Bathroom updates.

In the master the studs have been put in for the shower plumbing. Those two rectangles in the middle will be recessed shelves for shower necessities. 

The vanity has been sanded and nearly ready for primer. There is still a bit of modification to the shelves we are gonna do. The shelves on the side are gonna lose that front panel done the middle and get some trim so that 4 large baskets will rest nicely inside.

And the kids shower is ready for tile!

Sink Decision

It seems every day now is one full of HUGE decisions. Something as simple as "rounded the edge of a countertop or keeping it square" quickly turns into a life-changing, right or wrong, what am I ever gonna do, full on despair if it isn't just how I want it but how do I want it decision. 

Am I over-reacting? Obviously. 

But this is how I feel. I want so badly to do this house right the first time. Am I gonna love the house? Of course? Is there gonna be stuff I wish had turned out differently? Most likely. Is it life or death? Heck no.

So why do I stress so much about these little decisions?

The sink is the perfect example. Thank you all for your votes. The majority of you definitely voted for the first one, the two basin white sink. And guess what? It didn't win. Here's why.

All in one afternoon of heart racing, blood pressure rising, back and forth, what ifs or why nots...it just wouldn't work. The yellow sink was 43 inches wide. The kitchen cabinetry was made FOR that sink so if anything smaller went in it looked puny and the cabinets looked weird. But to buy one that was 43" would be around a THOUSAND dollars. Plus, the countertops were going in THAT day and we didn't have time to go out shopping around. It was mind boggling.

So, I decided to go with the large one that wouldn't look puny and get it reglazed a nice shiiny white. Thankfully, I found this pic and it made me happy with my decision...

I really like it. So, then we had to move on to the laundry room decision. The sink that I LOVED was a shallow, troughlike rectangular sink that Micca gave me from her old barn. It is awesome and it would have looked perfect. But, because it was old and from a barn the cast iron fittings on the bottom were broken off and not able to be fixed. Of course the plumber didn't let me know that until the DAY that they were putting in the countertops! So my choices? Find a sink in a matter of hours or use the 2 basin white one that we had on hand. But because it was bigger than the sink that was there, we would lose some drawer space (they would become fake ones.) Hmmmmmm. I went home and searched the internet for sinks that were in stock and nearby. There was a stainless steel undermount one that I liked but the kit they had for the concrete countertops didn't allow for undermounts. grrrrrr. I went ahead and chose the white one we had and they configured it in a way that I only had to lose one drawer.

No big deal now looking back, but in the moment, these were HUGE, OVERWHELMING decisions! Funny how that works!

Windows! Finally!

The new windows finally arrived! I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for this! The trim could not be finished up until the windows were installed...and now! We can move forward!

Although the windows are original to the house, they are all in really great shape. It wasn't really in our budget to replace all the windows but we did manage to replace the few that we felt really needed it.

The two kids rooms had windows that didn't open. My grandmother put in all non-working windows because she thought that would prevent dust! We felt that for safety reasons, the kids needed to be able to get out of their rooms without having to break the glass. Now, in about 10 more years, we will reevaluate this. :)

The only window that "needed" to be replaced was the side window in the master. It had broken glass.

Then of course, the bathrooms. Do you even remember the horrible harvest gold stained glass that was here? You could see it all the way from the dining room and it cast such a horribly dark amber glow throughout the whole house. Once we took out the stained glass all that was left was a piece of plexi, so those were tossed and new paned ones went in...

This is "new ryan". He's been working at the house for a few weeks. I'm not sure how he feels about becoming famous on the internet via my blog, but it comes with the territory...

And finally, the cute little "special order" window in the master bath. She is what caused the hold up because she is a unique size and wasn't in stock. But I think she's worth it! The funniest story about her is the shock on Brandon's face when I explained that I didn't want a frosted glass or glass blocks in the shower. "But people can see you!" he exclaimed! Brad and I just giggled because well, 1. We are in the country and this window faces our backyard and if people are looking in that window we have much bigger things to worry about than if they can see our private parts and 2. We aren't much for modesty. If you know us, you probably know that about us. Not that we are regulars at nudey spots...just that we like to be, uh, free, I guess. It's just nature after all.

So now that those are in, we can finish the trim, start painting and get moving!!

Cabinets get primed!

Last week they started priming the kitchen and laundry room cabinets. The kitchen looks so much bigger with white cabinetry! I think I am gonna love it!

They could only do the top because they were working on fixing and stabilizing a few of the bottom cabinets. The cabinet under the sink was completely rotten out, the hole where the trash compactor was is gonna be a new wine rack built-in and some places needed to be reinforced because the concrete countertops are gonna be super heavy.

You can see in the pic above the bookshelf add-on to the end of the island...and of course the beautiful almost white cabinets!

Just check out this detail. Here's the awesome crown molding and cabinet molding on top and bottom of the soffet above the cabinets. I am so glad I decided to add that in.

This is the cabinet that is to the right of the kitchen window. When we ripped out the recessed ceiling, there was molding that went across the top of the window. We had to hammer it out and it left the cabinets a bit damaged. Robbie to the rescue! He routered the edge of the cabinet, mudded the rest and with the addition of the cabinet molding you can't even tell at all! It looks perfect!

And the window sill! I love that it is squared off at the bottom with a sill that extends beyond the trim. Robbie and I had many conversations about this and he pulled it off exactly like I wanted it!

And then just for fun, here's the task area 1/2 primed...

Kitchen Sink

I need your vote.

Which of these (they would both be white...) do you like better for the kitchen sink?

Office update...

The crown molding and baseboard was installed on the murphy bed built-ins and one coat of primer has been sprayed!

The window has a new pane and trim!

The doorways have trim and the closet and bath have baseboards! This room is completely done with trim! Hooray! Only 10 more to go! :)

Plus the closet in the office has one coat of the wall color. I love it!

Exterior color

I've been selecting samples for a possible exterior trim color for months. There isn't much trim at all since the entire house is stone, but there is some. The roof overhang, the ceilings of the porches and the garage door are the main areas, plus a bit around each window. The color right now is a putrid green color...a cross between limes and peas, neither of which should be featured on a house. Plus, it draws out the strangely green hued stones that I would much prefer to hide, not accentuate.

I am hoping to pull out the awesome charcoal colored stones of which are very few and far between. I have looked and looks for the right color and just couldn't decide.

Then our awesome roofer went above and beyond and managed to get the insurance company to pay for new gutters. Good thing since the ones we have are literally hanging OFF the house. But with all the money we are spending, new gutters were definitely not on the top 100,000,000 things to buy. Let that be an indication of how much is needed!

Anyhoo, my awesome roofer sent out his gutter guys and they will tear down, our guys will paint and then the gutter guys will come bak and install. Cool right? But even better they left a sample card of gutter colors and one of them is named charcoal gray which means...my options of paint color just dwindled drastically and I couldn't be more relieved!

Solution is = match trim paint to gutter color and live happily ever after!