v a u g h n a u s t i n

OMG! Almost there….

Tile, granite, appliances, chimney, wood floors, carpet… Wow! A lot has happened in the last month!

We uploaded more photos of the house to Flickr.

Well, it’s been over a month since we’ve posted a photo of the front of the house. Things are moving along — as you probably *cannot* tell from the photo above, the builder is working with the mason to replace the stones that don’t work with some that do. I took this photo yesterday morning, and it was a bit cloudy, so the light isn’t that good; however, I can tell you that a significant improvement has been made over where we were a month ago. There’s still a lot of work to do and we’re moving at a snail’s pace, but I’m confident that we’ll get there. We may not start on the landscaping until a week before closing, but we’ll get there. By the way, closing has been scheduled for Saturday, May 19th, so we should be moving in on the 20th!

Inside the house, we have a lot slated to happen in the next three weeks. From the fireplace stone to the wood flooring and carpet. The place is covered in dust right now, but the cleaning crew should be sent in real soon and you’re guaranteed to see some more photos when that happens!

We just had to share! It’s magic!! We love it!!!

It’s nice to see progress on the inside of the house. Yay!

Kristin and I walked through the house yesterday with her parents, who just arrived in town for a three-week stay. We were excited to see the guys putting down tile when we got there and started snapping photos. It wasn’t until I downloaded the pictures to my laptop the next day that I noticed something wrong. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this. The keystone was one example. There’s something about the way my eye works on a computer versus in real life. I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but hey, I’m 38 years old… I should probably just accept it and move on.

So, here we are twenty-four hours later. I didn’t have to say a word. Once the guy who could actually speak English (read: Supervisor) looked at the paperwork, it was pretty clear what needed to be done. Fancy that.

We love this part of the house. A rotunda is one of those things you never knew you wanted until someone actually offers you one. Notice the ring of granite around the perimeter of the rotunda, as well as a slightly thinner border around the medallion. Granite reflects light a lot more aggressively than tile, so it should really add some dimension to the entryway. Lookin’ goood!

Our first meal at the house? Taco Bell! (A quick shout out to our good buddy, Larry, who is still hiding in a hole in Baghdad and craving the greasy cheesy love.) Here’s a quick snapshot of Kristin as she munches on a taco and shares her vision of the future.

We have posted more photos of the house on Flickr. I’m not sharing photos of the front of the house this week, cuz I’ll just get all fired up and start a whole new rant. In addition to the stone issues, our front door (which we were not able to select, since it had already been ordered) doesn’t match the Old World style we’re aiming for. Mercedes Home has been great, though, and has agreed to swap it out with one that has a wraught iron pattern similar to this picture. We’re really looking forward to the counter tops and hard wood floors this week!

We took the swatches by the design center to see how the colors worked with one another. Looks good, right? We also made some major progress on the couches. We’re going with the comfy crescent-shaped couch from Pottery Barn for the living room, along with matching chair and ottoman. For the media room couch, we decided that we like the Axis line from Crate and Barrel. It’s a sectional, so we had to figure out the shape that we wanted. And the answer is: a full sleeper in the middle with a chaise on each end… It’s the U couch I’ve always wanted! We also purchased our formal dining room table and chairs and an armoire for the master bedroom, all from Louis Shanks.

Mercedes Homes calls me every Friday morning with an update on the house. Thought I would pass along today’s update.

Little to no progress has been made on replacing the stone on the front of the house, but they promise that they are working on it. They are currently trying to locate more medium tone stone that matches the rest of the house. This glitch should not affect the overall project schedule or move-in date.

The trim and doors have been installed and painted. (I’ll post a photo this weekend.) The next step is to install the granite counter tops, which should occur early next week. The bathroom counter tops, however, may be delayed another week due to supply constraints.

By the end of March, we can expect to see the hardwood floors installed, then the fireplace stone and floor tile. Also, we can expect to have a scheduled closing date very soon. At this point we’re looking at mid-to-late May.

This weekend, Kristin and I may order couches for the living room and media room, since it may take two months to have them manufactured and delivered. We need to check the dimensions and confirm that the fabric is feline-compatible. We found extra-comfy couches at Pottery Barn and are considering a suede material, which is supposedly the most durable and stain-resistant. We’re looking at the Oat color for the downstairs living room which will have dark wood floors and Clove for the media room which will have beige carpet. The couch in the media room will be a “sleeper” and arranged in either an L or U fashion. The downstairs living room will be a crescent shape, which I’m really excited about.

The kitchen is the hub. It’s the foodie place, the party place, the sticky place. It’s where we gather, giggle, bake and wiggle. It’s what we love and it’s where we love. It’s what we do and where we do it. Gosh darn it, it’s our favorite.

Oh, our cabinets are in!

Unfortunately, that’s not the only thing I can taste. You see, there’s another taste in my mouth and this one’s not very pleasing.

It has come to my attention that I would not make a very good masonry worker. At least not for very long — I’d probably lose my mind about a week into it. There’s just not enough symmetry. No method to the madness. The rocks just get stacked up and stuck together and that’s it. You don’t know what the end product is going to look like until you’re actually done. And at that point, there’s no turning back. It is what it is.

This is painful for me. I get to stand by and watch someone else making all the little decisions that — granted — would drive me crazy in time, but in this case I’d be happy to make them.

The color of the stone, for example, is really quite a large player in this game. So, let’s divide the various stones into color groupings and make sure that we have a nice disbursement of coloring. A harmonious smattering. The front of the house, of course, is more important than the rear, so let’s pay specific attention to that portion. And no matter what, let’s not put ourselves in the position of getting half way done with the front of the house and run out of stone. Because, at that point, we could be screwed. Or, at least, uncomfortably vulnerable to conditions that are out of our control.

First of all, it’s natural stone. By definition, we have no guarantee whatsoever that the next batch of stone will be anything like the first. So we end up with half of the front of the house looking one way and the other half looking another way. Who will notice? I don’t know. I can’t speak for anyone else or even quote some good statistics here, but I can tell you that I’ll notice. And, as the lucky homeowner, I’ll see the outside of the house every day — possibly several times a day. Heck, these stones will soon be an extension of me. Have I lost my mind? Perhaps, but I don’t think so. A few weeks ago I noticed that a house down the street seems to have suffered the same misfortune. But in this case, it was the side of the house, not the front. A small consolation.

Reason number two? Even if the mason distributor knows of our specific request for darker sandstone — and they do — and by the grace of God the darker sandstone is still available, they may fumble our paperwork or conveniently forget about our special circumstance.

Number three… Let’s say fortune is working in our favor and the mason distributor is able to meet our expectations and the second batch of stone is the same as the first. Isn’t that nice? Well, we’re also relying on the masonry workers — who are all too familiar that sandstone often has a darker side and a lighter side — to remember our request to turn the darker side out. Up to this point in time, they’ve done a great job and have grudgingly obliged. But, what if today is a bad day? What if the winds and the stars and the grace of God aren’t particularly aligned in our favor?

Welcome to my world.