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!