Thursday

This week did not end up going exactly as planned, but I am still pleased with everything that has been completed.  Yesterday evening we stopped by the house before we went to our Anniversary dinner.  We noticed that several of the rooms had the wrong paint color listed on the wall, after a call to our contractor I thought that we had everything straightened out.  I went by the house this evening and was happy to see that every room had the first coat of paint and that all of the trim work was completed.  Even though we went over all of the paint colors last night, the bathroom in the addition was still painted the incorrect color.  This is an easy fix and I am really pleased with all of the paint colors that we chose.  I have some pictures of the paint colors below and although I am happy with all of the colors that we picked out, the pictures below do not give the colors any justice.  We have been promised that the cabinets will go in tomorrow, and the counter tops are scheduled to be installed over the weekend.  I am so happy that we are going to be in town all weekend so I can go by the house each day to see the progress.

The pavers up the sidewalk was completed.

The trim work was finished in the dining room.

The cream cabinets will look amazing against these brown walls in our master bath.

The tile work is almost finished in our master bath and we are just waiting for the granite to be delivered to complete the shower.

Built in shelving in the master bath.

We picked a soft blue/gray for the powder room.

The newel post and railing was installed.

I am so in love with the subway tile in the kids bathroom!

The built in cubbie in the mud room is almost finished.

Three years down...here is to many more great years to come!

Travis and I celebrated our three year Wedding Anniversary this evening and it was one of the most relaxing evening that we have had in months.  We went out to dinner at Giovanni's and then we went home and watched Top Chef.  We never have a chance to sit down and put our feet up so this is exactly what I wanted to do.  Before we went out to dinner we had a chance to run by the house to quickly check on everything and I am so happy that we did.  They have almost finished the trim work and they are going to start painting tomorrow afternoon.  As we were walking around the house I noticed that they had written the incorrect paint color on the walls in at least five rooms.  If we had not gone by, all of my bedrooms would have been the light gray that was meant to only go in the powder room and and kid's bathroom, so happy that we caught this.  I am so excited to see all of the progress and it is coming together just as we had planned but unfortunately we received some bad news today that I knew was coming.  With our cabinets being delayed a week and a half and the tiling taking longer than expected, we are not able to move in on the 12th as we had expected.  I would rather that they take there time to finish everything than to rush it, but now the house is going to be ready to move into the week that we are going to be at the beach with my family.  We are going to wait a week just to confirm everything, but it looks like we are going to come back early Friday morning on the 20th instead of the following afternoon so that we are able to move in and have the weekend to unpack.  Hopefully we will not run into any more delays because I cannot wait to move in!

Christmas Morning

After a fun weekend in Chattanooga at Travis's law firms summer party, we went by the house on Sunday to see that our closets and trim work was almost completed.  They also started laying the pavers on the front sidewalk and completed paving the steps.  This is going to be an exciting week and it feels like Christmas for me with everything that is scheduled for this week.  Besides celebrating our 3 year Anniversary on Wednesday and Travis's softball tournament all week, the interior painting is going to start on Tuesday, the cabinets are scheduled to be installed on Wednesday, and all of the tiling should be completed by the end of the week.  I cannot wait to go by the house each night this week!

At the Miller and Martin summer party at the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga with my friend Beth.

This picture is for my friend Becca who tried so hard to reserve a shuffleboard table last weekend in Atlanta  but unfortunately it was too crowded in the bar and we did not get a chance to play.  There was a table at the bar in our hotel in Chattanooga so we had a late night game after the party.

The steps look so much better with the pavers and I am so happy that we decided to carry the pavers down the new sidewalk.

This is the built in bench with cubbies in the mud room.

Shelving was added in the small nook in our bedroom.

My closet!

Trav's closet.

The tiling was started in our master bath.

Steps leading up to the new addition.

New shelving in the hallway was installed where the old entrance to the bedroom use to be.

Remaining Optimistic

I have been going by the house every day this week and although it seems to be a mess every time, I am hopeful that we will be able to move in on schedule.  So far this week we have had the design cut in the concrete, the spackling has been finished, and now the walls are being sanded in preparation to be painted next Tuesday.  Travis and I had our meeting with our contractor this evening and tonight we discussed the configurations of all of the closets.  This week the cabinets were delayed and will not be installed until next Wednesday and the following Monday the granite counter tops will be installed.  Tomorrow the trim guy is coming and he will make the custom drawers and shelving for the closets, build a small linen closet in the master bath,  install the shelving for two custom book shelves, and complete all of the baseboards and crown molding.  The tiling will also start tomorrow and will be completed at the beginning of the week.   

A simple design was added to the patio and back porch.

The old deck was torn down several weeks ago and we found a set of concrete stairs that went into a solid wall.  The house had a small addition added many years ago and these steps went to the door that was covered up.  This is one of the change orders that we had to pay for since we did not know that they were there but it was worth the money to have them taken out. 

Our yards is such a disaster.

For those who have not had the chance to visit our home yet, I wanted to show the wonderful neighborhood that we are moving into.  We will be living in the heart of Green Hills and our street is a side street off of Belmont Boulevard across from David Lipscomb University.  Our street is not an access road so it is so quiet with welcoming neighbors.  I love that we do not live in a subdivision but it is a developed neighborhood with mature trees and large lots so we have a lot of privacy. 

Our neighbors across the street.

Our neighbors to the right of our home.

Our quiet street to the left of our home.

David Lipscomb University

My sister in-law moved to Nashville last week and is living in the Stahlman building at the corner of Union and 2nd Avenue downtown.   The building is an old bank building and has a ton of original details throughout.  I am so excited that Alissa decided to move to Nashville!

End of Week 7

It is crazy to think that Travis and I started this project only 52 days ago and in 25 days we are scheduled to move in.  This entire project has moved along at a fast pace and starting this week everything should start coming together.  Last week they finished painting our home, the dry wall was completed, and the concrete was poured for the walkway and patio.  This week the tiling in the bathroom should be started and hopefully the cabinets will be installed!  I have picked out the interior paint colors and I am almost finished picking out the lighting and have asked my good friend Wendy to help with finalizing everything.
I am so pleased at the work that our contractor has done and am excited to move into our new home! 

The final color!  We still have one set of shutters that need to be hung and the shutters that are hung need to be taken down and redone so that the top of the shutter is level with the bottom of the trim.  Also the front door is the original green color.  We are going to replace the front door and it will be stained once it is installed instead of painting it. 

The concrete was poured for the front sidewalk and this week brown pavers will be laid over top of them and will continue up the stairs.  Once this is done the railings will be installed on either side of the steps.

Our back patio!  They are going to go in and cut out a design in the concrete and then we are going to add an acid stain.

The living room was dry walled and we tested out some paint options.

The kitchen was dry walled and is ready for the new cabinets.

The hallway leading to our master bedroom was dry walled.

The new closet in the upstairs bedroom.

The doorways were framed in that use to lead to the powder room and master bedroom. 

We spent the weekend in Atlanta with our good friends Joe, Becca, Michael, and Holly.  Joe and Becca have a beautiful new home and live in a great neighborhood  in Atlanta, congrats!  Michael and Holly will be getting married in 20 days, we are so excited for you guys! 

Holly was the skee ball champ of the night!

Almost There

Since I last posted, we have had two busy weekends celebrating my father in-law's birthday as well as my mother's birthday.  Then Travis and my father birthday is in eight day days, my sister in-law's birthday is at the end of the month, and finally Travis and I will be celebrating our third anniversary on July 28th.  In between all of this my other sister in-law is moving back to Nashville, we are going to go to Atlanta to visit our best friends in their new house, and we are going to Chattanooga for the weekend for Travis's firm annual party.  With the busy July that we are having, this is also the last month before our home is finished. Our contractor gives us a list of to do's each week and some how we find the time to make decisions on everything that he has asked for. 
Last week we had to pick out the exterior house colors,  finalize on the carpet, and finally pick out our front door and newel for our stairs.  After coming down to the wire and staring at paint samples for hours, we finally decided to pick the color that Travis liked the best for the exterior color.  The next day they primed the house and I was nervous all day that the color would not look good.  Friday morning I went by the house, and to my surprise, the house looked amazing!  I am beyond pleased with the color choices and cannot wait to see it finished.  The pictures below only show the house primed, so once it is finished, it will be a shade darker than what is shown.  Also they have not primed the trim, so once it is painted it will be a very light gray/almost white, and the shutters and side entry doors are going to be a dark red/brown.  The new front door will be stained and hopefully we will find money in the budget to stain the existing deck off of the bonus room the same color of the front door, if not I think that it will stick out like a sore thumb.
This last weekend they almost finished dry walling the house, and hopefully by the end of next week, the house will start coming together.  They have had to put even bigger holes in the wall in order to dry wall it, so we have piles of plaster all over the house.  They are suppose to finish dry walling by the middle of the week, and then they are going to start tiling.  This week they should also have the house painted and the patio and front walkway poured. 
Our to do's for this week include finalizing on all of the interior paint colors as well as order all of the lighting that I have not picked out yet.  I did find a small chandelier that I ordered for our master bedroom last week, but besides this I have not looked at any other lighting.

Happy Birthday Jim!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Paint Sample Options

Testing them out

The final decision!  This will be a shade darker than shown, and the trim has not been painted yet.

The horrible pine tree on the right hand side of the house was cut down, and the dead ivy was removed from the house as well!

Travis replaced our mailbox but still needs to replace the post once our address plaque arrives.

The hardwood was laid in my closet.

The hardwood was also laid in the mud room.

This was the neatest pile of plaster, the rest of the house looks like a bomb went off.

The areas that were dry walled:

The Garage

The Bonus Room

And the Stairway Leading up to the Original House.