Saturday, February 2, 2008

Complete!

I am happy to announce that the house is complete. We moved in last Saturday; it was a beautiful, sunny, warm day and perfect for moving. It took the 2 movers 11 hours and they did a great job.

We are getting settled although there are still boxes, things to do, like hanging pictures, etc and, most importantly, from my perspective, things to be built. :-) I plan to do a mantle, built in book cases, entertainment center(s), bed head board, dresser(s), etc. First, I have to get my shop in order which requires a few new tools (a teaser for the wood workers that read this) and mostly time, a precious commodity right now.

Since the house is complete, I won't add to this blog going forward, however, I am considering a sequel, Merle'sShop. I will announce that when/if it happens.

Finally, we want to thank everyone that has watched our house become a reality and has helped us through the process. Especially, our builder, Joe,who has been very patient with us, educated us, frustrated us and brought the project in late and over budget, but did a great job and delivered a great house.
Thanks,
Merle & Michelle

Saturday, January 19, 2008

It's coming together!

The major events this week are that most of the appliances were installed in the kitchen, the tile is finally complete, the painter completed painting the accent walls and the stairs were finished.

Here are some shots of the kitchen tile and the appliances.









Michelle will take the white film off the oven when the workers are done.



The tile back splashes in the master bath and the powder room.





The accent wall in the great room.



The wall paper in the dining room.



The stairway.



There isn't much left to do. The driveway has to have gravel put down, the propane has to be connected to the hot water heater and the cook top, touch up painting and finally cleaning. Then the final round of inspections and you all know how I feel about those.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Finishing Touches

We are getting close to having the house completed. We have scheduled movers for January 26th. They finished hanging the doors throughout the house and only have a few door knobs to install.





The finish face is now on the fireplace.



The plumber was back and installed all the faucets, etc. He still needs to install the shower head in the guest bath and finish the appliances when they arrive tomorrow.

The powder room.



The master bath.



The kitchen.



The iron monger put in the railing over the stairway and the railing for the stairs. He made the supports for the stairway railing to match the design we chose for the medallions in the railings.







The stairs now have finished oak treads and risers, but I didn't take any pictures of them because they are covered with cardboard until after the appliances are delivered.

That is all for now.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Progress resumes

After having been scheduled several times, the counter tops finally were installed this week. We used the same stone, Bianca Antiqua, in the kitchen, master bath and guest bath. The powder room is Comet and the fireplace hearth is Absolute Black. The installers were about to leave the job, because they couldn't get the largest piece into the house due to its weight, but our builder arrived on the scene and insisted they call in reinforcements to carry it up the stairs. Joe earned his money Friday! We put plastic over the below fixtures to, hopefully, keep the granite dust off them.





The sink is black fire clay, supposedly indestructible.



The cook top was just dropped into place for the photo shoot.










The carpeting was also installed in the bedrooms. I wish I could get better color rendition.