Countertops & a window bed!

Some of Mason's extended family were in town today and wanted to see the progress on the house, so we spent a few hours out there today touring, playing, and having a picnic lunch in our kitchen :)

The countertops in the kitchen and dining room went in this week, and they really make the kitchen feel that much more complete. Appliances go in this coming week and then I'll be ready to do some cooking!! (even though I'm not allowed to quite yet.)

The kitchen face on, from the Great Room

from the side

From inside my "command center"

A close-up of the quartz countertop & sink

Dining room with countertops installed


Ryan & Kaeden goofing around in the dining room with their B.

Another new addition today was the window bed in Kaeden's room. It has no mattress yet, as you can see, but that made it all the more exciting for Kaeden since he could climb up by himself. The whole time we spent upstairs today, he kept squirming out of our arms to run back down the hallway to his room and climb right up onto the bed. He loved looking out the window and just being up a little bit higher in the world :) It seems we picked the right room for him!


Another addition since my last post was the Great Room window seats:

Ryan, being silly in the window seat cubby. He won't be able to do that once the tops go on!

A view from the side, showing the built-in bookshelves that are on either side of the fireplace

We also have railings on our upper staircase:



...and I can't help but to share a picture of our bold garage. B.A. dared us and we love it :)



Here's the front as of today. Isn't that sky amazing?


and this is the view from our master bedroom in the winter. If you look carefully, you can see the creek that runs through our backyard:


2 more months 'til completion. It's getting so close!

Cabinetry, and getting my life back

Wow. What a month it's been. There has been incredible progress in the new house and I am thrilled to say that our current house is in great shape and finally went on the market today! Even though there is still plenty of work to be done to keep the house show-ready, it really does feel like we have turned a corner and will hopefully be able to get back to a more normal schedule very soon.

So, I'm hoping to fill in the last couple of months soon, but for now, I have lots of exciting house photos to share. The biggest changes recently have been paint on the walls and cabinet installation. It's really starting to look inhabitable :)

We'll begin the tour downstairs in the mudroom. This is the view coming in the house from the garage:

Upstairs, the kitchen is really taking shape and we LOVE it. I actually jumped up and down in the middle the first time I saw it.... and Ryan was happy to join me :)

from the front hallway

straight on, from the great room. The pantry is behind the wall of cabinets, and the breakfast room is to the right.

Ryan is always on the look out for new hiding spots!

Kaeden & Ryan, on the breakfast nook window seat. I adore this picture!

Mason & Kaeden, in the pantry

View from inside the kitchen island, looking out over the great room.

Also on the main floor is the office.... this was my biggest dream for our house from the beginning and I love seeing it take shape.

The kids' desks

My desk, with doors out to the front porch on the right

Mason's desk

And finally, moving up to the bedroom level...

Here's the nursery:

Master bath vanity:

Ryan's room:

Kaeden, on the window ledge in his future room:

Oh, and here's the latest view of the front of the house:

... and the back deck: underneath the left side is open for a hammock, and underneath the right side is a closed in shed:

Now that it's 2012, reality is starting to set in that we're actually going to be living there in a couple of months. It's crazy and a little scary to think about moving, but we are so excited. We are incredibly blessed!

Busy

Lately, we've been busy. Really busy. In addition to the normal Christmas season craziness, we've had a more demanding month than normal as far as new house decisions are concerned, and we're getting our current house ready to put on the market in January. Add on to that a variety of illnesses on the part of the kids, and it's been flat out hectic. So, my usual blogging is kind of being put on hold for a bit, but I do want to keep up with the house, for my own sake as well as anybody else's who might be interested.

Here are the latest photos:

Front of the house, as of Sunday

Kaeden, under the front porch

mud room

Ryan's favorite hiding space - play room closet

Front entryway/stairs

Great room with trim!

From Great Room, looking at kitchen/pantry (with hardwood floor & beadboard walls), doors into dining room, front entryway

And finally, the front of the house again today, with some grading and front steps begun!

A few more house photos

We went out to the house after church today for a picnic, and I can't resist sharing a few more photos. They have done so much just since Wednesday!

The columns/arches are going up in front... what I've been waiting for, finally becoming real!

View of the great room from the kitchen

Ryan's bedroom, with trim!

Our closet has shelves! This was a shock to us, but pretty cool.

House update (finally!)

It's been a long time since I've posted an update on the house. For quite a while, there wasn't much of interest to share. We've had a lot of electrical, plumbing, etc. going on and I didn't figure anybody really cared to see pictures of wires and pipes!

Recently, siding and brick have been going up and they have finished putting up drywall, so it's been a lot of fun to see the progress (not to mention the fall colors!) Oh, and they have built our deck. We love it!

Here are some pictures from last month, when the trees were just gorgeous:

Pretty view of the trees

partially completed deck

View of the creek from the deck, after a big rain

Mason & Kaeden

Ryan, on the steps from the deck back to the house

And here are some pictures from this week. The brick is really coming along!

view of the deck from the Great Room

B.A. (our AMAZING architect), Mason & Kaeden, on the deck

What the house looks like on the inside now! This will be the nursery.

Things seem to be moving more quickly again now, so hopefully I'll have more pictures to share soon :)