Front steps

We knew the entire house, including the front steps, would be made of brick.  This is proof that these aren't going anywhere!  They are built on a concrete slab with lots of reinforced concrete block.

Driveway

These photos show the layout of the driveway.  We were blessed to have a good friend do the driveway and sidewalks.  He actually bought the paving business from my husband's father several years ago.

This seemed like something that would be easy and quick, but ended up causing some conflict.  I knew I wanted brick spacers in the driveway and sidewalks, and we had plenty of bricks left over, so that part was easy.  How the driveway curved and connected to the sidewalks was a bigger challenge.  Since we were using concrete, we couldn't change our minds!

Finishing the floors

April 2012 still

One day the builder said we needed to go look at the stain samples and choose one that day.  Good thing I had a time limit!  However, this was not a hard choice. My decorator was out of town so my husband and I were on our own.  We done good!  There were about six colors when I got to the house but two looked just like the rough floor.  I knew I wanted a dark stain and always really wanted Brazilian cherry floors, but everyone (my uncle, my builder, etc.) talked me out of that because not only because it is costly but it apparently discolors.  They said you can't move furniture or rugs, etc., because there would be shadows.

The top photo is Will's room, which turned out gorgeous with the reclaimed heart pine flooring.  The study is also pine and it has an interesting background story. My in-laws built in 1989 and had a lot of their pine flooring leftover (which they stored behind a sheetrock panel), so we decided to do the study with the pine.  Will decided he would prefer wood to carpet (his sisters demanded carpet!) for his bedroom since it may help with his allergies - and it looks good!  I have been told that pine is soft and easily scratched, so it would not have been good for the high traffic areas.  We used 5" oak for the foyer, dining room, great room, halls, stairs, powder room, and master bedroom. The bottom photo is the master bedroom, although it's a little dark and hard to see the actual color.  The floors are gorgeous and I am not bothered at all by the two types of wood as I had feared.  We used the same stain on both although the pine takes the stain differently. Absolutely beautiful!  The Lord has truly made me feel,
SEW Blessed

May 2012

This is a photo of the elevator guys taking up bucket after bucket of (apparently) very heavy hydraulic fluid.  I found this so ironic since they had to go up two flights of stairs to carry each bucket so that the elevator could then work, hence making this job tons easier!

Master bath countertop

April 2012

The cabinet samples and tile samples went with me everywhere!  I looked at slab after slab of marble and granite for months, it seems.  I went all over Savannah and to South Carolina.  We even went to North Carolina on a business trip and went to a stone warehouse.  I immediately found my kitchen countertop at a huge stone warehouse about the size of 4 football fields when I found a gorgeous slab of stone that had no black going through it.  I had not realized that almost all granite has black veins, but my husband wanted granite in the kitchen and I was fine with that. (Kitchen photos later).  The marble I originally chose for the master bath was Daino Royale and I thought it was gorgeous.  At one point, many trips to my favorite stone place later, I walked past a slab and thought, "I hope that's not what I picked out for my bathroom", went back and looked, and it was, in fact.  I changed to Crema Marfil, which is beautiful, but eventually changed to the one above because it looked so much better with the floor and cabinets.  Turns out it is also botticino marble.  That concerned me because I thought it may be too much, but it all looks beautiful together.

Colors

Choosing paint colors was something I was dreading.  I have a hard time making decisions (just ask my builder).  However, my decorator told me she was "great with colors" and she was right!  When I saw the color wheel with about 2,000 colors, my heart sank.  She said not to worry because there were only a few "good" colors.  She knows I like things neutral and I told her I like blue, yellow, white, and beige, beige, beige!  Since my current house has been yellow for years, I was leaning towards not using yellow in the new house.  My decorator did talk me into painting the kitchen a bluish/gray shade called Icecap - she said I needed a little color!  It is so pretty and we all love it.  The majority of the house is Featherdown and the master, Sarah's, and Will's rooms are Bone White (which is actually creamy beige), but those two look alike.  For Elizabeth's bedroom and bathroom, we wanted a very pale blue that leans toward gray (so the bathroom marble would match) and ended up using Fanfare.  It was just what Elizabeth wanted and I love it, too.  The only thing that didn't work out was that we painted the great room Icecap and the fireplace looked like it clashed with the cabinets, and I didn't care for the foyer/dining room being beige and the great room blue, so we changed it later.  Great choices again!

Cabinets

We have been blessed to have my uncle do our cabinets.  He got us good prices on very nice cabinets and installed them ahead of schedule.  Did I mention he owns a cabinet shop?
The first photo is the master bathroom cabinets sitting in the master bedroom for the time being.
The middle is the kitchen (love the paint color!) and the bottom is Will's bathroom cabinet sitting in his bedroom.
Great choices here!

Girls' bathrooms

Top:  Sarah's shower
Bottom:  Elizabeth's shower
Both girls have bianca marble tiles in their shower.  In Sarah's, we used "bricks", as she requested.  In Elizabeth's, we used squares (as requested) with an accent piece to match.  These photos are before they were grouted but they sure do look pretty now.  The floors are also bianca marble and in 12" squares.  Turned out gorgeous!
We are all,
SEW blessed

Master shower

OK, here is the master shower for now (which turned out to be from February til May).  The tile supplier couldn't get the accent pieces (calacatta gold brick tiles) and it sat in limbo for a couple of months.  But I love the tile!  It is called botticino marble and we (again, the decorator) chose 8x12 bricks for the shower walls and 12" tiles for the bathroom floor.  Love it, love it, love it!  Keep on with those good decisions!  Definitely feeling,

SEW blessed

Will's shower

Will actually chose his shower "look".  He loved the travertine, as did I, and the supplier had it in stock.  It was actually less expensive than the original porcelain tile we had chosen but only came in 18" squares, so we cut them in half and his shower "bricks" are 9x18 with an inset of travertine 1" blocks.  The floor cost a bit more but matched the shower well and was also travertine but in 12" squares.  It is just beautiful.  Will also wanted a black countertop and stained wood cabinets so that's what he got!  (The only place in the house with dark cabinets and countertops).  The builder always puts in a "niche" of the same tile as the showers and I loved that.  Perfect for shampoo, soap, etc.  We decided to tile Will's shower to the ceiling (9') because he's a boy and a little messy, but the builder did the same crown molding as in the rest of the house.

The stairs and wainscoting

Thank you, Lord!  Wow, do I love the stairs!  They are going to be gorgeous (look for pictures of the finished product later).  I highly recommend doing the things you really want in the house even if they cost more.  My husband and I both loved the look of a rounded staircase along a rounded wall, and although it is harder to do, the result is well worth it.  My builder had his trim guys do the staircase on site instead of ordering it pre-manufactured, which saved us some money and made it truly custom to the house.  It was so cool seeing how they make the curved stair rail - they took several thin pieces of wood and glued them together, then put a vise on every other step and connected the rail to the step, then left it that way for a week or so.

The wainscoting is in the dining room and is so sharp-looking.  There were lots of decisions that went into this.  How many did we want, how far apart, should the smaller wall have one or two, etc., but we love the result.

Service yard

This is a photo of the "service yard", i.e., the thing on the side of the house that holds the air conditioning units.  Again, I wish I had studied the plans better.  This thing is huge!  It isn't that noticeable from the front of the house and it does have storage underneath (although it's exposed to the outdoors), but one half the size would have been perfectly fine.  All three units fit quite well on about 1/3 of the surface.

Columns

Still March - here are the columns.  OK, this is one of the choices I am not completely happy with, but my husband and B agree that they are just right.  I would have eliminated two columns inside as well as on the back porch.  Be careful to study the plans extensively if you build.  I see why people say you have to build 3 houses to get it right!  As soon as I saw the columns in the back of the house, I thought it was too many.  As it turns out, and you can see this if you know to look for it on the plans, there is a column directly in front of the kitchen window (looking from the island) and from the middle bedroom window.  This photo is right after everything was painted white.  We (my decorator, that is) chose the color "Super White" for all of the trim and it is beautiful.  The house is amazing and the Lord has truly allowed us to be,
SEW blessed

March 2012

It is time for the fireplace - my husband decided we would use actual Savannah grey bricks and went on a search.  He found 188 from one source and bought all of them, although the builder estimated that we would need a little over 200.  It ended up being enough and it looks so pretty.  Perfect for the house!  Another good choice - most are good but sometimes even with lots of thought and research, the choice isn't perfect.  I am always thrilled when I go to the house and see something new that I love!  Still feeling,

SEW blessed

"Football field"

My teenage son says our garage ceiling looks like a football field and I see his point. It is kind of cool looking up at it.

Walls!

Now the drywall has gone up and as weird as it is, at first I was so disappointed to no longer be able to see through all of the walls.  My children laughed at me and said you have to have walls in a house, and I agree, but it was my favorite part of construction.  It is so cool to stand in one place and see where everything is going to be.  We did move a wall which was our biggest structural change.  My husband agreed to have his study condensed so that the powder room, "water closet", and especially master shower could be enlarged by about a foot.  His study is now small but we will use the shower a lot more than he will use the study, as I continually point out.  I am really glad we decided to make the change (although I had to fight for it!)

What it looks like so far

Well, we have a whole house to see now!  This is a view from the front and from the back.  Wow, we love it.  It was worth waiting for.  I should have always trusted the Lord that His timing is perfect.
We are all,

SEW blessed

November 2011

When I first saw the back steps, I thought they were way too big.  I joked with my family that all five of us could get lounge chairs and lay out on the landing of the steps.  As it turns out, once the banisters were added, they are just right.  If you go out to the marsh and look back at the house (as my daughter is doing), they fit it very well.  Once again, they were on the plans but I had a hard time visualizing what they would look like.

It will be a brick house!

We have always loved the look of Savannah Grey bricks, but they have become extremely costly (up to $5 per brick).  So we went with the next best thing which is a copy called Ole Savannah for a fraction of the cost.  Since we ordered over 30,000 bricks, that is a good thing. There are a lot just on the front steps.  I LOVE the brick!  What a great choice we made.  Keep helping us make these choices, Lord.  We're counting on you!
Remain,
SEW blessed

Elevator

This is the newly insulated elevator shaft from the top floor down.  Looking forward to having one to carry clothes up and down to the laundry room for me!

October still

Well, our two large brand new water heaters were installed, as well as a recirculation pump to distribute hot water rapidly throughout the house.  This was a big decision and there were lots of disagreements over the advantages of tankless water heaters versus the traditional tanked.  Our builders wanted tankless, but our plumber and plumbing fixture dealer recommended against them.  The tankless are about $1500 each versus $400 or so for the traditional ones, so cost was a factor.  The final decision was made by a good friend and just-retired plumber who told us that he had been installing tankless for years and they were always needing maintenance.  He said the mother boards go out frequently and they don't last because it is the same principle as computers - though we were told they would be more economical over their life span, he said that was not the case because they never actually "lived" long.

Windows!

Now we have windows!  When I asked my builder why all the houses I go look at that are in the same stage of construction as ours have windows, he told me we were late getting the windows but they should go in.  They are all in and there was only one calamity.  When I walked into the master bathroom, the window "hole" was short and way above the tub.  I was not happy.  I pictured the windows going all the way down to the bathtub, and after thought and prayer, we decided to change it.  (In all fairness to the architect and builder, that was the way they were drawn on the plans, but I am not good at visualizing what things will actually look like when in place, and the plans only showed the window from the outside.) Unfortunately, the window folks said they couldn't trade them in (although they are a standard size window), so we are stuck with two very nice windows in the garage.  My friend said to just sell them on Craigslist!

Insulation and plumbing

Now the spray foam insulation is in all over the house.  It only took 2 days!  It seems to be going quickly.  Also, the plumbing and electricity is going in before the sheetrock goes up.  We had to do a walk-through with the electrician, builder, decorator, my husband, and me to decide where to have the outlets and switches placed.  Because of flood restrictions, we have to have the switches in the garage almost 6 feet off the floor.  I have always been vertically challenged so I hope I can reach them!

Walking through the rooms! (Sept. 2011)

OK, this is still in the midst of framing, but the roof is on (not shingles yet) and I love it.  We come out all the time and bring family and friends to wander through our walls!  I am so glad I have been documenting it all along because it changes all the time.  Next, the roof and insulation, then sheetrock.  Now we will really be able to see what the rooms look like.

October 2011

Wow, this is zipping right along!  It seems to be flying up, but the builder warns us that these are the days when we can see the most changes each time we come out.  Honestly, this is my favorite part of construction and I love going through houses that are being built, imagining what rooms are what.  This time I know exactly what room are what because it's ours!  Thank you, Lord!

Up go the walls! - September 2011

Well, this is still fun.  So far, very few disagreements between my spouse and me, although I know they are inevitable.  People say if you can get through building a house together, you can do anything.  I say after this many years together (25+), we better be able to do it!

They are framing and we can almost walk room to room.  Very cool . . .

Laying the foundation - August 2011

We came back from a family vacation to see our house going up!  The concrete pillars are providing the foundation and will incorporate the garage.  We are starting to have to make lots of decisions now - scary!  I am praying and trying to leave a lot of them up to the Lord!  Still,

SEW blessed

July 2011

Now they have laid out where the house will be on the lot.  So far, we haven't had to make many decisions.  However, the review board in our new neighborhood did not like our middle window in the front, so $900 worth of plan changes later, we have a totally different facade.  On the positive side, the new window gives us a lot more light in the foyer.  Wow, still loving that view!