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