The Final Walk Through

Friday afternoon we had the final walk through on the house. And it’s great. It’s everything we wanted and more.

There are still a few things to be done on the outside – sod, shutters, and the fence. But they’ll have it all finished by closing on Wednesday. And I’ll post photos once it’s all done.

Inside they still had a few paint touch ups to do and a few odds and ends but it’s mostly, almost totally 100% complete.

Aaaaahahhhhhhhhh!

Here’s a few shots of the kitchen, appliances and all!

As always, click the pics to enlarge.

A view of the dining room:

The living room from behind the island:

The entry way- on the left is Mike’s office and on the right are the two guest rooms and bathroom:

Mike’s office – with his special made closet just for his comic books:

Master bedroom:

Master bath. I’m not sure if I love this room or the kitchen more. I’m torn. They both came out so pretty!

Inside my walk-in shower:

Ignore me and look at my pretty cabinets:

It’s so close! We’ll be all moved in by next Friday!

Can’t wait!

-Ali

 

 

Paint Preview

Just a quick post to preview the paint and stone colors. For any of you who know me, this is a big departure of my typical warm, Tuscan inspired palate of golds, reds, brown and olive. I just felt it was time for something really different.

The blue is in all of our main living areas: living, dining, kitchen, hall ways, entry and laundry. This is an up close shot of the mantle of the fireplace. You can see the bedroom color in the background. All of the bedrooms have it.

(Click to enlarge)

 

This is a view of the kitchen cabinets. The backsplash will be white/light gray tumbled marble in a subway tile pattern with a chocolate colored granite counter top, stainless appliances and oil rubbed bronze fixtures.

The stone is going up! Arches framing out the front porch:

 

 

Up close look against the brick:

 

 

Official closing date: 11/11! Less than a month to go!

WE HAVE CABINETS!

That’s right folks. CABINETS. And trim. And doors. And BRICK!
IT’s really starting to look like a house now!

(Click the pics below to make them bigger.)

View from the front. They still have have some bricking (is that a word?) to do and it will also be accented with limestone arches on the porch and around the windows.

Kitchen views. To understand the scale, that island is 9 ft long. Can’t wait to have a bunch of little kids sitting there eating snacks. (Niece/nephews – not our kids. Relax.) There will be 3 pendant lights over it, too. The island will have the sink and dishwasher.  The top row of side cabinets on the far wall will have glass panels on the door. All of these will be painted a warm white called “Marshmallow along with all of the trim and doors. Walls will be a slate blue called Downing Slate. The granite is a dark brown called Java.

Love the living room built-ins and fireplace so. much. They will also be painted in Marshmallow with a tile inset that has beige, browns and striations of the slate blue.

The cabinets in the bath rooms will be stained a dark chocolate brown instead of painted. The frames that will go around the mirrors will be stained the same. The counters and tub in the master will be a light gray and the ones in the guest bath will be an almond color. Both baths will be painted a light blue called Open Air.

All of the bedrooms have built-ins in the walk-in closets.

And that’s it so far. So excited to see all this progress in the last couple of weeks.

Looks like it will be a mid November/Thanksgiving move in!

New House Update

Well – we have walls! And a driveway!

It’s a little easier now to see the house footprint, so Mike shot a video walking through it. It’s a little shaky and breathy but we are both sick right now with some bronchitis/sinus/snotty grossness.

Only a few more weeks left before we close and can move in!

 

So exciting!!!!!!

All The Pretty Things

So, this is how we spent our Saturday.

IT WAS THE BEST DAY, EVER!

We spent the whole day pouring over the blueprints for the house, color swatches, tile squares, sample flooring, brick examples and even went out to the stone yard to pick out the accents for the outside. The only thing left to choose is granite because the vendor is in San Antonio and closes early on Saturday.

I mean. This was like real-life HGTV, y’all.

We really want the overall esthetic of the house to be a a mix of vintage, rustic and modern. Mike likes really industrial vintage – lots of wood and metal. I like clean lines and rustic flair. We’re moving away from the sort of old-world, Tuscan color pallet and changing to a mix of cool and warm tones. Mike is super pumped for this. I had already done his office in tones like this in our current house, so he’s all for the move. He was my guinea pig to see if I would still love it after a while and I really, really do.

Here’s a little peek at what we chose!

Let’s start with Inspiration Photos:

 

I love the color schemes of both of these rooms. I want a mix of slate gray/blue, white, caramel, chocolate and bronze. I also love the fireplace here. I gave this photo to the builder so they can build it out that way.

 

For the kitchen, I found that over the years of using Pinterest, I’d kept pinning photos of kitchens that have white/cream cabinets, dark counters and wood floors. Vintage/rustic with a modern touch.  LOVE.

This is our floor plan so you can get an idea of how everything will be laid out. 1-story, 3 bed/2 batch with a study.

Kitchen, living, dining, foyer, mud room and all hall ways will have plank vinyl flooring. It’s a faux-wood product that is incredibly realistic and pretty indestructible. The cabinets in the kitchen, the built-in cabinets for the TV in the living room and the trim throughout the house will all be the same color. Walls and ceilings will all be the same color throughout except for bathrooms and the master bedroom.

 

Cabinet/Trim: Marshmallow
Wall/Ceiling: Samovar Silver
Floor: Saddle

 

The kitchen will have all stainless appliances and a chocolate colored granite. Cabinets will be solid cherry wood white, flat paneled with glass inserts in the side-upper cabinets. All hardware for the cabinets, faucets, doorknobs and light fixtures will be oil-rubbed bronze.

This is the dining room light we chose, so you can see the finish here:

 

The island is 9ft long and a single, flat solid surface with an overhang that will fit 3-4 barstools and have 3 pendant lights above.

Backsplash will be grayish/white tumbled marble cut and stacked like subway tile:

 

The fireplace tile will be similar to whats in the inspiration photo. Lots of brown and caramel with striations of gray-blue.

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All of the bedrooms will have carpet. We chose a neutral khaki with dark gray flecks. The master bedroom is still up-in-the-air color-wise based on what we choose as a comforter set. I want to stay really soft and layer neutral tones with a few pale-blue accents. So I’m thinking a Mushroom or Puddy color on the wall – like a brownish gray.

I’m so in love with the Vintage-Washed Belgian collection bedding from Restoration Hardware. It’s not cheap, but once you touch it you’ll know why. So soft and it comes in all sorts of muted colors. This is my inspiration for our bedroom. I will have to buy it slowly in pieces, but I will. have. it.

We are changing up the cabinet color in both bathrooms. We decided to go with stained instead of painted so that we could keep the countertops lighter. They’ll both have the same tile as well, with bigger 2ox20 used in the master and 13×13 in the second. It’s a neutral bone color with dark brown striations and pitting, similar to a tumbled marble.

Carpet and bathroom tile:

The wall color in both bathrooms will be a spa-blue called Sea Salt. The counter top and soaking tub in the master will both be a pale gray cultured marble and the second bath will have a bisque colored counter to go with the tub and toilet.

Master bath colors:

Now for the exterior. We are so lame. We love the look of the house we’re in. So we tried to stay close to the same brick, paint and stone colors. The front door will be half privacy glass with a wrought iron design in the window. We added a dark brown to the pallet to make the door and the shutters pop.

External paint colors:
French Roast: Door and shutters
Trim: Sand Dollar
Garage Door and back siding: Sands of Time

Brick and stone choices:

That’s it so far. As we go through the build we’ll update regularly so that you all know how it’s going!

And we hope you all come visit once it’s complete!

-Ali

 

We’re baaack! And we’re building a house!

Well, it’s not much to look at now, but it will be soon!

We’re building a super awesome custom home in New Braunfels just off of I-35 between San Antonio and Austin and we’re crazy excited.

Today we signed a bunch of paperwork and finalized the floor plan. Next month we go back to pick out the finishes (flooring, carpeting, cabinets, granite, etc) and shortly after construction begins!

We will probably move in sometime between January and March of 2015. We’ll definitely keep you guys updated on the progress.

-Mike