Let's Get it Started: Brick, Stone and Siding!

We have had brick done for quite a while, but they just recently started on the stone and the little bit of siding on the house. I figured it was best to post about them all together so that the pictures could do the talking. However, let me first start by saying that we picked the brick from General Shale. It is called Innsbrook. Our builder had just used it on another job he completed and I loved it from the moment we pulled up to their house. I also liked a color called Millstone. I was definitely stuck between the two colors. So what to do? I did what any normal, slightly obsessive girl would do. I enlisted the help of friends and family and traipsed them all over Knoxville looking at the lists of houses General Shale had given me that used those two choices. After seeing maybe 10 houses I was still not sure! Crazy right?!! You either like something or ya don't so I have no idea what my problem was. After all, I did say already that I was pretty much in love with the Innsbrook when I saw it on another of our builder's houses. However, something about that chocolaty brown Millstone was super appealing too. To the chagrin of my best friend, I tricked her into coming with me one day and drove around again to look at houses. Yes, again! In the end I just decided that the Innsbrook was the best choice for our house and went with that brick and the same mortar color our builder had used on the other house. Probably could have saved myself countless hours obsessing about this decision if I had just trusted my gut and gone with Innsbrook from the beginning! Live and learn right? :)

Doing stone was another thing that I knew might prove to be difficult. Greg and I really wanted a strong contrast between the brick and stone. We both were loving stone in the gray family. So we went out to the stone company and picked out the style: ledgestone. Then the company came out with a field sample of our top two color picks to see how it looked against our brick. I liked them both! So what's a girl to do? She's to create her own custom blend of the two, that's what! I told the stone guy what I was after and he helped us create the custom blend. We are in love! Like stars in our eyes in love! Looking at it all I know that we will probably need to add some shutters and maybe paint or stain the front door a dark color to tie it all together, but it is looking good so far. Happy with the choices!

 

Walk out basement door and the lovely brick!

Front elevation of the house. Looks like a castle Greg says!

 

 

Brick and stone together. Love the contrast. Above the brick windows there will be stone accents and vice versa.

 

 

Brick, stone and siding. Stone is installed as a dry stack and has no mortar between the individual pieces.

 

Gray ledgestone. It has a good mix of a gray with black and a gray with brown tones.

Closer view of all three materials together.

 

From the street. Really thinking shutters would be good on the three windows on the left and the window where the siding is.

 

View of the stone on the brick over the doorway arch

 

Trial piece of the gutter to decide if I like it. I do! I really like how it blends into the roofline and pretty much disappears. Do not want light downspouts against my dark brick.



Drywall and Trim Work Oh My!

Well I haven't updated the blog in quite a while because it seemed like all the progress came to a screeching halt! We found out that was mainly due to my cabinetry being backordered from the supplier. You would think that since we have had the plans finalized since June this wouldn't have happened, but if I have learned anything in the building process it's that there are always many moving parts to getting something done and if one falls behind, then it's a domino effect for all. That is kinda frustrating, but I keep reminding myself: "We are building the dream. We are building the dream. We are building the dream!" I know it will all work out. While we waited on cabinetry the drywall was installed, mudded and taped, sanded, primed and then painted with the first coat. I think normally they would not have painted a first coat, but do to the cabinetry delay they had to go ahead and paint. Seeing the drywall go up was really crazy! I was so used to just walking between the studs when I was at the house, that seeing actual walls and closed rooms was really strange. Strange, but in a good way :) I know I have said it before, but we had no idea how big the house was going to be and we had commented on that during the framing and insulation stages. However, now with the walls up, that hits home even more. How could I possibly have ever thought this might not be enough space?!! I guess seeing something on paper and seeing it in real life are just so different! Well, after that tangent, lets get back on topic: drywall. Here it is in all its glory!

 

Living room connected to the kitchen. Love that the fireplace is the focus of that wall.

 

Living room from another angle. Looking into the kitchen and breakfast nook.

 

Dining room with the gorgeous window and great view!

 

 

Master bedroom with lots of light and the view!

 

 Laundry room with door to the outside.

 

 

Bonus room or bedroom #5. Picture does not do it justice. I could do gymnastics in this room it is so big!

 

Media room/Greg's man cave. So glad we didn't do the vaulted ceiling! We would not have had this whole extra room.

Arches starting to be trimmed out around doors and windows. Wasn't crazy about the little circle things at first, but I think they will be ok once they are painted.

 



Master bedroom trey ceiling getting beautiful crown moldings.

 



Living room ceiling before the coffers went in.

 

 

I was at the house the night before to look around and take the previous picture. I come by the next day at lunch and they already had this much done! Impressive!

 

Coffered ceiling is pretty much complete! So pretty!

 

Chair rail and picture boxes in the dining room along with the crown molding.

 

 

Living room ceiling and custom built mantle. The trim guy just said, "What do you want?" Then he did this! Gorgeous!

 

Up close of the mantle. Love how it is boxed out with the picture frames that tie it in to the dining room and breakfast nook trim work.

 

Columns on the dining room walls. Again they mirror the rest of the trim work. The trim makes the house feel so high end! I am just loving it all!

 

 



So even though we got a pretty slow start to August, there has been a lot of work done these last two weeks! I am just so excited! I cannot believe that I will live here soon! We are going from building the dream to living the dream so soon!
 

Cabinetry colors and countertops

So I posted about my cabinetry layouts a while ago so I felt it was time to finally unveil my cabinetry colors and  countertop choices as well :) It was quite a long and confusing process for me to pick the cabinets and I won't bore you with all the details. However, I will say this: Go into the design phase having an idea of the look you want! I repeat, know the look you want! Otherwise, the design phase will be exponentially harder. I am living proof!!

Greg and I both thought we wanted a pretty modern kitchen with cabinets that were Shaker style and had very little detail to them. From countless hours on Houzz we found out that we are a transitional style. Basically a fancy way of saying we straddle traditional and modern in our design aesthetic. We aren't totally one way or another, we like elements of both. Like most people today we appreciate the modern design elements everywhere but like to keep them grounded with traditional pieces. Knowing this you might say, well Laura, sounds like you have a good idea of what you like and went into the kitchen design phase pretty well informed, and you would be right. However, this knowing your "style" doesn't take into account two factors: price and just falling for something you didn't see coming. See that is just what I did. I fell for some pretty traditional cabinets that are not really that modern look we were going for. Then to top it off I looked at Shaker style cabinets and didn't love them! Crazy right?!! The price on the shaker cabinets did me in too. They were so much more than the traditional cabinets! So here I was with a huge problem on my hands. I fell for something I didn't see coming but I still wanted that "transitional style" kitchen. How was I going to make that happen if my cabinets were so traditional?

So I talked with our kitchen designer and she suggested we try and find a way to balance out the cabinets with some more modern elements. Since our kitchen is huge and had two islands we decided to do the prep island in a different cabinet. Read: dark color and a more modern style. Making that choice I was worried that the mix of cabinets would be strange, but now the more I have thought about it, the more I like it and think it will look great.

Here is a reminder of the kitchen layout. The kitchen wall and the larger island is going to be in the Madison White.  The smaller prep island will be in the Kent Birch espresso. The color and style for both is shown below.

Madison white cabinets from the manufacturer's website.

Prep island cabinets

So we decided we would bring in more of the modern touches with appliances and hardware.

This handle has pretty clean lines and is modern without being overly modern. So it will work on the white and espresso cabinets.

Next we had to decide what countertops we wanted to use. Well like a dummy I started researching granite, quartz, marble, soapstone, and butcher block. Well I have very expensive taste it seems and quickly gravitated to the soapstone and butcher block! Eeek! For those of you who don't know, Soapstone is one of the best countertop options out there. It is stain and heat proof and never needs sealed like granite or marble. It is used often in chemistry labs because it will not interact with the chemicals. It has an amazing silky feel hence why it is called Soapstone. It's one drawback is it can be kinda soft and chip or scratch. However, this can easily be fixed by sanding it down. Yep that's right, Soapstone can be sanded down! I love that! I think it is awesome that if it gets chipped or scratched I just take out my handy dandy power sander with some fine grit sandpaper and go to town! Or I could leave the scratches and chips and it will add some patina to the kitchen. Either way, I love that there are options. Also, to naturally darken the Soapstone from a Grey/Charcoal to a Dark Grey/Black you can oil the stone with Mineral Oil or Wax. Soapstone gradually darkens over time anyway and the mineral oil just speeds up the process.

 

 Here is a slab that I really like. It has veining that is somewhat similar to marble and "freckles" or dark charcoal areas. I like that it has movement and some depth without being "busy".

 

Another close up of the slab that shows the veining and color differentiation a little more. However, when you look at the whole area and not up close it just reads gray/charcoal which is exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately these slabs are gorgeous and my camera is just not doing them justice!

My plan is to use the Soapstone on the Madison white cabinetry and to use butcher block on the prep island. Some people like the look of butcher block and some do not. It really appeals to me because I love that it is practical and the whole countertop is a cutting board. The only drawback is I am kinda funny sometimes and may grow to not love all of the knife marks and wear and tear it shows. The great thing about butcher block is if I so choose, I can also sand it down and get rid of the marks. I think this is amazing. I love having options! Additionally, I think that the butcher block top which will be lighter would be a nice contrast with the dark cabinets of the island.



 Sample of a butcher block top similar to what I like. This is beech wood and would be sealed like the Soapstone with a food grade mineral oil or wax.

So many people say they would not cut on their butcher block countertops and I think that is the reason to get them! I love that I can seal them, meaning protect them and bring out the gorgeous grain of the wood, but still use them. I think there is something beautiful about a kitchen that is a "living, working Kitchen" and not just a show piece. So butcher block is an excellent choice for me.

For our master bath we are going to do the Madison white cabinets with a soapstone countertop.
For bath #2 we are going to do the Kent Birch Espresso cabinets with a soapstone countertop. In bath #3 we are doing the Kent Birch Espresso cabinets and a Silestone solid surface countertop in Alpina White.

Here is a picture of the Alpina White. It is actually two different shades of gray so not sure where the name comes from. I like the gray and think it will go well with the tile we picked out that is a creamy white with gray swirls in it.

All of the bathroom sinks are going to be under mount and rectangular like this one. I just love these! It is a little more modern and will help bring that into our bathrooms.

Getting excited! We have picked so many things and it is really starting to become real. I just hope all of my choices will blend together well! I guess we shall see :)

Cabinetry layouts

So excited! We finalized the cabinetry layouts today! Yay! I have been so excited to design the kitchen, so I thought I would share our layouts for the kitchen, baths and laundry room as well as our appliance selections.

 Kitchen layout looking in from the living room. Cabinets also on the front of the island for extra storage!

Kitchen view from side. Love that I am going to have two islands. Also, going to have an eat in area on the right side of the kitchen or closest to the prep sink in the smaller island.

 View from the top. The opening on the left side near the fridge leads to the hallway and the formal dining room. Right side is a bunch of windows and patio door.

Main island-10 feet long!

 

Prep island-6 feet long

Master bath makeup vanity for me and double sinks. So excited to have my own sink! No more whisker hairs in my sink :)

 Bathroom #2 vanity. This bathroom serves as the main level guest bath and also has a door from my office.

Upstairs bathroom #3 vanity. The vanity is separate from the tub/toilet area so more than one person can be using the bathroom.

 Laundry room set up. We are actually flipping the sink and appliances, but you get the idea right?! More storage :)

Appliances: Dishwasher, Fridge, Microwave/oven combo, Hood and Slide-in Gas range

Framing is finished!

Last night Greg and I went out to the site to take a look at the house. If you remember from my previous post, there were several framing issues that I was really upset about and so was Greg. Well last Friday we met with the builder at the site and he put our fears to rest :) He explained that he had just missed the items we wanted addressed and that he would make sure the framing crew fixed them this week. So last night when we arrived all of the mistakes were fixed! Yay! We are so happy! The house is looking crazy good! It is going to have just the feel I was shooting for and be so open on the first floor! From working with the kitchen designer I know my kitchen is going to be huge, but last night I really "saw" it for the first time. Talk about quite the wonderful upgrade from our kitchen now. Our kitchen now could fit twice into my new kitchen!

Now that the framing issues have been fixed and most of the support beams are out of the way, it is much easier to see what everything is. So here is more pictures than I am sure you care to see of our framed in house!

Front of the House. Windows covered in the paper still are in the garage. Then left to right on the first floor: Dining room window, front door, and master sitting area. Top floor windows left to right: bonus room, a guest bedroom and the two story foyer. I have an awesome light for the two story foyer that is shaped like an orb/globe. It is gonna look so awesome from the street!

 

 This picture doesn't do it justice, but this is my huge open kitchen. Original plan called for partial wall between the kitchen and living and we made it completely open. Going to be so nice for entertaining! In order to open it up they had to put in a giant 24in header, but luckily they could recess it a bit when they put it in so the ceiling right there is still over 8 feet.

 

Here is another view with the support beam out of the way. This space will be the kitchen and living room and will be 26 ft by 17ft. That's huge!

 

 

This is the back of the house. On the left the window with the board is in the living room and so is the next window. The rounded or jutting out area is the eat in area in the kitchen and the huge window on the right is my office!

 

 

Side profile of the house. Garage bay all the way to the right!

 

 

 

Silly I know, but look at all of the pallets of shingles this house needs! 





The lovely view from the formal dining room. This will also be the view from the bedroom directly above the dining room and the master! This will be so amazing to wake up to every day!

 Master bedroom sitting area. Going to be my reading nook!

 

Partial view of the master bath from second floor.

Master bath tub and shower. The tub looks so small there but that is probably because that shower is huge! It's 8 ft by 4 ft!

 

 Bonus room starting to go up. This room has a sloped ceiling but it is still really high.

More second floor framing getting under way.

 

Media room on the second floor. Originally the plans called for the living room to have a vaulted ceiling but we thought it was a waste of space so we are getting this man cave area for Greg!

We are so excited and feeling so blessed to be building this lovely home! We have been here so much already and are so involved in every choice for it, that I already feel so connected to this house. I just can't wait to see everything come together. We are building the dream!