Last week we had the sidewalk poured...

The shower doors put in...

We're going to have to change ours out - it was supposed to have a towel bar instead of a handle.

The A/C is in and all of the thermostats are up...

The glass is in the movie room candy case...

And the platform for the chairs is built and wired for lights.

They were able to get the septic tank in and hooked up.

Mirror in the upstairs bathroom.

 I love this time of year - all the trees are waking up from winter, the grass is greener and the birds are singing.  Beautiful! 

Update in Pictures

For those who want pictures (I'm looking at you Jami) - here's the latest. :)

One of the lights over the island was hung this week (the other one is broken, so we'll have to order a new one).  I actually gasped when I walked in and saw it- I had totally forgotten that I picked copper island lights!  We have made so many decisions, I'm kinda starting to forget things. :)  Anyway, I LOVE them and think they look awesome.

This is the light fixture for the dining room. We looked and looked at light fixtures for the DR.  Everything was okay and nothing really stood out to the both of us.  The ones we really liked were SO expensive and we just didn't want to spend that kind of money on a light fixture!  Brian had this one in the studio that his dad had given him that they didn't use when he and Susan built their house.  We are kind of ambivalent about it - we don't dislike it, but we aren't in love with it either.  What we are in love with is the fact that it's FREE.  So we're going to hang it up, live with it for a bit and see how we feel.    I can always spray paint it or something later.

The fireplace hearths have been finished.

The mud room bench top has been put on - just needs to be stained.

Half bath is painted.  I love the blue green in here (Sea Salt by SW).

These light fixtures were supposed to go on the outside of the house, but the crook in the arm of it makes them hit the edge of the roof.  We'll either change out the arm or get another one that's similar. They're gonna look awesome out there.

The fixtures are up in the boys bathroom...

Toilet, faucet... it's coming together!

The light on the upstairs balcony porch...

We have forms up for the driveway to be poured...

And I think I haven't shown the garage doors yet... they'll be stained a dark brown to go with the rest of the woodwork.

Been a bit of a soaking rain today and some more on the way tomorrow... good for the tank...

but not great for the septic tank digging/burial at the beginning of next week. Stay tuned. :)

1 year... ONE WHOLE YEAR

If you would've told me when we started building that this is where we would be at 1 year later, I don't think I would've believed it.  This has been such a long process and frankly it has messed with my psyche.  When my home is in disarray, that feeling of chaos transfers to my attitude and how I function.  I'm not saying that I always keep our house super duper clean - but every once in a while  the clutter gets to me so I have an organizing binge and feel so much better.  The last few months have been a little rough - I have totally run out of room to put things, my house is NEVER clean and I feel overwhelmed most of the time I am at home.  Just a small example, here is a picture of my dining room.  For reals, people.

Wall decor is stacked on the buffet, more crap stacked on the table... Ugh.  I'm not even showing what the kitchen looks like... I'm not a fan of cluttered countertops and let me tell you, I can only use the front 12 inches of the counter because all the kitchen counters have stuff on them.  Brian and I were just discussing how ridiculously small our closets are and how it's a pain to find what we need (now if my low maintenance husband says that, that means it's bad!).  To top it off, the hot water handle broke off in the boys shower Sunday night.  It seems something is breaking every week or two, and we are just hoping that stuff will last until we move.  Well, this has inadvertently turned into a sob story, but I gotta say I. AM. OVER. IT. 

Back to the new house... we are nearing the end.  The masons finished the fireplace hearths and chimneys. The painters have been here touching up and such, the landscapers came and worked on drainage stuff, and we've had some more plumbing fixtures finished up and a couple of toilets put in.  One of the big things that we are needing done is putting in the septic system.  It has rained a LOT lately and the septic tanks weighs quite a bit so we need the ground to dry up so the truck that brings it doesn't get stuck.  They are supposed to come out on Monday to dig the hole and put the tank in on Tuesday.  A little bit of rain isn't a big deal, but the less, the better.  As far as what we have left... it's septic system, driveway poured, there's quite a bit of painting left, light fixtures and fans to be hung and outlets to be installed, shower doors and mirrors hung, and the rest of the flooring.We have a lot of trim work that needs done - baseboards around the fireplaces put up, upstairs railings installed (inside in the office and outside on the porches), cabinet hardware installed.  I'm sure I've left stuff out, but that's what I can think of.  It sounds like a lot, but I think it will only take a couple of weeks.

So that's the latest.  And since there's no real progress pics to share, here's one from when it snowed. :)

Weeks 48-50

With icy, sleet and snowy weather lately, there hasn't been a lot going on.  Don't get me wrong, progress is progress, but it doesn't seem like a whole lot to show for 3 weeks of time, but here it is anyway.

Disclaimer: The sun was never really out when I took these pictures, so they're mostly dark and kinda sad. Boo.

The plumbers came and started installing fixtures.  

My kitchen faucet

A close up.  I love it.  Very modern farmhouse. :)

The faucet at the tiny sink at the beverage bar.  It is SO pretty.  I'm think this little area will quickly become one of my favorites.

Our bathroom faucets. I am SO glad I went with the wall mount.  With these style faucets on the subway tile - man, I just love the whole look of it.

Our shower.  As you can see we're still waiting on a couple of pieces to be installed, but you get the idea.

This is the other end of the shower.  We put the handheld in by the bench mostly for when I shave my legs, but I think it'll come in super handy for spraying down the shower after cleaning.

Aside from plumbing fixtures, the electricians have been around too.  Along with installing about a million can lights, they got some of the fun light fixtures put up also.  This is the mud room fixture.  It has an Edison bulb which of course we big puffy heart LOVE.  I really dig this picture - with the transoms above the doors and some of the trash still laying around, it looks like a really old house that someone is working on and that tells me that we have achieved the style we were going for.  

The living room ceiling fan.  Super exciting, right? :)

My bathroom sink.  In this picture the sconces look super low.  They are hung lower than normal (I didn't want them super high up on the wall) but the picture makes everything just look odd - you can't really tell the scale of the cabinets.   I think once we get the mirror hung, it will be beautiful!  

My vanity and Brian's vanity are very different in size.  Mine is probably twice as big, so when I was looking at mirrors, I was looking for a bigger one that would fit the scale of my vanity.  We ordered the ones below and when all was said and done,  the mirror was so big it crowded out the sconces over his sink. Since he couldn't care less about lighting (he rarely ever looks in the mirror for primping reasons - maybe when he brushes his teeth, but for the most part, he's very low maintenance which I like.  He throws on a ball cap and is out the door... I don't take a long time to get ready, but he certainly shouldn't take longer than me. :)) we're just going to put in a can light over his sink.  Anyway, here are the mirrors.

They came yesterday and this is what one of the boxes looked like.

Yes, that is the corner of the mirror sticking out on the bottom right.  

The mounting brackets were packed in the box in the corners where it is ripped open. One of them was missing, but I was able to just reach in and easily pull out the other one - I have no idea how it didn't fall out and get lost in transit.  We didn't even bother to open the box to check if the mirror was broken or not.  The other mirror was still boxed up perfectly, but when we opened it to make sure it was okay, it was ALSO missing one of the mounting brackets.  Thankfully we got them from Amazon, so I already emailed them and they are sending replacements.  Let's all cross our fingers for things to be intact. :)

But back to light fixtures...

Anybody remember this from long, long ago? As in almost 11 months ago? It one of the very first things that I bought for the house - my closet light fixture. 

I can't believe it's actually hung up! 

 (It's still taped up because we want to keep the little pieces from getting gross from all the construction dust.) 

It seems like everything is REALLY dragging on at this point in the process, but we really are getting close to being finished.  Hopefully only a few more weeks and we'll get to move in.  

More to come!