Autumn.4: The kitchen is just missing some trim other than that it's finished!

Marji: That's an interesting metaphor. We have a blue accent wall and with the way the sun hit it when I took the picture, it looked as if the cabinet was floating in the sky!

jrldh - it's finished and we get 1 pic??? Post more pics...pretty please??

jdez- woohoo the ball is rolling!

akhsars-I will have to go back and look closer at those pics, I see the one they actually tiled above the cabs too! Not sure that would fly as added expense and you can barely see it. I need to start houzzing range wall backsplashes, haha! I have received all of our lighting except the dining room light. Interesting that it's THAT one that hasn't arrived. We still need ceiling fans (I don't care if they are fashionable or not, hot flashes people, HOT flashes!!!) but we will buy those locally.

We have siding started but no pic. No time tonight to head out there before dark. Tomorrow though for sure!

Everything on here is looking awesome!!

Everyone in the framing stage... It seems like my house was at that stage yesterday!! It flies by, even if it seems slow at times.

The concept boards are fantastic! The ideas are more than I could have dreamed. You guys are good.

As for bright color and painting. It's just paint. I can cover it in a year, two, five... Who knows, tomorrow? In the girls room I ordered scallop frog tape and the white stripe will be a scalloped white area where their names will go in wood painted letters. The purple room/play room quite literally looks as if Barney puked. But the decorations will help it tremendously. And my 3yr old absolutely loves it!!! It will have a stage built into the dormer.

Here's a pic of painting the trim...
Or of it hanging... If it will load.

Jen

Assembled and hung! It's darker in the photo than in person. All fun projects seem to get finished at night.

Jen

Autumn,

If you are still collecting votes on the ensuite tile choices, I prefer the lightest one (3rd choice) or the last choice. Of course, I really like grey more than beige and the first one is too brown for me. The second one has a lot of movement in it that might be strong for a floor (other than that the colours are nice).

Akshars,

I do like the subway tile options that have been suggested to you. I agree with above comments that you want your beautiful counters to be the star and not have the back splash compete too much.

So many beautiful homes have been posted. Lovin what I see from the lake front properties, to the stone cladding around cool shaped windows (Niteshade), fancy trim (Jenny), wall of windows (many lucky builders here) and so much more.

As for us we keep plugging along. This week we seem to be back to some micro-planning more than building. We have added a fireplace to our master bedroom design, and are still working out the laundry cabinets. Here is a picture of the fireplace we are thinking of for the master bedroom. Also shown are the clothes drying bars we will be putting in the laundry closet (I know this is a small detail).

Wishing everyone good productivity this month!

Fireplace we are getting for master bedroom

Brick at back of fireplace

Drying bars we will build for laundry

[

[Modern Laundry Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-laundry-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_753~s_2105) by Far Rockaway Closet & Home Storage Designers Contour A Closet

emb......shouldn't you have a silt fence between the construction site and the lake? That could ruin that section of the lake.

Izhwong,

I love your inspiration board. I think either the cup pulls or regular pulls would look great. The regular pulls I believe are probably easier to open as you can reach over or under to operate. I am sure I read some info on pros and cons of knobs vs pulls and ease of use of pulls vs knobs on the kitchen forum. Maybe there is a thread you can find on cup pulls vs regular pulls. Those kitchen guys talk about all sorts of details like that.

Can I ask where you are positioning those lovely sconces over the windows? How many of those sconces are you using? How many windows do you have? Any info you can share on how you are using those sconces would be helpful. I love them and the idea of using some sconces along with under cab lighting and some pots for kitchen lighting.

Carol

lzhwong-I would vote for the standard pull not because I don't think they should be different but I have an aversion to cup pulls. I always grab from the top and while I think I'd adjust eventually I just don't like the thought of grabbing from the bottom and also fear that I'd be pulling 'up' on the drawer? I think I am gentle enough but I worry about the rest of my family and the wear on the drawer guides over time. So many people have them though so that might be just my unnecessary worry.

If you want to mix it up check kitchens forum - there was a thread on that very thing - mixing pulls.

Hi,I'm new to the forum and not sure where you are all located? Our land is due to be settled end of January, hopefully start building early February,I'm in Australia Melbourne ,

Welcome to the forum sannaw. Do you have plans already?

Re knobs and pulls, here is latest thread on knobs vs pulls.
While looking, since it was a thread I missed, (haven't been checking in on kitchen forum consistently in last month or two), I came across this long thread Show me your knobs and pulls, and This article on placement of knobs and pulls.

In my looking for knobs and pulls I looked at the selection our cabinet place has here, didn't like anything on the board, so went online and ordered samples from 3 places. I was so surprised at the really poor quality of one of them that was not inexpensive, so that bopped that out. Anyway, we ended up with selecting knob and pulls from Restoration Hardware. So last week I bit the bullet and ordered on their 20% off everything sale, they're due to be delivered today. Early, but I wanted the sale. So last night, don't you know, I get the notice that they have their bath furniture (we also ordered a vanity for upstairs bath from them after our redesign up there and moving the framing wall), and their hardware on sale up to 30% off. I spent several thousand dollars last week and today it's on sale another 10% off! I'm calling today to see if they'll credit me the difference.
I've been watching for months, they've run sales on their rugs, lighting, occasional furniture, rugs again, lighting again...etc. Never have I seen them put just bath furniture and hardware on sale like this.
Here is the vanity we ordered. I'm having it delivered to storage. Sigh.
We got the Lugarno Pulls and the Hanson Knobs, which I like together. I ordered the Lugarno knob when ordering samples and it felt too flat, too close a profile to the cabinet. The Hanson knob sticks out further, is more substantial, and I like it better.

This post was edited by mlweaving_Marji on Thu, Jan 9, 14 at 7:49

I AM GOING TO SCREAM....
That is all.
Carry on.

Can anyone talk you off the ledge? I'm assuming this has something to do with delays and a March 1 date?

Getting excited! We should be in our house by the end of the month. Cabinet are in....lot is graded....concrete formed and being poured today....granite going in today or tomorrow....all lighting and electrical going in this week....shower tiled.....plumbing and backsplash next week...sodding next week

pic of the kitchen/living

we have doors and windows.

Marji! You've hit the nail on the head.
It's all good, I'm just seriously frustrated at this point.
I don't like it when things aren't happening....and NOTHING is happening! arghh....

:)

OntarioMom: I'm positioning the sconces right above the window like the picture. I have 2 windows flanking the stove and 1 large window over the sink for a total of 3 sconces. I don't have a ton of upper cabinets so I will not be using any under cabinet lighting. Our kitchen will have 6 recessed cans, 3 of the Clemson pendants over the island and 3 of those Boston Library sconces.

stuarbc: I like the house a lot. Can't wait to see more interior pictures

OntarioMom: Here is our kitchen floorplan. Hope this helps. I'll take photos for after it is done but that will probably be awhile. Not sure when you need to decide.

mlweaving - the house looks great! Where are you building? The moss and trees look like the southern lowcountry. Beautiful!

robin - our silt fence will be placed as soon as the shoreline work is finished. There is a lot going on all at once.

Stuartbc, we were cross posting, so didn't see your post until now. What an exciting week for you! You're getting so much that makes a lot of visual progress this week. It's all looking so nice already. Q: is that a panoramic photo, or is your room really curving?

Embemis, you got it, we're building on Lady's Island. Only about 3 hours from you. Do you have to have all the hurricane engineered construction, being so far inland?

Just got back from meeting a landscaper our at our house. That stuff is all so far beyond the scope of what I can deal with. I don't have any idea what any of the plants are that he's talking about. We're on GardenWeb, but I am so far from being a gardener that it's pathetic. He's proposing planting 3 varieties of palm, some viburnam whatever that is, several kinds of grasses and I can't remember what else. At least that's what's on his plan. We meet with another one tomorrow to get his ideas and quote, then we'll decide who to go with.

Lori, I so understand your frustration. Nothing is happening on our end because the Drywall contractor is running behind and the stucco person is running behind. I am ready to scream.

Mlweaving, Hope the restoration hardware give you the 10% back. I hate when this happens. Thanks for mentioning about the lighting sale. I may order our island pendents if DH and ID Ok them. Your house is looking good and secure :)

Izhwong, Did you already purchase your island pendents. If not they are on sale at RH right now. They are one of my top choice also. Love the way you plan to use sconces.

Stuarbc, Beautiful house and Kitchen. More pictures please.

OntorioMom, Love the fireplace for the master bedroom. Very cool idea on the drying rods in the laundry room.

Two weeks until move-in day!
Recent interior pics in the blog link.
Thanks for everyone's help and opinions on these forums.

Here is a link that might be useful: CH home build

Sannaw- welcome! I'm located in MN.

Stuarbc- I really like the kitchen/living area! How exciting that you are getting so close.

Our GC is telling us we'll be in by the end of January, which seems laughable to me at this point. We have made some great progress so far this week though...all trim is up, most of the flooring is in (except carpet), all cabinets have been installed. However, we are still waiting on workable lights, plumbing, counters, and a final coat of paint. Siding should be finished tomorrow or Saturday and then I'm guessing stonework will be done next week. We also have to wait on our driveway, landscaping, and any other outdoor items until Spring.

Here is a pic of the flooring going in...actually kind of angry they don't have it covered.

emb....I don't know where you are but in this area you HAVE to have the silt fence 'prior' to 'any' clearing of the property. If not, you get a BIG fine and I do mean HUGE!!!

lori-oh boy. :( We are delayed a little due to the weather here, days not weeks BUT. I hope today you see some major March 1st kind of action!

sannaw-hello and welcome. I am in MI. :)

rb-wow is all I can say! That is a ton of progress in a short time. At that rate you may just be in by the end of January - 2 1/2 weesks - amazing.

renton-thanks for linking the blog, you are so close now. Very nice - love scrolling through all of the pictures. :)

stuarbc-love the photos. I'd like to know if that is a panoramic shot too. Very nice space.

akshars-just thought I needed to share since I posted that J.C. tile. I went to the local distributor and she just dropped their line. She said they were having repeated trouble getting tiles and getting them all over the place in terms of coloring, etc.. Too many issues. :( Well that will scare a girl off! I did see some Pratt and Larson IRL while I was out and about and oh my so so pretty but $35+/sq foot. Sigh, dream a little dream. Haha! I am bummed about the J.C because they were at $12 a square and that I can handle. There was another brand that was well within range but they only had stark quite or a really yellowish cream, bummer.

I made great strides yesterday (what a mental relief) with the ID. We went to 4 tile stores and 2 granite shops. Phew! I am waiting on some pricing from the fabricator for the granite. I marvel and how easily she can pull something together. We were in one shop, both looking. I came back around the corner and she had a couple of coordinating things laid out just like that, loved it immediately. I feel like I wander aimlessly. Now though I have a palette and that has give me focus. The best part is I came home with a couple different options and DH loved the first one - which was also my fav. I will try to post a pic of the tile and the granite of the day but it's so hard with lighting.

Winter can be a frustrating time of year for building. I've been mostly stuck in place, what with single digit temperatures, followed up by heavy rains. I do have some indoor work to do, but the main floor is not heated, and the outdoors is nothing but mud. Hang in there!

It is a panoramic. I have taken several different panoramic shots from the same spot at a few different points of the build. Went by the house last night and granite was in and driveway and patio were poured. Moving along fast now!

a little further along

and then as of earlier this week

I've had a yucky week with bad head/chest cold. Finally gave up and called the doctor this morning. She's out on an emergency but nurse is calling her every couple of hours to get orders. We'll see if there is anything I can take with my high BP meds. I've been through four boxes of tissues just since Monday!

stuarbc, love your panoramic shots! DH took a couple which I'm going to post below. You are moving along great! When did your cabinets go in?

Mushcreek, I hear ya on the mud! It's a total mess at our house. The poor stone layers are caked in it! Mud everywhere.

Autumn, glad you are making strides with choices! Can't wait to see some of them.

rbattaglia24, the end of January? Wowser! I suspect you will be seeing a flurry of activity in the next couple of weeks. Good luck! What did you go with for your floors? They look pretty even if they aren't covered!

renton123, your house is gorgeous! I also enjoyed looking at the interior photos on your blog.

akshars_mom, I also understand your frustration in the waiting game. It seems like it is always a "hurry up and wait" game, right?

mlweaving, I'm looking forward to meeting with a landscaper. I love that kind of thing. We did our own landscaping at our other home a couple of times. It was a lot of work. Can't do that anymore because of my back and knees. But, over the years, I've collected lots of books on landscaping. I'm no expert on the topic but I do know some plants I like, but always anxious to hear about others. And, we want LOW maintenance for our retirement home.

lzhwong, love your inspiration photo for your lighting. Can't wait to see photos of your kitchen! I'm jealous. We don't have a window in our kitchen. No way we could configure it with our layout. I like our layout, but love the looks of having windows!

loribug26, I'm so sorry nothing is happening there!

We ventured out Tuesday to go furniture shopping. We left a floor plan with the sales guy for their ID. I got a call from the ID late Tuesday that she had worked up a plan for us for the family room and wanted us to come back to see what we thought. I've been so sick I haven't been able to schedule a time with her.

We've been waiting on our siding guys for weeks. They finally told us yesterday that they would start on the 16th. Fortunately for us, the stone guys said it was a little extra work for them with making sure everything was totally level, but they are installing the stone while we wait on the siding guys. And, while they work outside, the drywallers are working inside. We are making progress. Once the drywall went on the ceilings, DH was able to turn on that portable furnace. After that Arctic air left us, the house has been staying toasty! I'm sure our electric bill will be fun!

Insulation is being blown in the attic today. Drywallers are supposed to start the taping, mudding, and sanding today. And, the stone guys keep installing. I've decided I cannot be around insulation or dust with this cold, so I'm staying away.

I took this photo of the stone guys from inside. You can see all the mud! Yuck.

Here's a look at the front porch area. They don't have the ledge cap on this yet. But, I like how it looks with the front door. They have the porch covered so I can't see how well the stone matches with the porch colored concrete. And, the concrete hasn't been sealed yet so the color will change when that happens, too.

Here's a panoramic of the garage after drywall was hung. This was before the cleanup:

This is a photo of the garage after the cleanup (not a panoramic photo). Best money we spent was for the drywall company to do the cleaning after they hung the drywall!

Panoramic photo of the hall/family room/kitchen/dining area - all before the clean-up:

Here are photos after the cleanup.
Family room:

Kitchen to Right/Dining to Left:

Family room looking toward the entry:

hoosiers - feel better soon! It looks great. I am afraid I am the clean up crew and I am not that excited about cleaning up all that dust. Ick!

Schedule: Insulation is supposed to start M-W next week with drywall delivery on Thursday. We shall see.

Dh has been doing in the inside wall sound deadening insulation all week and is about finished.

Siding! We have the beginning of siding:

Here is the master bath (inside lighting at the store - it's tough):

What I like about the floor tile is it can read gray or more brown depending on what you put with it. In this pic it looks more gray but IRL it really is a blend of both. It's warm but not too warm or too brown. The little square is our laundry cabinet and it's definitely more on the gray side and the tile goes with both wonderfully. Yes! The shower alcove tile comes in 12x24's so we will be cutting those down before install.

Granite:
Alaska White:

Full shot (they had another slab but it wasn't near as nice IMO, the dark areas looked more 'splotchy':

Bianco Romano - definitely more within budget and does match - it's just quieter.

Latest decision waffle:
Fireplace stone - we found this split stone in our budget that we also like. It's a lot less heavier looking than our original choice. The black is the board the sample is affixed to. We are still undecided:

Original selection:

They are so different from each other. ??? I need to stare at them for a while but we need to order next week so...I don't have a lot of time to do that!

Autumn, Thanks for the heads up on the issues with other tile, too bad. I agree on the Pratt and Larson tiles they are beautiful but expensive. You are right the master bathroom floor tile does look grey/brown and does go well with you laundry room cabinets also. Glad you are coming close in selections. In the granite picture above I like the Alaska white and agree the first slab is the best. In regards to the stone I like the new one you posted but the other one also is nice.
May I ask what exactly is your DH using for the sound insulation?

Hoosier, Sorry to hear about you not feeling well. Hope you fell better soon. Great to see all drywall in your house. Look great.

renton, Beautiful house. Loved seeing the pictures.

rb24, Wow Jan end is going to be here soon. Please more pictures of the details :)

Ok finally the drywall work has started. Lets see if they can make quick progress. The stucco work has not begun but hopefully they will start soon.

Hi Autumn,

Your master bath floor tile is what we had in our last build but in the darker shade. And the lighter shade for the rest of baths. It looked great, I liked that tile alot. I like your both your original tile for the fireplace and your new choice is similar to our last fireplace stone. So of course I think either will be gorgeous! We also had White Delicatus granite which looks great with both your cabinet choices. Here's some pics if you haven't seen them before.

xc60-thanks for posting pics! That is really helpful to see full scale! Ahhhh, delicatus. I am having that priced too but I am nearly certain it's out of our budget but yes that is actually the very first one I saw that I loved. I didn't take pics to avoid further torturing myself. ;) I told dh he could choose the stone for the fireplace as I like them both and he is going with split stone. Glad to move on. The more choices we make the more the vision becomes clear.

akhsars-we are using bats of insulation to place in the ceiling above the great room (which is below the boys bedrooms), the wall between the master and the great room, bathrooms that but up to bedrooms, washer and dryer wall. The exterior walls and ceilings will be blown in and/or sprayed.

Omgoodness!!! I've been so busy today, I'm just now getting a chance to check in!

Guess what!!??? There is sh!t HAPPENING!!!
Stone was delivered this am, and the insulation started today!!! Drywall next week???
Y'all better start praying, or chanting, or meditating, or whatever it is you do, MARCH 1, MARCH 1, MARCH 1!!!

LOL
:)

akshars - sorry you're ready to scream too, what do you want me to chant??? :) Drywall, drywall, drywall... lol

renton - beautiful home!! Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks!!

sannaw, welcome!! I'm in central Indiana

rb - I hope you're in by the end of the month!! Love the wall color!

Random question... what is everyone doing with their stairs (if you have them) I want mine just wood. I keep getting the "do you have two heads" look when I say that. Wood stairs are NORMAL, right?? I've never lived in a home with stairs, but I'm NOT going to carpet the dang things! I found some rough, rustic looking treads online and emailed to my builder, maybe he's starting to understand....

I also just barely caught them in time this am to be sure we blocked for curtain rods. He looked at me like I was crazy again, and said "you're not just putting up blinds?" Um no. I hate blinds. We're 1600 at the back of a field...why would I put up blinds. The curtains will be open 95% of the time....

Am I just crazy?? Wait...don't answer that.

autumn, good for you with making strides with ID. I am my own ID. Maybe that's why they think I'm crazy!!!
Your siding looks to be very similar to ours...very nice.
I love the first slab of granite, and the stone in the second picture, you're original choice. Stick with your first instincts. Oh crud, just read the last post... let DH decide good idea, but I sure love that StoneCraft one.

I think I'm all caught up. How's everyone's weekend shaping up? We're finally above freezing temps here and things are thawing! woop woop!
I'm still at my full time job, got to get to the part time job tonight (I host Karaoke at our local establishment)
Daughter's having a friend over tonight, her Birthday bowling party/sleep over tomorrow, her actual birthday on Sunday...
I'm tired already...
Have a good weekend y'all!!!

Thank you for your support MushCreek :) Hope yours starts coming a long soon also!

stuarbc...Love the panoramic photos! :) beautiful home

Hoosier, sorry you're under the weather. How has your weather been down south? We got a lot of heavy wet rain/snow before it got cold cold cold!!!
I LOVE your stone! Just love love love it! I wish ours had a little more color variation in it, but I think I'll really like it when it's up.
Have you stolen my cleaning fairy?? :)Drywall!! Awesome!!

Weird... it posted my post in jumbled up order... lol oh well, I am the entertainment around here.... figure it out! :)

Lori, You are too funny :). Glad they started things over there again. Since they started on the Drywall may you can start chanting "stucco stucco " :).
Good idea on the blocking for curtain rods. I totally forgot them and insulation is already done let us see what we can do. I am using an ID but I am sure my ID think I am control freak. I still keep doing my own research and then I show her two or three choices and we mostly choose one them based on her advice. Wow you have busy weekend ahead of you.

Autumn, Thanks for the info on the insulation. We plan to do similar insulation for the bathroom sharing a wall with the living spaces. I wanted to see if you are doing anything different.

This weekend's agenda is to order tiles for my son's bathroom, laundry room and guest bathroom and backs plash tiles, get my husband to agree on a floor selection. We have now ruled out santos Mahagony and almost ruled out rift sawn white oak (I like it but DH not so much). So we are considering walnut ( I love America walnut but it is soft so need to go check out Brazilian walnut ) or may be pre-finished maple.

Nice choices on the ensuite, Autumn. I wondered if the laundry room cabinet was the colour Dover from Home Depot? It is so hard to tell from a computer pic. Also, is the laundry room cabinet going in the master bedroom or elsewhere? As per the granite choices, I prefer the less busy second one. However, that is me as I prefer less busy counters. I think both match beautifully.

I continue to be impressed at the rate of progress around here. Our pace is at least 50 times slower than the norm on these boards it seems. We have more days without poeple or DH working on the house than days with workers and/or /DH working. I do recall there was one poster who was also DIYing a great deal of his build, but I don't think he has poster recently (go figure maybe he doesn't have much time).

Sannaw,

Greetings from the province of Ontario in Canada here. We live a bit over an hour outside of Toronto, Canada in a mid sized city (Guelph). Toronto is the fourth largest city in North America (just bigger than Chicago) and the largest city in Canada. Of course, we are happy to live outside Toronto to avoid the traffic.

Note to those who are responding to Sannaw that stating the two digit state code (i.e. MN) may be rather meaningless to a person from Australia. I can guess at some of the states from two letters, but I am a lot closer as a Canadian.

Happy weekend everyone.

Carol

Akshars,

Re sound proofing insulation. Roxul makes a good insulation sold specifically for sound insulation (they all make one for regular insulation).

Carol

Lori,
If you've never had stairs before, then you've never fallen down (or UP!) them. I think that's why your getting the crazy looks. i don't care how sure footed your family is, sooner or later someone is going to fall. You sure appreciate the carpet when it happens. I've had stairs for 15 years probably, at least 10 slips or spills. Probably half as many for my husband (I'm a clutz, even at a young age). One rather major one when I had my long stair run, kept me on my back and sore as hell for probably two weeks. And those were carpeted..I probably would have broken something if they were wood not to mention fallen more often with less traction O.o Just make sure you consider practicality not just aesthetics.

Have you thought about maybe a wood riser and carpeted stair tread? I've seen pictures of this and its what i wanted to do initially. I think its best of both worlds, decided against it though because they said it would cost something like 3-4k more to specially prep the stairs for that and I couldn't justify that cost just for aesthetics and ease of cleaning. You're probably already paying that kind of cost though if you're already planning on wood.

This post was edited by niteshadepromises on Fri, Jan 10, 14 at 18:55

I would love to have wood floors but as niteshadepromise's said it was about 4k to run them from the main floor to second floor and another 4k if I wanted them on the stairs to the basement. :(

I am just in awe at all the beautiful houses on this thread, from the wonderful kitchens and floors, the awesome paint choices, to the gorgeous lake views and exterior house photos..... It's exciting to see all your homes coming together. :)

We are still slowly moving along, finishing carpenter work is almost complete. Still waiting for basement to be taped and mudded. The painters are slowly painting over the shocking bright yellow paint that was accidentally done with my gorgeous grey color. Yay! Cabinets should be installed in the next week or so.

We picked out our granite slabs yesterday as well as our backsplash tile. In the end we picked the tile that I liked first months ago, ahhh all these months of agonizing. Go with your first choice, as Loribug26 posted above, lol

This post was edited by xc60 on Fri, Jan 10, 14 at 19:19

Wow everyone's homes look amazing!

OntorioMom, I will look to see if I can find roxul in our area.

Lori, Forgot to answer about the stairs and carpet. In our new house we have no stairs but in the old one we did and we had the wood stair in that house. I love the look. I understand the risk of slipping but I just loved the look and wood have done that again if we had stairs in this house. The house had carpet when we bought the house and it was so tough to clean the carpet on stairs when we changed to hardwood cleaning the stairs was so much easier.

Yes, we are making lots of progress, but I don't want to get my hopes up quite yet. The one great park of our build is we are doing nothing regarding cleaning, the work, or anything - which I think helps speed up the process a lot.

Hoosierbred- the floor is a wood-looking laminate. I think it was call Mohawk Bayview in bourbon hickory.

Loribug- regarding the stairs...we have decided to go with carpet. In our previous house we had beautiful dark hardwood stairs and I absolutely loved the look, but they were like a death trap. My mother slipped in her socks one time and was nearly hurt and my husband slipped going up them and literally broke 3 toes when trying to catch himself. They are just not practical with little kids in socks :)

I am loving everyone's panoramic shots. I'm going to have to remember to take some of those this weekend.

Lori, every old house I've lived in and renovated had wood stairs. In three of them I put a runner on the stairs. The last house we built we also put wood stairs, visible from the living room, and ran a runner up the center of the steps with 4" of wood showing on each side, and of course the wood wrap around the part with the spindles. Best of both worlds.
In my 100 yr old Victorian with steep and narrow wood stairs I did not put a runner, and we all fell on those stairs.

Check out KellieNoelle's thread on the Decorating Forum here re stair runner - she got lots of suggestions as options. IIRC she ended up going with a broadloom carpet.

In this house we're doing a wood stair off the entry, with no runner....yet. It won't get used much since we've got a 1st floor master.

STAIR QUESTION
If you don't have wood stairs, what do you have? I have a back stair going up to my studio loft, and I don't want to spend the $ for a gorgeous wood stair. But I can't see carpet on those steps, I don't think anyway. What are my other options? I guess I've never lived in a house that didn't have hardwood stairs. In all my old houses the basement stairs were always painted wood. I guess I could do that.

I met the KD out at our house yesterday when he went out to mark out the cabinets and built-ins. So glad I did. We ended up moving the island about 3" from where it was marked on the plan. I looked up the specs on our range to get dimensions of the depth with handle, and the KD and I played with boards placing the island on the floor. And he pointed out where the opening to the dining room needs to change in order to die the crown moulding into wall and add trim.
He also suggested two walls on which we should add sound insulation.

Dh and I also spent close to 5 hours cleaning the sawdust and leaves out of the house. I just don't think the framing crew would have been as meticulous at cleaing out, and we don't want those sources of mold left in the construction.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stair_runner_thread

lori-woo hoo yes, your chanting must be paying off. ;) Chant away girl! Happy bday to your dd! We are carpeting stairs, first off less expensive and hopefully will help with sound reduction and third only the kids are upstairs so they will be using them most and hopefully they will be less apt to slip and fall.

I know I do like the stonecraft one also and believe it or not that wasn't actually our first choice! We have struggled with it between coloring and budget. We originally liked the split stone but what we had seen was way over budget. So then we picked the stonecraft but thought it was too dark so a different blend, then back to the blend I posted here, then I found split stone that we could swing ($7.50/sq instead of $18 - stonecraft stuff is $5 something). Anyhow it also saves us some installation time and since most of the DIY stuff is hitting all at once it does make the split stone more appealing. I honestly like them both. Dh is still saying he likes the split stone so that's the currents status. :) I kind of feel like the stonecraft is a bit country and the split face is a bit contemporary and I feel like we are transitional. ?

ontariomom-the laundry cabs are from HomeCrest and the color is sand dollar. I liked it the minute I saw it. The darker cabinet is for the master bath. The laundry has 2 uppers above the washer and dryer and then a small sink base and that's it. It won't be a lot of color in there but enough.

askshars-so would you believe today I get a call from the tile store that my Jeffrey Court samples came in...??? They ordered them from the distributor that told me they pulled them. So I picked them up and they are very nice but I think I'd need a different color. Anyhow I don't know what to think. I mentioned it to the retailer and he said he hadn't heard a word of that and would double check to be sure he could still get them. We are reviewing budget tomorrow to see just where we are sitting for counter tops. I'd love to get that narrowed down too!

mlweaving - we also have a ton of leaves trapped in our garage stairwell that leads to the basement. I will need to get those out when they pull the temporary treads. I can't get to them for now. I am wondering how many hours in clean up there will be after drywall. What a mess that will be! Hubby loves landscaping, loves it. He'll be the one planning all that out. I don't know too much about it but I love to look at our lawn after he's finished mowing and it has a checkerboard pattern 'burned in'. :)

I'm doing wood on the front staircase. The back staircase will have wood for the first 9 or so treads and the remaining few will be carpeted. It's the staircase that leads to the room over the garage and then up to the second floor.

I mocked up a cup pull on my current kitchen cabinets and it is a bit "different" to open. You have to reach under and in to open it so I think I'm going to use regular pulls for the perimeter and island. Next to the kitchen, there will be a desk area. I think I will use the pulls there. I also want to use some latch pulls. Since our cabinets are full overlay, I don't think I can use the latch pulls on the side doors. Do you think it looks funny to have regular knobs there? Thanks!

Autumn, Hope the granite you like is is with in the budget. In regard to the Jeffrey court glass tile. I saw them in Home depot website http://www.homedepot.com/b/Flooring-Tile-Tile-Glass-Tile/Jeffrey-Court/N-5yc1vZbo1xZ4gm.

Marji, wow 5 hours cleaning up the house. They are doing dry wall right now and there is a lot of dust.

We went to the house today and realized that the tray ceiling they did in the dinning area is bigger then was supposed to be and not the right shape. sigh. Need to talk to the contractor and see if they correct is at this point.

We spent most of the day looking at tiles and have ordered a few samples for the backsplash and will select one of them. We also finalized the my son's bathroom tiles. We looked at the guest bathroom but could not decide.

So maybe I am crazy about the wood stairs...
I'm sticking to my guns though, I love the idea of the runner...I might add that later down the road.
Kids bedrooms are upstairs. SDD is 19, probably not going to live there long, DD is 12. 99% of the time we're barefoot in our house, except for DH. But he'll probably not go up very often.

It just won't work for carpet. "wood" look vinyl on top & bottom....Only carpet in this house is up stairs bedrooms. Everything else is vinyl. We're hard on floors. Herd of house cats, herd of dogs, herd of people, and if it gets cold again like it was last week, I may let the horses in... I'm kidding!! :)

BFF & I went to local antique mall yesterday... I should not be allowed in places like that. We had a ball, making fun of lots of stuff, but found some cool stuff too. I came home with a truck load. DH says, "don't be spending too much money" hell... after what we're already spending??? whatevs...