Pictures in Blair's bath

I am very pleased with the pictures in Blair's bathroom. They are photographs I took and one from a friend. (thanks Lee) I photoshoped them into a sepia finish and printed them at Costco. The biggest challenge was the frames. I did not want to spend a lot of money- my original plan was to make the frames, but I found cheep pictures in 12x12 frames at Walmart- took the pictures out and used the frame! His rustic looking bathroom is about done!

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Moving Day II

Today the men and their truck loaded us up and took everything to the new house. What a long and exhausting day. They moved stuff for 11 1/2 hours!

I had my rugs down and ready for the furniture.

Carpeting

The carpet went in the upstairs den and guest room. These are the only rooms in the house with carpeting. I hope that works out okay. I will be glad not to have to keep the carpet clean, but I for see dust bunnies moving in.
The guest room got a nice frieze (which is a fancy name for 'We brought back shag')

and the den has a low pile with squares in it. It is kind of funky, but I love it!

The Front Door

I love my front door! Lumpkin Stain Glass put it together for me . I liked the old door at the restaurant were we eat in Foley. Patricia and I copied what we could from that door, added our own touches, made it affordable, then went with it! Lumpkins is so good to deal with and I love the work they did! Now I need the door knob to make it all complete.

Warning

The purpose of this blog was to help anyone building with the order of building and to mark the progress of our house for our "scrapbook". Along the way I have recommended some of the subcontractors and given warning about others. Today, I am strongly recommending that anyone interested in residential elevators run from Southern Mobility Products. In the process of getting the elevator running properly, Steve (the short installer with glasses) has acted like a total jerk. He quickly jumps to his defences and begins chewing the customer out. Yesterday, he began on me-He informed us that he was going to keep 'making the builder do it till he got it right'. I suggested that he make a list of what was required and give it out so builder and trim would know what to do rather than guessing. He flew off the handle at me. David stepped up and told him to stop, and I walked away.
Do not use this company. This little dude thinks he is educating the world with his elevator knowledge, and he is hard to work with.

Looks like home

Athletic Landscapes did an awesome job on the landscape. They started working in the morning, and by the afternoon we had a finished yard. Shutters and the glass for the front door will give the finishing touches!

Tile is done!

This is Alex's bathroom. The picture does nothing for the tile. We were short on glass in this one, so made a design with what we had. I like it- it's different.

Blair's bath is going to be the best. They haven't washed down the walls yet- the tile here looks like wood, and the floor is rock- it is like showereing outside!

The guest bath was my least favorite, but it has kind of grown on me.

Guest bath again.

Master car wash. The picture is poor, but this one turned out great too.

All better now

I had a major melt down over the weekend about the tile going in the house, but I am all better today. First of all, we have had nothing but trouble getting the tile from W&W Supply. They told us it would be here and it never showed, didn't order some of the tile, and then ordered two different colors of one of the tiles. We have been trying for three weeks to finish a job that should have taken 1 week. Then as the sweet guys hung the tile over the weekend- I thought it looked horrible. I really thought I was going to throw up. I went back today, and it looks good. I can live with it- and may even like it. I got suckered into tile in the show room, My advice is: plain is good, especially if you have a great looking bathroom.
Secondly, the dropped ceiling was to be delivered Friday and Keith start putting it in on Sunday. The BMW guy told me that the delivery was rained out! I laugh out loud at that. Now Keith is not showing until tomorrow.
Then I begged the electrician to come today and get the power set up for the elevator dude. They showed up at 1:30. They got to work, then got a call from someone that had an issue. Keith ran out of the door to go fix some problem while I stood there with my mouth hanging open.
I am not sure if these kinds of things would happen if we had a builder that demanded some work be done. Said builder showed up this afternoon for about 15 minutes- I don't know why, but I guess he put in his full day.
I need to keep reminding myself that all will be done in a month or so, and it will be so worth all this headache.

The good, the bad, and the ugly...

When I load these pictures they change order, so I have saved the best for last!
Almost all lighting has been installed! The plumbing is going in and the tile is creeping up. Here are some pictures of the progress.
Guest bath- the faucet looks great- the blue paint has to go! The guest bath tile I can't stand. I am hoping with the correct paint color, and towels and what not it will look better.

This is my favorite light in the house! In the entrance foyer- it is a monster!

See more later!

Lights, camera, action...

My electrician, Keith took my advice to forgrt the boring plugs and get to the good stuff. He hung a few of my fixtures. They look great! Blair is going all rustic with deer antlers.

I am all glamed up in the dinig room. The breakfast room is so understated and looks great.

More to come...

The Heat is On!

This has been a whirl-wind of a week. It all started Monday when NO- ONE showed up at the house to do anything. I had been asking for our solar tube lights to be installed for about 3 months. The trim guy came Monday morning to install, builder wouldn't decide where to put the lights (which I had marked in the attic during framing), trim guy left with out installing the lights. Then we had about $5,000 worth of lights delivered and set in the driveway because there was no one there to open the house. I was furious! The next morning I had a serious come to Jesus with Builder. Amazingly enough, on Wed. the electrician, cabinet guys, tile guys, trim dude, drop ceiling installer, heating and air, and an inspector all showed up at the house. That is the way I like to see things work.
The solar tubes were installed, and I highly recommend them. In the day time you can go into either of the boys bathrooms and not need to turn on a light!
The heat was turned on and runs at a low temp to help dry the tile.
The tile is moving right along.
There are plug covers on plugs and light switches.
My cabinets have knobs on them!!!
It seems all my fussing may have been worth it- which is a shame because I am a whole lot better being nice than not.

My favorite part

This door is an old freezer door I found at Southern Accents in Cullman. Everyone has laughed at me for wanting to make a sliding pantry door out of it, but now that it is up- some are admitting that they may have been wrong. This is just the kind of surprise I like to have in my house- something totally unexpected. I have been working on painting the new parts to match the old parts- keep looking for updated pics.

Front steps

We finally got steps on the front of the house. No more climbing the ladder!!

Marble Works delivers

The granite is in- and looks great.
The butler is going to love this space!
Alex's bath

Blairs bath- this was not the stone I picked out, somehow my stone got away from the store. This piece has turned out to be very nice, and even though the original stone for Blair was so pretty you could have used it for art, I like this one.

The kitchen- Awesome!!!

Look at the front of the house!

The columns have been added to the front of the house. The yard is moving along, and the driveway should be poured tomorrow!

Pink makes men weak

A friend told me that the color pink makes men weak- only part of the reason I painted the craft room pink. The real reason is I 'got' a pink sink from a trailor at the lake and it will be the craft room sink. I had to match the sink and I think pink will keep the boys out! All of the workers at the house hate it!

We haven't moved yet...

...but are getting closer!
The basic trim has gone in, painting has begun, and the cabinets have gone in. Take a look- pictures don't do them justice. A-1 Cabinets did a great job making these and are working on tweaking the doors and drawers to make them perfect. All hardware is from HGH in Birmingham.
My favorite room in the house- the kitchen.
Walnut cabinets in David's office

The keeping room office

The family room

I met with my decorator today and firmed up more things. I feel like we will see a lot of changes on the inside in the next few weeks. Keep looking.