Bathroom Vanities

We were originally going to have our contractor/carpenter build our bathroom vanities. Even though he is truly a talented carpenter, I have wanted to get the furniture-type vanities from the very beginning. I have been looking at them online and pricing them for months. We have decided that to save him time (he can be working on the many other built-ins instead) and us time (no painting/staining, installing hardware or granite) we are going to order the vanities that we love.

This is the vanity we chose for the master bathroom. Our vanities are on separate walls, so we will order two of these. The wood has a walnut stain and the top is black granite. It has good reviews, we just hope the reviewers' standards are similar to ours.



This is the kids' vanity. The wood stain is a dark espresso, almost black and the granite is black. It doesn't have as much detailing as the master bathroom vanities, but I think it is perfect for the kids. I know they will love having their own sinks when they get a little older, as will their Mommy and Daddy. ;)



For the 3/4 bathroom we are getting a pedestal sink. We haven't found the perfect one quite yet.

I can't wait to see these vanities in person!!

Picture Update

Brick has been slow going...temps are low and rain came today, but what has been done looks phenomenal!


Garage doors were installed yesterday! We are so pleased with the outcome. My sweetie did good when he picked those out.


They are bricking the front porch right now. I think they have bricked as much as they can for the time being. The columns are waiting inside and will be installed soon. We will paint the columns the exact color of the trim.

Doors/trim have been going in. This is a long process. We thought we would get all of our painting out of the way while we are on Christmas break. WRONG! The ceilings are finished and walls are primed, but the next step was installing doors. After they're trimmed out, they are taken off and painted and then put back up. When all of that is complete, we can paint the walls.


J has been working hard installing durock in the mudroom and bathrooms.

Here is Mark. He is building the frame that the spa tub will sit in. When the tub is in J can finish up the durock in that bathroom.


This is beginning to feel like a never ending project. The closer we get to the end, the more things we add to the to-do list. Our February goal for moving in has been REJECTED. Maybe we can move in on Spring break, or better yet- be settled and rest on Spring break.

Jesus' Birthday!

Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday Dear Jesus,
Happy Birthday to You!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government
will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Shelbie

Shelbie is our elf. He is visiting our home for the first time this year and we love him so much! Shelbie got his name from our 4 year old daughter, G. She came up with three names for us to choose from #1- Harry #2- Shelbie #3- Kit. J and I loved Shelbie, so Shelbie it is from here on out.

If you are not familiar with this popular Christmas tradition among families with young children, let me explain. I first saw elves around blog land two years ago and was a little curious. Then last year, the school that I work at got an elf. I was able to see the joy on the kids' faces each day as they tried to find "Skeeter". I knew I had to get an elf for our family, so the search was on. I found "The Elf on the Shelf" and was so excited for this Christmas to roll around so I could pull him out and introduce him to my children.



"The Elf on the Shelf" is a storybook and comes with a little elf that your family names. Every day the elf sits in a specific location in your home and watches the children. At night while the kids are sleeping, he flies to the North Pole and reports to Santa, telling him whether the kids were naughty or nice that day. Then the elf flies back to the house and finds a new spot to watch the children from.

My kids have thoroughly enjoyed this new tradition, especially G because she understands. B is still too young to get it.

Shelbie has made himself comfortable in many different places in our home....

watching for good behavior on top of the window treatments:


from the artificial plant in the dining room:


and from the picture frame in the hallway:


Shelbie has made it quite apparent that I need to clean some of these hard to reach places.....he has gathered a good deal of dust on his felt attire. He definitely needs to use the lint roller before going back in the box for another year.

Paint

We (J and Mark) have started painting. They began on Sunday and they have all the walls primed and the ceilings have primer and color. Spraying goes a whole lot faster than rolling....if only we could spray everything. We'de be done in no time!

I am going to share some of our paint colors. We have painted 2 complete houses before this one and we always turn to Dutch Boy from Walmart. We LOVE it! It has great coverage and I am a fan of the plastic easy-pour containers. The colors we chose are actually Color Place swatches, but we are getting them mixed in Dutch Boy. Color Place had a much better selection.

I know computer monitors don't always depict the true color. This is the paint we will be using for the foyer, great room, kitchen, breakfast nook, hallways, desk area and 3/4 bath. These spaces are all open to each other (except for bathroom) so I wanted one color. This is called Natural Bark and the swatch has brown tones.



For those spaces, the ceilings will be in Walnut Wash. It is a few shades lighter than the walls and it does not have pink undertones like my screen represents. UGH.


The mudroom will be in Breadfruit, which may be my favorite color. It is a beautiful green, maybe a little brighter than avocado green. UPDATE 1/11/11: The mudroom will NOT be in Breadfruit. The color is hideous! Ha! See how tricky paint can be??



The dining room, which is right off the foyer, will have vertical stripes in Colonial Cream. We will get a flat and a semi-gloss so the stripes are real muted.



Greyhound will be used in the playroom. I will be using khaki, browns, and true red as accents in the room. I found this beautiful painting of a little girl and her younger brother on the beach and that was my starting point for the room.



Here is B's bedroom color (Cafe Au Lait) and we will also use it in the garage.



G's bedroom color did not look like the swatch at all- so it will be a soft yellow, Silk Cypress, and Colonial Cream. We will be doing thick horizontal stripes.

The kids' bathroom color didn't come up on the website I was using. It is a rust orange called Turned Leaf.

I am still debating on the master bedroom and bathroom. I need to get the tile first for the master bath before I can go any further with paint.

And this is the wallpaper that I am getting for my desk area that is between the dining room and kitchen. I love polka dots, these dots are large and I love the way they are antiqued.


I am excited to see it all come together. Paint is scary...lighting and other colors in the house can really throw off the color. Fingers crossed that everything turns out like the swatches!

Master's Graduation

J graduated yesterday with his master's in Educational Leadership. It was a day we have been waiting for for well, two years (since he began)! We are so thankful and blessed that he had the opportunity to attend classes so close to home and while it was a little difficult on our family because we had to sacrifice some family time, it could have been much harder and nearly impossible if he had to attend classes at the actual university. We are so proud of him and are anxiously awaiting a Principal/Assistant Principal job opening close to home.

Our family:

With J's parents:

With my parents:

With J's Gran:

Update

*The trim work and cedar shakes are finished! Let me tell you, this guy was so meticulous with his work. He would do a little cutting and bending and stand back and look at his work and cut a little more and look again. I'm glad we were paying him by the job and not by the hour! He did fantastic work.

*The brick layers are still working as long as the temps are warm enough. The north wall is done and they're almost finished with the west wall.

*The drywall finishers wrapped up their work today. It looks awesome and is ready for some primer and paint. We went and picked paint colors tonight. (I went last weekend to choose colors and I wasn't successful. I feel much better about the colors we picked tonight.)

*Our heat and air guy is getting very close to being finished- thank goodness! Temps are getting well below freezing at night and we've had to run diesel heaters to keep the water in the pipes from freezing. I will feel much more comfortable when we can just turn the regular heater on at night.

*The garage doors are in and ready to be installed. It may be Monday until we are to the point where we can get them put in.

*The interior doors are in. We need to have everything primed before they can be installed.

*I have received almost all of the lighting. I am tickled with the choices I made. J was opening boxes the other day, checking for damage and making sure it was the correct light, etc. He says to me "There are two lights with crystal things. Is that right?" Well, that's what happens when you let the wifey be in charge of lighting. Some of them will be a little girly. "Yes babe, that's right." I will be a little giddy when they are finally hung, I'm sure of it.

*The front porch columns and shutters are ordered.

*We are trying to get some brick flooring ordered for the mudroom, 3/4 bathroom, and kids' bathroom. The company is being a little uncooperative.

*We have started talking cabinetry, gathering pictures of kitchens and decorative range hoods that we like. Decisions are getting harder because I like a lot of different styles. I just hope that the house as a whole has a timeless look to it because we won't be re-doing anything for a LONG, LONG time! ;)

*There will be a guy coming to blow insulation in the attic on Monday. J was going to do it himself, but handed it over to the professionals for a very small amount of money.

We are several steps closer.....and February is about 7 weeks away. Will we make it?

J graduates with his masters on Saturday! WOO-HOO!!!

Brick, Shakes, and Trim

Drywall

This is the upstairs bonus room. We plan to use this extra space for storage, but I think J has secret plans of turning it into a man theatre years down the road.


This is B's room.

Here is G's room.

This is the master bathroom. My vanity will be on the right, jacuzzi tub on the left, J's vanity back left, shower is the opening on the left, commode is the opening on the right, and the doorway on the far right goes to the closet.

This is our room. I am absolutely in love with the sitting area and windows. We were debating about just making that a straight wall with less windows to save money and I'm so glad we didn't go that route. I think it is worth the extra money.

Great room!

My sugar pies in their playroom...