Moving on to paint

As the various crews were finishing up the brick and stone and staining, we started selecting paint samples and painting them all over the house to see how they looked in the rooms. Here are some pics of that and much more!

Starting on the stone for the little garage outcropping and finishing it in two days:



The study side of the house is done too:

The brick and rock go together nicely

Close up of rock texture...too bad it's so expensive or we would have done more in rock!


The shop was also completely drywalled, taped and textured in about three days! Now it really looks its true size (huge) - those doors are 18x8 ft...
In fact the texture is so fresh that gobs of it on the ground get stuck to one's shoe ;-)


The bookcases were stained and put in place (currently being sanded):

The bar finished with laquer and a paint sample of the color we will use in the room (Sherwin-Williams color called Hearts of Palm)

Utility cabinets staining done!

Vivi decided to high-five the paint swatches and show us her "Mad Ups" Skillz

Staining on the welcome center in the laundry room where we'll dump all of our stuff when we walk in the door ;-)

Here is a preview of the front door, the wrought iron is removed to give them access to mask off the glass part.

In the guest bathroom we are going with a blue paint that matches the blue in the tile (Sherwin-Williams Moody Blue). It's actually darker than it looks in this pic but the flash really reflected here.


We are also going with blue in the master bathroom, this one is light and has a little touch of aqua in it (the color is called Rain):

We tried out a lot of blues in the master bedroom and bathroom! That blue horizontal stripe in the middle is the Moody Blue from the other bathroom - it looks a lot darker when the flash doesn't hit it directly doesn't it? The stripe on the bottom of the three horizontal ones is the one we are using for the master bedroom, called Interesting Aqua.


Minor nature interlude: critter tracks (looking for the bags of chips and food the workers leave behind)


Here are some more random pics and previews:
possible backsplash and fireplace surround tile

The granite we're using in the guest bathroom vanity was a leftover piece of nice stuff from someone else's slab. We got it at a bit of a discount since it was a remnant from another order (they don't stock this particular one, called Asterisk) - these pics are from elsewhere on the Net, I didn't take them:



This week we are getting countertops installed (they have already started) so we'll have more pics of that later this week, as well as some pics when they start painting the walls with the colors we picked out. Should be interesting!

Stone and Stain

The bricking continued over the next couple of weeks and got to where the stone could begin! The bricks had to be done first in areas where it meets the stone since the stone ends where it hits brick, not the other way around (if that makes any sense!).

The back patio and outside of the master bedroom are done:


They used more scaffolding to get to the front of the garage and finish it in about 3 days:

(the remaining green part will get stone here also)

They began bricking the shop too and finished it in about 3 days. The middle of the shop around the windows is purposefully left brickless as it will get a small amount of siding. This is to create a visual breakup of the wall so it looks like a garage and less like a bunker. Day1:
and Done:

After bricking the front of the house was done in the right places, they began the stone work. The bottom foot or two is mortared normally with mortar all in between the stones. This is because this area of the wall will be under dirt or cement when the patio is poured and final dirt grading done around the house. You don't want dirt and water getting in between the stones and allowing water and mold to enter the wallapace so they seal it with mortar.

By day two they had started placing the dry stack style stones on top. This is a time-consuming process because they mix the stone sizes, textures and orientations to create visual interest as well as keeping the lines level. It's skillful and intricate stuff.

The stone terminates into the brick already laid down. You can clearly see where the mortared stone ands and the dry stack begins (also the freshly done brick and mortar next to the dry stuff)

At the end of day 2 (or is it three?!) the stone is about halfway up the wall and looking good:

The front door was one of the last bits done on the house brick.

After the third day or so:

Vivi wears some interesting outfits around the house. Here is one of her "daytime pajama" outfits complete with Webkinz snake accessory (I call it her Boa boa, even though it's a tiger snake).

Notice also the mismatched croc style:


The staining also began on Friday 13th (spoooky!). The color we used is Sherwin-Williams "Walnut Wainscot." It's rather dark brown and shows grain well.
The bonus room:

The kitchen after the first coat:

Laundry room stained

The study with one door stained and one not:

The master bathroom staining:

Vivi's bathroom stained:

Doors removed for staining:

Staining is a multi-day process. After the initial coat they come back with "sand and seal" which adds some shine and can be sanded. Then they come back with another coat and also they will blend in the lighter tones to the darker by staining more in lighter areas. Then a shiny laquer finish. Here are a couple of pieces after the first sand-and-seal application. Shiny already!



Bonus pics!
Life in the country includes wild and semi-tame animals...
Carly is the semi-tame duck, who will get out of the pond and follow you wherever you go (although here she's looking for bread).
"I don't have any bread!"

This is a wild bullfrog (in temporary captivity) conversing with a tame, housebroken tree frog.


Next week we get our countertops (oooh), staining will be done (aaah), and we start on the interior colors (w00t)! We also picked out our lighting last weekend so we're really adding details now and should have lots of exciting pics.