Building Our Dream Home

Cabinets and Lights

2:03 PM |

Hello! Here’s a quick update on the house.

These are the kitchen cabinets. All the lower cabinets have pull-out drawers.

Three of the corner cabinets have lazy susans, and the pantry is a “chef’s"

pantry. I’ll try to get good close-ups of the drawers and pantry for next time.

The refrigerator will go in the space beside the pantry.

I did not realize the bar would have the same cabinetry around it. Isn’t it beautiful?

Brandon dropped by on his way home from a photo shoot in the Houston area.

He could not stay long, as he was extremely tired and still had to go on to SA.

This is what our outside lights look like...there is a star in the middle.

This is the ceiling fan in the kitchen. I don’t know if you can see them or not, but

there are stars on the pendant lights which are hanging over the breakfast bar.

Things are moving along faster now. We are scheduled to move on

March 26, whether they are finished or not. The backsplash is being

put in the kitchen today. Hopefully they will be finished enough that

the laying of the flooring can be started tomorrow.

We are still waiting on the septic tank, propane tank, and water heater

to be installed. I told Larry...‘Well, we can haul water from the outside

faucet and heat it, and they’ll just have to leave the port-a-potty until we

get the septic in, and we’ll just have to take spit baths.” Boy, did that

bring back memories of visiting Grandma and Grandpa!

As soon as we get the pictures downloaded, I’ll post more. Next will be

the tile floors, baths, and whatever is done of the kitchen backsplash.

Have a good week!

Joye

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The STONE Is On!

1:07 PM |

Yeah! All the stone is on the house and the fireplace also.

It is truly beautiful!

Here is the stone going on the corner of the garage . . .

See why Larry put plywood and plastic on the porch? Look at

that mess! I'm happy to report the stone masons cleaned it all up.

This is the kitchen window . . .

I was really unsure about a stone fireplace, especially one going all

the way up the wall to the ceiling. However, Larry finally won me

over and I think I am going to really like it.

The fireplace stone is finished (except for the hearth)

. . . isn't the trim around the opening nice looking?

Now, the hearth is going up. First, they have to frame it . . .

Then, they fill it in with leftover pieces of stone . . .

Lastly, they put the cap rock on and the corbels the mantel sits on.

(Corbels are the projections jutting out from the stone.) I think it's

beautiful, but then I'm a wee bit prejudiced. We are still trying to

decide exactly what we want for a mantel. We want it to look

somewhat "rustic," but not too much. We also want it to be at least

12 inches deep and 5 1/2 feet long. Someone suggested we go out

and find an old cedar tree (with permission from the landowner)

and make a mantel from it, but I don't know . . . .

As I said earlier, I was skeptical at first about having a stone

fireplace all the way up to the ceiling. I think after going by the

house and seeing it go up and getting used to it, it grew on me.

I say that because last Sunday when Brandon came over and we

went by the house, his comment (about the fireplace) was, "Oh,

it's bigger than I thought it would be." I think he liked it, though.

The stone is on!

One young man worked on the fireplace while another

worked on the house . . . I think they did a really nice job.

After the stone was finished, they cleaned up their mess and the

porch was uncovered. I love the look of the porch color against

the stone of the house. We originally planned to have the posts

on the porch and the front door to match. Hopefully, that won't change.

Another view of the front of the house . . .

Another view of the fireplace . . .

Whew! That was a long blog. Tomorrow (I hope) I'll tell

you about the cabinets, etc. Back when we were choosing

the flooring, the builder gave us a sample cabinet door so

we could coordinate colors. We'll try to include a picture of it.

More later!

Joye

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Dear Family & Friends,

I was going to post the new pictures of the stone and realized I had not posted this one yet. So, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the stone. Today we will look at the trim and the master closet.

This is the bookcase Larry made for the quilting room. It fills in a "dead"

space above the fireplace (which is on the other side of this wall). We have

the shelves at the apartment and they will go in after the walls are painted.

The "trim guy" has put the trim around the windows and the floor . . .

The master closet . . . baskets will go on these shelves.

The rods on each side are for longer garments and garment bags . . .

The two rods on the back are for Larry's shirts and my blouses . . .

The builder told me today (Friday) that he told them to stain the rods

instead of painting them. He said the stained rods do not get

scratched up as easily as the painted ones.

Trim has been placed around the bookshelf in the quilt room . . .

This is the double door on the 8 ft. x 3 ft. closet in the quilt room.

It has no rods or shelves because it will be designed to hold

quilting supplies and fabric. Larry and I have kicked around a few

ideas; now we need to sit down and put the design to paper. We're

thinking there will be shelves (U-shaped) around the walls.

I have a sewing cabinet which Larry and his dad made me 30

years ago in Beaumont. It has drawers which are sectioned to

hold patterns, another holds threads, and several others hold

miscellaneous items. When I need to make the quilting room

into a bedroom, I will simply roll my cabinet into the center

of the closet. The wall opposite this closet is where the

Murphy's bed will be.

I haven't determined yet where the guests who use this room will

put their "hanging" clothes - perhaps in the hall/entry closet . . .

Oh, we also need to make luggage racks for both these rooms.

I'll show you at the end of the blog what they look like.

This is the trim at the back of the garage. The door goes into the hall

between the dining room and the utility room. Our bedroom is at the

end of the hall. The opening on the right is where the tankless water

heater and the water softener will go. Later, Larry will install doors.

These are the luggage racks I was referring to. Larry made the

wooden part, I made the quilted straps, and Larry put them together.

This was Martha's (Larry's mom) . . .

This was Genevieve's (Larry's aunt) . . .

This was Erin's (our daughter) . . .

Nope . . . we didn't get ours made. However, when we get moved, and

Larry gets his workshop built, we'll work on luggage racks for our

bedrooms.

Time to move on the next item on my "to do" list . . .

Tomorrow, the STONE!

Joye

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Sheetrock & Texture

8:05 AM |

Hello All,

All work stopped the week before Christmas and the week after. Then, they delivered the sheetrock.

The roofing is finished...

The garage . . .

The master bedroom . . .

Sheetrock in the master bedroom . . . the beam is not yet finished. It will be wrapped

in wood and stained to match the floor.

The kitchen is sheetrocked . . . we still haven’t met with the cabinetmaker yet.

Back of living room and around fireplace is sheetrocked . . .

The dining room ceiling . . .

The Kittchen is taped and floated . . .

Yeah!! The kitchen is textured . . .

The back of the living room is textured . . .

The dining room ceiling is textured . . .

Things are moving right along. The builders say we’ll get in probably by the third week of February. I’m praying we do. Last week was really hard for me. I know we needed the rain, and I’m grateful for it, but the apartment was so dark and dreary . . . There’s only one double window in the living room/dining room area and even though I turned on all the lamps and the kitchen and dining room lights, it still seemed dark and dreary. Larry and I were in San Antonio all day Saturday and even though it rained continuously, it was better than being in the apartment. Actually, I am grateful we were able to rent an apartment which, after six months, would let us rent by the month so I’d better stop complaining about it.

Well, the next blog will have pictures of the stone!! See you then.

Joye

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Chipping Branches and Painted Exteriors

12:26 PM |

Wow! Here it is Dec. 20...I have half my Christmas cookies decorated. Gonna get right back to it as soon as I finish this post.

I have a whole new respect for the quilting blogs I read. I understand now why they sometimes post that they are taking a break and will return at .......... It sometimes takes me hours to put this together. I guess if you don’t have pictures to add, it doesn’t take as long. Oh well, I love adding the pictures.

Wow, things are moving right along! We’re going to cover “chipping,” painted exteriors, stained porches, and the ROOF.

Do you remember that we had a tree growing out of the corner of our bedroom? Well, they cut it down and dug out the roots and it joined the pile of branches in the back of the lot. Larry decided he wanted to “chip” all those branches and use the mulch. So, he borrowed a truck and rented a chipper. If I had known.....

Larry stood at the back of the chipper (a formidable piece of machinery) and waited for me to drag branches over to him (I laid them at his feet. How sweet am I?)

We were going great and suddenly...the chipper started smoking and no mulch was coming out! There are very few things that stump Larry, but he finally had to make a call. They told him how to open “something” (I don’t know what it was called) up and see if there were branches caught in there. Sure enough, there were branches wrapped around the mechanism. So, here’s Larry pulling out the offending branches....

My DH (Darling Husband) got the “beast” cleared out and my break was over. Here he is feeding the branches into it again.

My job was to disentangle the branches and drag them over to Larry. Because of all the dust, I had to wear a mask. I’m glad we were at the back of the lot. You can see the fence that runs along everyone’s back property line and separates our property from the ranch behind us.

Plastic over the windows in preparation for exterior painting....

The last third of the dining room window was finally delivered...

The garage in its new green paint...

The back of the house is painted...

I was waiting for Larry and he took this picture. When I went to the downloaded pictures to put on the blog, I found he had titled this one, “My lovely wife on porch.” Isn’t that sweet? I mean, there’s nothing lovely about me in this picture...love really is blind, isn’t it? I am blessed.

Our fire box was installed. We are having a ventless-gas-logs fireplace. It’s going to be so great to be able to adjust the fireplace as the day warms up. With the log-burning fireplace, as the day warmed up we had to abandon the living room because there was no way to “turn” the logs down.

December 13 the concrete porches were stained.

The front porch was scored to look like wood planks...

Another view of the front porch...

The back porch was not scored, just stained...

The back porch stained, the exterior painted...

The master bedroom exterior painted...

The stone has been delivered...

The roof has been prepared and ready for the shingles...

The stained porches have been sealed...

Another view...

All the exterior walls are insulated and ready for sheetrock. This is the insulation in the kitchen...

Dec 15 Larry called. He’s at the house and said they were roofing it. Yeah!!!!!

Roof over the front porch...

Roof going up over the quilting room... er, excuse me...2nd guest room....

The roof is on, the exterior is painted, the trim is painted...

Close-up of roof colors...

That’s it for now. Larry went back out to the house to finish putting the decking in the attic. He’s using it for “flooring” for storage. I hope we don’t have to put much up there, although I still have lots of boxes in the garage to go through. After Christmas, I intend to hit them with a passion...

Hopefully the next pictures will be of stone on the house! I hope we like it...

Larry and Joye

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Cabinets and Lights

The STONE Is On!

Trim and Master Closet

Sheetrock & Texture

Chipping Branches and Painted Exteriors