a supplier discount from my day job. Nice!

We'll skip the kitchen since there isn't much else to look at but a few utensils, coffee pot and toaster. I'll catch you up on that after our backsplash gets installed. Heading upstairs the first thing you see is the main bathroom. 

In all bathrooms, we decided to take a credit from the company that supplied our mirrors and closet shelving. In lieu of the big plate glass mirror that they'd normally install, I upgraded our closet shelving and furnished our own mirrors. I think the framed mirrors make the bathrooms look so much more finished.


Heading down the hallway to the guest bedroom...


and then our Master bedroom:



The bed and dresser were from our rental and part of a set that my husband bought. This room dwarfs them compared to the master in our rental. I got some cute little white nightstands to break up all of the dark wood. I can't wait to find some art for this room, and get some furniture for the sitting area in the opposite corner. Someday...

In the photo above, you'll see the hallway with our closets that leads to the master bath (the walk-in is to the right but you can't see it here).


The bathroom closeup:



I am really glad we didn't do the big plate glass mirror in here, because these give the room so much more character!

Finally, I will show you the one room that's left and the first one that we'll be working on feverishly through the next few months... 


The soon to be nursery!!! You may only get one more peek at this room until the big reveal closer to my due date, so keep this picture in your mind of how it all started. 

Ta-daaaaaa! This concludes the grand tour. Thanks for joining me on the journey of dirt-pile-becomes-home. More to come as we decorate and make it more "us." Hope you liked it!

They're hee-ere...

O.J. and Mr. Lime are back in their new skin! You recall this post in which we said goodbye to two of my husband's grandmother's armchairs. They used to spend time on our back sunporch and weren't fit to be sat upon. Here's O.J. ready for his close up:


Now here they are in our living room. There are so many rooms in our house that could use this lovely pair, but we'll leave them here for now and see where the years take them. Ready?

Oooh...

Ahhh...

Check out those legs...

I heart them!

If you can tell from the first picture of O.J., they used be skirted. We opted to have the skirting removed and repainted those legs with some glossy black paint before sending the chairs off for their makeover. I think it updates them and gives them a more contemporary look.

So, there you have the finished product. If you're in the Cleveland area and need a piece redone, check out  Select Upholstery. They'll completely repair and restore your pieces too - even the guts of these chairs got a much needed facelift.

What do you think?

(And if you caught the Poltergeist reference in the title, 10 points to you).

The Finished Product (Part 1)

After almost 6 months to the day that we bought a piece of land and started the process of building a home, we arrive here- late February and the day of our final walkthrough. Care to join me for a tour? Let's start with the first floor, shall we?

When you walk in the front door, you find yourself in our foyer. I love all of the light from the sidelights and the windows in the living room (to your left) and the dining room (to your right).


The coat closet and powder room are the doors on the right. Don't mind the lack of light fixture in the foyer- it was on backorder and came in just a few days later.


This is our vacant living/sitting room. Lots of potential in this room down the road- just have to brainstorm some decor ideas first...



Looking through the foyer, you get a peek at our dining room. I LOVE how the paint color turned out in here. The top photo is a more true representation of the actual color. It looks closer to navy in dim lighting and a dark royal blue when the sun shines (but not quite the peacock color it looks here on my little point and shoot). 


Oh, and did I mention the hardwood floors? Love those too. :) We went for a natural red oak floor- barely a stain on it at all. 

If I walked straight down the hallway from the main foyer, I would be standing in my breakfast area of the kitchen. Since our table doesn't get delivered for a few more weeks, I'll save those shots for later. I will give you a look at the kitchen though. I'll have to post pics of the kitchen from our rental so you can just imagine my excitement...



See that window in the top photo? It overlooks the backyard and a pasture of horses that live on a rescue farm right behind us. I dig all of the storage and counter space! The counters are very dark gray- nearly black. If you ask me, that island is begging for some barstools which will arrive with the kitchen table in just a few weeks. We plan to add our backsplash and upgrade the lighting fixtures with some better pendants too. These are okay for now, but not "the vision." 


Turning around now, you get the view of the family room or den as some folks call it. We love how the fireplace turned out! We had to pay a bit extra to upgrade the tile to a smaller 2" size in an offset pattern and it turned out handsomely. Nice and neutral- a blank slate for the decorating adventures to come!

Some less than exciting shots of the laundry room.



And the powder room that can't WAIT to be painted or wallpapered with something fun and funky:


A view from the hallway looking at the pedestal- the other view is the, um, royal throne. And we've all seen one of those, right?

That concludes the first floor tour. Be back next time with the second floor and FINALLY the house with furniture in it. YAY!

Take a Walk on the Trim Side

Hello! First celebratory post from New House! We've been in for just about two weeks now and are finally feeling settled. Everything has been moved, keys turned in at the old place, utilities (mostly) taken care of, and not too many boxes left to be unpacked. 

A little more catch up before the big "we live here" reveal, and as for my post title - there aren't many puns for what was called our "Trim walk," but I did my best. Our trim walk as the builder calls it is the opportunity for us to see the house with all drywall and trim in place before the final finish. This includes all woodwork, cabinetry and doors. The stuff that fancied up what was most recently a bare drywall only structure for some time. 

The first thing we saw when we visited this day was that the primer and stain were finished. If you look in the top corners, you'll see the color we chose for the foyer, "North Star" by Sherwin Williams. We had to pick paint colors out of a swatch book without being able to test them in the actual house, so I held my breath and hoped for the best. 


In our family room, the trim carpenter had installed our mantel and hearth. The white area inside and the little gaps beneath the mantel's "legs" as they call them would soon be filled with tile. Normally, when this particular builder does a tile surround there would not be much of a hearth - just a rectangular tiled area set into the carpet. We liked the idea of having a raised hearth so you could chill on the floor and lean against some pillows, so we designed something simple with the carpenter. Also, see the yellow wire sticking out the top of the mantel? That's going to be a hidden outlet so I can plug in some festive Christmas lights or whatever at some point in time. Wee!
  

The most exciting part of this walk through was by far the cabinets! The layout of the kitchen on paper became a reality. No countertops yet, but you'll get to see those soon. We chose a maple cabinetry. While I LOVE white, I thought I'd be happier with these long term to hide any potential dirt and wear and tear. The hole is where the dishwasher goes. You can see the island sticking out on the left a bit too. 

 

The lighting was a little dim in the corner from where I took that shot. Here's a better view of the color and another angle - this is where the fridge, range and over-range microwave will be. LOVE the cabinet space- we literally had four cabinets in our rental and that included one that was used as a pantry. 


Right next to the kitchen is the laundry room and entry area from the garage. We're using a darker gray color in here- this is just primer for now. 


Moving upstairs, we saw the little railings at the top landing. Our master and the linen closet are right behind it. The stain color is a pretty close match to our hardwood floors. 


J checking out the primer in the master bedroom. His closet and the little hallway to the master bathroom are in that back corner.


And the master bath takes shape! They installed trim around the soaking tub, and obviously the cabinets. We picked a deep color called "ebony" in oak for the bathrooms. It's very dark brown- nearly black (and still have lots of dust on them from the install in this pic.). You can also see they're getting ready to install flooring in here. 



The main bath was just starting to be primed- same cabinets as the master bath but the vanity in here will be 6 feet instead of 8. 


And last but not least, we have SHUTTERS! I was much happier with the darker gray stone when I saw the black shutters. They kind of tie it all in. The front door will be painted black as well, but we have to wait until Mother Nature brings us some warmer temps before finishing up the exterior paint.


A closer look at that second story center window to show you the soldiering work that they did with the stone. If you recall, this wasn't done with the original stone installation and they had to come back to reset it. I'm happy with it and think it adds a nice touch. 


That's all for the "trim walk." More goodies to come this week from the final finish work that was done before the final reveal. Can't wait to show you all!

The (Somewhat) Drywalls

I last left off with some photos of the final framing and the addition of our roof and windows. As promised, I'm skipping over the month or so that was spent on not so blogworthy but necessary steps in the build - the installation of our plumbing lines, electrical systems and the many inspections and meetings we had with contractors like the "low voltage guy." So, onto the fun stuff- drywall! The rooms finally take their final shape...

J peeking at the fireplace in the family room. 

Here's a view of the family room if I were standing by the fireplace looking into the kitchen. Those boxes are right about where the island will be. The door on the left is the laundry which leads to the garage. On the right you have the pantry, entry to dining room, basement door and hallway. I love the 9 foot ceilings and all of the light in this room!


Here is the foyer and the coat closet and powder room on the right wall. 


Now I'm in the dining room. Kitchen doorway is to my right.


Upstairs in the main bath we spotted some lovely lavender colored drywall. The field superintendent told us it's special mildew resistant stuff- not just for looks. 


Recognize this view? The bonus room with drywall! Won't it be cozy?!


Same room, different view. Straight ahead is the linen closet which is just outside the master bedroom. 


And to spare you any more pictures of drywall, the grand finale- we have an exterior! 


The siding came first and the stone just a few days later. I was a little upset when I saw the stonework. First, you have to take a chance on color. We ordered based on pictures we saw in a sample catalog and they can never guarantee color when it comes to stone. The grout looked weird (still wet) and the stone color looked a little off to me. I think it's the white snow on the dark gray/almost black room, and how the siding looks a little bland with no shutters. We chose black shutters to tie in some of the darker tones and grout color there. The main thing was that we spotted the first oops in the build process - they forgot to do some detail work around that center window up top (soldiering if anyone is stone-savvy). After a call to the builder, they assured us it was something that could easily be fixed- sigh of relief. 

And after this point, things slowed down a bit... It was so frigid here in Ohio in the December months that the drywall took FOREVER to dry. It caused about a two week delay, because the painters were scheduled next. Wet drywall + paint don't mix. I was getting more and more antsy in the early weeks of January but here we are... we get our keys at 9:00 AM this Friday! With just 2 days until we move into our new home, there is so much packing to do that I won't be able to do the final reveal until after the move. Don't worry - it'll be worth it! ! We are SO excited! Even Baby L. is excited and has been making his/her presence known with little somersaults and nudges this last week or two. 

Stay tuned!