Few updates

The exterior of the house is looking better and better. Our front walkway (bluestone) was laid about a week ago, I've planted some of the herb seeds in the front beds and outlined them with little stones for now so I could see where I planted what.
Our driveway was paved yesterday and you can see the faint hue of Green grass(!!!) that's germinated on the front lawn. Dear husband and I were up at 5:45 am to make sure we got the obligatory 20 minutes of watering before the 93 degree heat hits today. In this photo I'm holding up the mailbox and house numbers so Anthony can put those on today. I love the way our house looks this time of day- the morning light is so pretty.

Moving inside, our sign arrived today! M. picked it out to go in the large empty space above the doorway from the living room into the dining/kitchen area. We had tried to find an authentic antique or handmade sign, but the options were just too pricey.... if we find something perfect someday we can swap it out, but I actually really love how this looks in person:It'll be hung here:

It's great too because the black lettering picks up the armoire, the wood planks are so similar to our coffee table top and the turquoise picks up a bit of the chair!

Anthony was working at the house today. He stained the top of the desk and will be back today to put poly on it. It's pretty- almost the same color as the floor. The stain is Very stinky though and the catch 22 is when we open the windows we smell the freshly paved driveway!

Anthony also put hooks in the cubbie off the garage. (the missing one will go on today). I am SO thrilled with this cubbie area. Love love love the beadboard.

I have some gardening photos from the weekend to upload in the next day or so and have been doing some more thinking on the direction of this blog.... I struggle with how to balance where we've come from (getting back on our feet post fire) with our "new" life (being home!).... I have a couple ideas which I'll share when they are more solid. Anyway, having not been able to post for so many days, I'm happy to be back!

Ideal Tile

Anthony met us at Ideal Tile today to help us with our backsplash decision and fireplace surround decision once and for all. (How awesome is a GC that goes with you to help with design decisions?!)

Great news!!! We've settled on a backsplash! It's a pretty, classic porcelain tile with a crackle finish. There's a mix of colors- all gentle neutrals: bluey greys, greens, and browns. The backsplash will be the subways shown here. Behind the range will have a tile molding around framing a the square tiles placed on the diagnal.

Here are just some photos of me playing with the sample Vinny let us take home.

Here's a close up of the tile. ooooo it's so creamy and pretty!

Next up was the fireplace surround. Anthony built this to-die-for mantle which you can see close up here. He is truly a master carpenter-- the detail on the mantle is not lost on us. We looked to him to take the lead on what to do for the surround (within the mantle).

We settled in on these slate tiles. We already have a soapstone hearthstone.... The idea for this will be to use the harlequin (diamond) tiles for the top right below the mantle and above the fireplace. This will be finished off with the black marble pencil molding you can see here too. Then going down either side will be the simple square slate tiles (two across on each side). I am SO excited about the harlequin pattern... what is it with me and things on the diagnal?

Vinny spent so much time assisting us with our selections. He also drew up a mock up of the fireplace design. Here he is! We are so lucky to be working with such masters in their trade.

four day countdown

It was a flurry of activity at the house today. I took off work to meet with the insurance adjuster and be there for the appliance delivery.. so I had the joy of witnessing it all first hand.

It was the first I had seen the floors in person. Dark walnut is gorgeous, perfect, just what we were hoping.They have a bunch of mats down to protect the floors now.

The appliances arrived early afternoon. They backed the truck right up to the front stoop to unload the appliances.

Meanwhile they were breaking stuff up to fit more boxes/plywood etc in the dumpster. I'm laughing looking at this photo bc it looks like Anthony is flexing his muscles standing on the dumpster.
Alan teased me, you ordered the blue refrigerator? (its stainless under that wrap!)
Can you see her peaking out from behind the island? That's the blue star! Dear husband is going to be soooo excited. Also look at all the bottom cabinet drawers. It looks so pretty in person, I was about speechless.

The electricians were busy. Our ceiling fans are installed as is all the recessed kitchen lighting. Yes, that's our powder room vanity in the middle of our living room... and it looks amazing!

Here's the ceiling fan in the master bedroom. I Love how the dark floors brought out a little more grey in all the paint colors.

Here's the blue room. I think once we add some furniture and an area rug this will look really soothing and nice. I was a bit worried that the grey blue was too blue and too bright.

Look how grey it looks here though! Pretty, no?

I have loads more photos from the day to post, but have to run to meet dear husband who has not yet been to the house! We're four days from move in... amazing.

kitchen knobs and pulls

Here are the glass knobs we have our eye on from Restoration hardware for the kitchen cabinets:

Here dear husband models them:
What to do on the drawers is more tricky. They make glass pulls:
but we're not so wild about them and we would need something larger/stronger for the dishwasher pull...

So we were thinking maybe pulls like this from RH.

jen4265 from the gardenweb forum has these same knobs and pulls in her kitchen only it looks like in a polished nickel finish.

Another option is to use two of the knobs on some of the drawers:

(edlakin's kitchen on gardenweb)

(...another unknown gardenweb poster's kitchen)

Cup pulls are another (popular) option and one dear husband likes. What I don't like about cup pulls is: 1. they are big. the glass knobs on the top have such a small profile that I think this would look bottom heavy. 2. you always have to turn your wrist to open a drawer. 3. i feel like they'd get dirty inside and would be hard to clean. To me, they are also not quite as classic somehow.. definitely not as formal.

(rmkitchen from gardenweb)

So since Dear husband loves the glass knobs and the orb pulls, I think that's where we'll end up. Once we're allowed back in the house (they are doing the floor stain this week, so we can't go inside!) we'll have to take a real look at the cabinet/drawers and see what we'd like where.... I do think it would be nice to do the two-knob option on some of the smaller drawers. We'll see!

backsplash- long and photo heavy!

When we first went to the tile store last summer to work on our bathrooms, I was drawn to these gorgeous accent tiles. I just thought the glaze on them was gorgeous, I love the kind of botanical themes they had and the colors were so pretty. They've been in my mind ever since so you can imagine my delight when Vinnie, tile extraordinaire, who was helping me with our backsplash, pulled the creamy subway tile from this collection down as an option.

This photo does it no justice, but the subways on the left are a creamy white which nearly perfectly matches our cabinets (the one on the right is too grey, but did have a pretty crackle pattern in it). That's a sample of our countertop we were also using to see how they would all work together.

White subway tiles are a popular choice for white kitchens with black countertops.

Our builder is gently nudging us towards other options, with the worry that a plain white subway in our kitchen may look a little "boring".

My argument would be that there's a fine line between boring and classic. Going with something more unique might seem fun right now, but we could be fed up with it in five years and the backsplash is not something we're going to change. That said, I can see from these inspiration photos how the backsplash doesn't really add any pop to these kitchens.

This one looks especially bland, but if you put some cheery window treatments and barstools with cushions and even put some more everyday clutter ;) on the countertops, it would look so sterile. This kitchen, for example, is gorgeous. It has the same dark floors that we're planning and it looks like someone actually Lives there. So while the backplash isn't adding a huge design element to the room, it's certainly not taking anything away either.

We could also try a porcelain subway in a different color. Something neutral but that would give a little more pop to the space:

If we did go with a plan subway, it might be fun to do something like this- a herringbone pattern- above the range. I like the subtly of it but it adds a little interest.

GLASS TILE:

Anthony, our builder, was throwing the idea out there of a glass tile. Glass tile has a beautiful shine to it that would really pop and the color options are endless. Glass tile does, however, add a distinctly contemporary feel... while our tastes lean more traditional. That said, here's a photo of a beautiful, classic white kitchen with exactly this sort of backsplash. pretty!

All the glass tile options I saw yesterday, though, seemed way more contemporary. This was the closest contendor, but I just think it looks too modern for us...


Another options we're considering is a natural stone backsplash.

MARBLE TILE:

This looks pretty in a white kitchen similar to ours:

This tile is gorgeous. I loved the greens and blues and greys in it and the movement is stunning. In a way the marble is somewhere between the total classic/traditional porcelain tile and the more modern glass tile. It would definitely add some interest to the kitchen and a part of me feels like you can't go wrong with natural stone.

That said, I think I'm still leaning towards the creamy porcelain. If you told me that was going in tomorrow, I would be fine with it-- any of these others I'd need to think on. I would be thrilled if we could incorporate some of those pretty accents.

I think I'll drag dear husband back to the tile store today and see if we can't come a little closer to a decision on this one. Any thoughts would be welcome!

Soapstone and crown molding

We were all smiles tonight with the amazing progress. Here's a photo of dear husband. I'm standing on the landing off our master bedroom looking into the hall bath (with the gorgeous basketweave floor!) Look at the baseboard molding in the hallway... and I think the hallway color is going to be just fine.


I realize I didn't post a photo of the front bedroom. The yellow at first made me a little nervous, but I think it's going to be pretty. I am over-the-moon about the crown molding in the bedrooms. wowy.

..and this is the back bedroom that I've posted before. I think it will make the most perfect little nursery at some point. Again, how gorgeous are the base and crown molding.... I'm in awe...

So we knew that the soapstone countertops were going in today... so we raced over to the house immediately following work. We let ourselves in and use the flashlight to plug in the extension cords to the construction lights. I was speechless just staring at the beautiful countertops. A good ten minutes later, M. exclaimed, "oh my goodness, they put the doors on the cabinets!". I hadn't even looked up. It's all too much to take sometimes!

Here you see the stunning veining in the soapstone. Also I'm so pleased with the cabinet doors and the hood detail (which we designed). I like that it's accented without being too pronounced.

Here's from a wider angle. Oh my goodness... it doesn't even seem real. I'm so glad I insisted on symmetry around the hood/stove. In hindsight I should have been there for the templating... the island was meant to be rounded off a bit more... but I'm thrilled with the way things are coming together.

Look at this gorgeous stone. This is the slab to the left of the range.

And our Shaws sink is out of this world. I'm happy with our Vinnata faucet and soap dispenser too.

I truly can't believe how amazing our kitchen is going to be..... It's more than a little overwhelming actually.

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off from work. In the morning I have to meet with the inspector from the bank. Then my mother is coming down from Connecticut to see the progress on the house. I'm SO excited to share it all with her.... It means so much that she's making the trip down. I'm also going with our builders to pick up the vanity and bank fixtures that our friend has so kindly stored in his garage... and later in the day I'll head over to the tile place with them to talk about backsplash options. Exciting day really. Sure beats work ;)