Drywall finishing, flooring, and cabinets - oh my!

The only times we can really get out to the house anymore are on the weekends.  It's hard to stay away all week - but we just can't see anything after work! 

Regardless, things are moving right along.  We finally have stone!  I couldn't wait to see this go up.  I was rather concerned that I wouldn't like the Buff stone with the Stone Mountain Clay siding.  I just love the siding so much that I was terrified that the stone would fall short of my expectations.

Well, it doesn't!!

I was able to drive past one morning, while leaving a meeting at one location and heading off to "real work" at another location.  No, the house is not "on the way" or between the two places - in fact, it's totally out of the way.  But, I luckily got lost trying to find a post office in between locations (slacking hard-core on mailing out Christmas presents), and ended up right down the street from the new house.  Post office search abandoned and already late for work, I decided to do a super-quick drive by to see if anything was happening on the outside of the house.  And it was!



The signs of stone-working...

In addition, I saw that the other houses in our neighborhood had finally gotten their siding as well!  So nice to see it all coming together.  I went by after work and saw the stone firsthand.  Plus, I went inside and found a bunch of guys working on our hardwood floors!!  And after 6 pm, too!!  I didn't stick around to get pics of the flooring.  The next day I was able to pull the same deal and drive by in the morning.  Finally got to see the stone in daylight, and I love it!  Sent the pic to the husband, who said, "Damn, looks good!" 




[Stone Mountain Clay siding, Buff Ledgestone stone, black shutters, white trim]



On Thursday my husband got a chance to sneak away from work for a little bit, and found folks working on the tile and installing the bottom cabinets.  Super exciting!  We went over on Saturday and got to spend some time walking around.  I was happy with so many things, and I love the tile and hardwoods so much that I can't stop thinking about them.  The cabinets are nice as well, but I'm sure I'll be more excited about them once the countertops are on and everything isn't so dusty and dirty.  Excited to see the trim too...and doors...and everything, honestly.  Some of you have been here already, and some of you will be here soon enough - it's an emotional rollercoaster.




The basement floor, pre-grout, near the walkout (under morning room area).
This will ultimately be the bar area.
[Stratford Place Truffle Field]




[Wyoming Cherry Spice]




This island looks huge.



The tile in the mudroom - most of the adjacent hardwood is still covered.
[Fidenza Cafe tile]

Gorgeous gorgeous hardwoods on the stair landing - did not expect to get this but I am pleased.
[Maple Cocoa Brown]



I am seriously in love with this tile.  Seriously.
(and if you look closely, you'll see they continued the tile above the showerhead - woohoo!!)
[Stratford Place Truffle Field and Wisteria Tortoise accent]

  

The basement railing - loving the iron spindles!  Can't wait for stain...

Family room and fireplace - hard to see but I'm sure it's wonderful.



Still one of our favorite views!


One last thing.  As we were staring lovingly at our stone exterior, we noticed these three cement bar-like tiles on either side of the double windows.  We wondered at first what they were.  Then it dawned on us - they were there to install the shutters.  Hmm...  We like the shutters, but we weren't sure we really wanted them on the stone side.  After some discussion, we decided we would ask the PM not to install shutters on the stone side.  If he has to because of some rule of keeping everything the same throughout the development, okay, we'll live.  But I'm so in love with the stone and afraid that the shutters will cover up too much of it.  I don't know.  We're hoping our email and voicemail will get to the PM before someone installs them tomorrow (highly likely since it's a holiday for most folks).  I mean, if we have to have shutters, it's not a deal-breaker, but we think the stone looks so great as it is.



Please stay like this forever. 
Except for the stone walkway and mud yard, of course.


Not sure if any work will be done tomorrow, but I'm excited about our next weekend trip to see the progress.  Unfortunately, we might be out of town this coming weekend, so who knows when we'll get to check in next.  Oh, in other news, we've locked our rate (yay!) and have our pre-settlement walkthrough set for February 14th, with closing on the 15th.  (super yay!).  I think I already mentioned about the walkthrough and closing dates, but there they are again.  The LO says they will be getting another appraisal before then (anti-yay!) so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the new appraisal comes back no lower than the previous.  Higher would be awesome, but I'm just hoping for no change at all.  That's all I'll need to make this house ours officially.