December 5, 2014

DRYWALL!!

I would just like to start off by saying that Ryan Homes wastes no time! Our PM, Ross, wasn't kidding when he said that they would start dry walling today. The transformation of the framework to looking at the actual dry wall hung up is like night and day. It's true what they say, reading other blogs, people have said that looking at their home with drywall, the spaces appeared to be much bigger. It's almost like an optical illusion.

They dry walled the majority of the house within a day's time. Very impressed. They still have to finish dry walling our master bedroom and my closet. I'm sure that's done as of me blogging this post. From there, after they mud it and the mud dries, they'll skim (sand) everything down to make sure it's even and smooth and then put on that first coat of paint.

Here's a few pictures of the home with most of the drywall hung.

View of the master bedroom/sitting room. I'm in love with the trey ceiling!

Full view of the sitting room.

Another view of the sitting room. One of the things I like about Ryan Homes is that they don't skimp on the outlets. We have about four in our sitting room.  

 

Did I mention how much I love the trey ceiling? Lol, I think it's so romantic. Trying to get the boyfriend to see my point of view in adding a chic chandelier versus a ceiling fan. Thoughts?

 

The boyfriend's closet.

View of my closet. This picture was taken from the inside looking out into the bedroom. I've got tow lighting fixtures in here, so if I don't get my way for the chandelier in the bedroom, I'm going to hang two gorgeous ones in here. I have soooo many plans for this closet. Thanks Pinterest!

 

Our master bath with soaking tub. We originally wanted a Jacuzzi tub but changed our minds after looking into it and researching on upkeep and maintenance. Stand up shower will be in the left hand corner of this photo.

Water closet. 

 

One of the many things I'm looking forward to once we move in. Looking outside and seeing the nature and wildlife. If you look closely or maximize this picture you'll see a deer grazing about 15-20 feet from the rear of our home. There were about six of them there but this was the best photo I could take without disturbing them.

 

Of course the boyfriend bought the tape measurer for ONE purpose. To see what size TV he can finagle above the fireplace. LOL, I just left him to his own devices. Men, what can you do??

I mean, really, how big is this TV going to be?!? LOL!

Propane tank was affixed outside on the front law with a line running down here. They use this to heat and dry the house once the mud has been applied to the drywall. You can see a doorway where the unfinished portion of the basement will be. The boyfriend has plans for a theater and gym back there eventually. He's working on the layout and we'll have some companies come by for consultations and estimates once we have gone to settlement.

View from the guest room.

Not sure what he's pointing at but this is a photo of one of the boy's bedroom's.

The other bedroom. The boys really made out because I must say, their bedrooms are large. I'm so glad because not only will they have their own space but they'll have more than enough room to relax and study.

Best. View. EVER! Second story photo the entry way.

Laundry room on the second floor with the bedrooms. THANK GOODNESS!

 

Photo of the boyfriend's office.

Another photo of the finished rec room. It's quite large.

Entryway

Formal living room.

Formal dining room. 

 

Morning room. I'm going to spend a lot of time here drinking coffee/tea, and looking outside the window. The rear of our home backs up to a lake. We have beaver back there as well as deer, turkey, and groundhogs.

Photo of kitchen. Here you can see the bar area and the two pantries. Also, in the left hand portion of the photo you can see where the refrigerator will be.

View of the family room from the garage door.

Photo of a portion of the garage.

Garage doors (duh). They haven't put in our garage door openers yet.

Another photo of the garage.

December 4, 2014

Pre-Drywall Walkthrough

Good evening bloggers! We're moving right along and are getting closer and closer to the finish line. We had our pre-drywall walkthrough today.

Our PM, Ross walked with us throughout the house and showed us the lay of the land. I will admit, just looking at the framework, I wasn't all that impressed and a little bit concerned. You can't really get a good picture of the space without the drywall, so you have to have a pretty good imagination and look "beyond" the framing to really visualize the space.

Ross, showed us where our wiring ran as well as where all our outlets would be placed. With Guardian we opted to have our cable run in the family room and the master bedroom. We have an outlet for our Wi-Fi in the office.

We were able to see the electric work and where the recess lights would be placed as well as the rough-ins for our ceiling fans and future lighting fixtures.

All in all, the walk through went great. Ross told us that on Friday, December 5, they would start hanging the drywall and that the process would take about 7 days to complete.

Here's a few pictures of the framework from our pre-drywall walkthrough to take a gander at.

Family room fireplace. We opted to hang a TV over the fireplace so we will have a company come in to place a bracket on the wall to hang the TV with. On the bottom portion of the window on the right hand side is where our wiring is gathered. I'll have a nice end table to conspicuously house the cable box and blue-ray player.

View of the garage.

View of the family room and portion of the kitchen from the garage door.

View of a portion of the kitchen. Along the left hand portion of the wall is where our refrigerator will be. You can also see the framework and doorway of where one of our pantries will be. Looking at the ceiling, you can see where some of the recessed lights will be as well. They had drywall pretty much laid in every room. You can see the box that will house the light switches along the left hand side of this photo.

View of the formal dining room.            

View of the formal living room.

 

 

December 2, 2014

Future Purchases

Good evening friends/bloggers. As promised, I have a few photos of the furniture that we've selected so far for the home. I've been searching far and wide for options for our family room and formal living room. I have a specific type of furniture in mind and won't stop til I find it!! We've purchased a few lighting fixtures and will have an electrician install them once we've closed on the house. I hope you like the selections we've made. If you have any suggestions feel free to leave comments as I could use all the help I could get. Til, next time!

This is the Casablanca Isotope Ceiling Fan in Brushed Cocoa. This fan will be placed in the morning room bump out that connects to the kitchen. This fan can be found at Lowes however it is currently discontinued at Home Depot. 

This is the ceiling fan that we have selected for our three bedrooms. It's called the Hampton Bay Mercer Brushed Nickel Ceiling Fan. Two of them will go in our children's rooms and the third will go in the guest room. This fan can be found at Home Depot.

This by far is my FAVE lighting fixture in the entire home. This is the E23146 from www.lightingdirect.com. This will go in the formal dining room. I can't get enough of this chandelier. If anyone knows where I can find similar chairs as pictured above please let me know!

This is my second favorite lighting selection. We picked this light to be our foyer/entryway lighting fixture. This is the Kichler Larkin Olde Bronze Foyer Pendant. This can be found on www.lightsonline.com.

This is the fan we selected for our family room. This is the Hampton Bay Valle Paraiso Brushed Nickel Ceiling Fan. This can be found at Home Depot. 

This is the Catalina bedroom from Pottery Barn Kids. This bedroom set will consist of the twin size bed with one bedside table with matching dresser and desk. This will be bought in the espresso finish.

This is the Hampton bedroom from Pottery Barn Teens. This bedroom will consist of the full size bed with at least one bedside table (still debating on if I should purchase a second one) with matching desk and small dresser. This will be bought in the espresso finish. 

You would think that I picked this out but credit goes to the boyfriend for this! He has had a long standing love affair with the front loader washer/dryer and I must say that in our old home I had become quite spoiled by not having to bend over to pick up and load laundry when washing clothes. This is LG's newest model, the LG 5.2 cu ft. 14 cycle mega capacity high efficiency steam front loading washer (try saying that three times fast!). The matching dryer is the LG 9.0 cu ft 14 cycle ultra large capaicty steam gas dryer. The color he has chosen is graphite grey. Of course, the pedestals are sold seperately (why!?!). The plus about this washer/dryer is that we can wash our king sized comforter with no problems!

Ok, here is where I also need help. This is my first option for a desk. My boyfriend will have full reign of the office but I was thinking of putting a small desk, like this one in the master bedroom along the wall closest to our entry door. There's more than enough room and I always thought it was pretty chic to have a "lady's corner", where I could put a cute chair with a cute desk lamp and some baubles and journal, blog, and peruse the 'net when I have some quiet time to myself. This desk is the Ava Desk with drawers. This can be found at Pottery Barn.

Ok, here is option #2. This is the Ava Metal Desk and this can also be found at Pottery Barn. The only real difference is in the desk portion as the legs are the same. I like how sleek and minimal this looks. 

This is the bed that we have chosen for our "sanctuary" aka master bedroom, lol. This is called the Duncan High Rectangular Bed. I like the overstated headboard and it has the option of having a footboard added (not sure if we want it or not). This can be found at Bassett Furniture. It comes in several different upholsteries as well as in several differnt colors (I really tried to get the pink option, but the boyfriend wasn't having it, lol). I like how it's pictured here with the bench, which is something that I've always liked. The bench in my opinion could serve as the "footboard". Don't know that we'd go with their pictured choice of the nightstands though, may be a bit too dark. The layout of the bedroom in the above picture will be how our bed and nightstands will be. We won't have any pictures to hang because that's where our window will be. 

This dining set was picked out by the boyfriend. He really liked this and it comes in several different wood grains and colors as well (haven't picked out a color yet). This was found at Bassett Furniture. This table will be in our morning room bump out. We ( I ) wanted something a bit more "rustic" in appearance and a bit more informal. The table fits up to about eight people (with the help of a leaf). You can even purchase a second leaf I believe if you need more seating space. We wanted the option to make the table larger for when we have guests and want to entertain. Of course the chairs are sold seperately and can be custom made. I believe that I will be finding another option for seating, lol, as custom can be another word for "pricey". 

Last but most definitely not least, this is the table that I "strong-armed" the boyfriend into agreeing on for the formal dining space. He wasn't a big fan of the table but he has warmed up to it. This is the Banks Extending Dining Table from Pottery Barn. It comes in two sizes, medium and large. We will be purchasing the medium as it sits anywhere from 6-10 people easily. The large I think would be too big for the space. I love everything about this table. I can invision entertaining friends and family around it. While I've looked at other options, everytime I look at this table I just smile. It can be dressed up or down and will last a long time. I do like the chairs that it's pictured with but I don't want to go broke paying for EACH ONE (why don't they come in sets of two at least?!?). 

November 19 - December 1, 2014

Let the Bricking Begin!

Hello fellow Bloggers! I hope that everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving and was able to spend time with their family, friends, and loved ones. I've been on "break" so to speak, shopping for the house but I've been able to take pictures of the progress of the brick laying so far on the home.

GOOD NEWS!! We have our pre-drywall walk-through this coming Thursday, December 4th. Talking with Jacques we found out that tomorrow on December 2, the County Inspector will be out to inspect the progress on the home and give the "thumbs up". What they've done so far on the inside is run the electric and gas lines and placed in the rough-ins for the lighting fixtures. After the inspector ok's the work on the inside or the home, on Wednesday, December 3rd, they will start insulating. Insulation will only take about 4-5 hours so they should be done within the day. Thursday will be our walk-through. Friday, December 5th, they will start dry walling. Jacques said that it typically takes about a week to completely drywall the home (hang the drywall, tape, skim, sand, paint). Ideally, dry walling will be complete on December 12th. Our cabinetry will have arrived by December 16th. I can't wait to take pictures of that! It's hard to believe that it's already almost the end of the year.

Below you will see the bricking progress from start to ALMOST finish. They ran a little short with the shipment of brick so they're waiting for more to be brought in so they can finish up the details. Hope you like what you see so far. I hope to have a follow up blog in the coming days to show you the walk-through and progressive photos of the inside of the home. Til then, happy blogging!

Bare bones.

First portion of bricking completed on front of garage.

Side view of the garage. Notice the truck in the driveway. They installed the garage in about 15 minutes. Pretty neat to watch. They laid the track in place and then took various pieces of the garage doors and screwed them into place. Similar to how you put the pieces together for a jigsaw puzzle.

Started laying the brick at the bottom portion of the front of the house.

Front view of the home with brick laying in progress.

More than halfway done with the brick laying.

Up to date photo of the brick so far. Diamond vents are in place. Just small detailing left to do. They have to finish up the left hand corner as well as finish the lip of all the windows at the bottom of the house.

Worker taking a portion of the scaffolding down since they're done laying brick at the top portion of the house.

Front view of the finished product so far.