Update! We have had a mishap with our computer. It's not working due to being knocked over. Not that big of deal, it is  super old.  Real problem is all my house photo are still on it. I will be getting it fixed soon,  I hope so I can save all my precious house and family photos. Until then the blog is in a  technical difficulties  stall. Not just a life is busy stall.

Check out this blog about our house @ http://goodwinmillandcabinet.blogspot.com Post date March 22, 2012.

Ceilings, we have some cool ones.

I have decided to do a post just on the ceilings in our new house. When we show our house to friends and family the ceiling get the most attention.

The entry ceiling is not that dramatic with its lonely beam, but it will look great with the dramatic light fixture we ordered.

Rand thinks we should have dressed up the living room ceiling more, but I like the cleaner look in this room.

I have always dreamed of  having a coffered ceiling in my dining room.
It's now or never!

It has been Rand's dream to have exposed trusses in the family room. We got a lot of flak for painting these beams. My favorite was that we were breaking  the "wood-working religion" by painting them.  To put everyone's mind at ease - they are only pine... and were meant to be painted.

I have to give all credit to Rand on the master bedroom ceiling.  I wasn't sure the stained beams were going to look good with the painted tongue-in-groove ceiling.  I will admit I was SO wrong and they look awesome. They are my second favorite...which leaves my favorite - the kitchen.  I am not sure you can tell from the picture how truly awesome the ceiling is.

Paint, I love paint it make such a difference.

Painting has begun. There are a million paint chips out there.  When you find the one you love, you have to ask yourself,  "does it go with the color I am planning for the room next door?"  I do take a long time to make decisions.  I need to think about things for a long time and look at different things until it feels right. Needless to say this has caused some trouble in the family.  But lucky for us, paint was so much easier than I ever thought it could be.  I did have help of course.  Martha Stewart was the biggest help. All of her paint chips have a little symbol in the corner and all you have to do after you find a color you like is pick another color you like with the same symbol. Then you don't have to worry if they compliment each other.  We broke the rules in the girls bedroom by letting them pick the colors they liked with a little guidance. We ended up with robin-egg blue in one and light purple dusk in the other. Rand hated the purple but has said that it is not nearly as bad as he thought it would be. We also stepped outside the lines and used yellow in the family room which was not in our color palate but looks great.

In the decision process we would tape colors we liked on the door of our pantry and stare at them for hours.  Once we decided on the color for each room  our painter, Christian,  painted a large sample on a wall of each room to make sure we liked it before he painted the whole thing.  I'm very happy and proud to say we didn't have to change any of the colors.

The family room looking into the kitchen.  It is yellow, but it is hard to see the true color.  The kitchen is green.  I believe that is the best color for kitchens.

Dining room color (October Sky).  Daring but we love it.  There will be a high wainscot, so the paint will only be on the upper third of the room.

Living Room

Master bedroom

We have two bedrooms in the basement.  We did a two-tone paint job with a chair rail.

Kitchen is painted in Fennel Seed green, which seems to change throughout day as the light changes.

                        A couple of finished rooms:  a basement bedroom, the family room and  the kitchen.

Texture! What? They all look the same to me!

The taping is wrapping up and the texturing has begun. Naturally they wanted us to pick a finish for the wall so they gave us three choices. The taping crew mocked them up on the walls and everything. The only problem was they all looked the same to me and I hated them all.

                                                                                                                                                               Here is choice # 1

                                                                         Choice #2

                                                                 Last but not least - choice #3

             We went with smooth, choice #4, which added two weeks (at least) to our finish date... but we love it. We are so glad we stood our ground and held out for what we wanted.

 

Sheetrock long a waited, and long waiting, guess this one takes forever.

My brother, Roger, finally made it to see the house.  He has been with us every step of the way - looking and looking over floor plans with such enthusiasm and excitement. You can tell by the look on his face the overwhelming joy he is feeling for finally standing in the actual house that he has been forced to endure the planning of for 3 years. He also brought his wife Mandy to enjoy the experience with him.  Thanks for all the support Roger.

Sheet rockers are a clean sort of people.

Dining room!

Music Room!

Living Room!

Main Hall!

Kitchen!

Family Room!

Master bath tub!

Entry!

Random wild sheep that ran in front of the car one day when picking the girls up from school!  Just added this picture to wake you up!

We have renamed the house "the igloo house".

Every inch of the house is is now insulated.  That may be a small exaggeration, but there is a ton of insulation.  Sound walls,  floor insulation, normal insulation as in fiberglass batts, blue spray foam with blown in poly fill, and white ceiling spay foam.

Sound control insulation in the walls upstairs

Blue spray foam on the outside wall.  This is step one of a two-step exterior wall application.

White ceiling spray foam - believe it or not this stuff is 10 inch thick.  It also makes our attic a conditioned space.

The pink stuff is fiberglass floor insulation to prevent sound from traveling through the hardwood floors.

Rock wool sound walls.  We have two of these in the house - One in the band room and the other upstairs in between the music room and the living room.

Finished exterior walls after they laid a net over the walls and pack them with this white poly fill. It feels like cotton balls. The walls are  tight to the touch.  They have some kind of spray glue on them that makes them stick together to prevent shrinkage.

Too Many Foremen Spoil the Lighting!

Electrical, Hvac and  plumbing have started.  Not such a fun stage to be honest.  Seems to take forever and you can't really see any progress... except for the bathtubs in the bathrooms. Our master bathroom tub is awesome.  It"s a two person air tub.  The girls could swim a few laps in it.

     Here is some more advice to future home builders. Make sure your draftsman puts in a real lighting plan not just a random plan (for permit approval).  We could just kick our guy.  We don't know how many times he said, "your builder will go over that with you".  Better to have correctly it on paper from the start. Taking the time during the planning stage will be worth your efforts in sanity and cash.



We have had a number of different foreman on our lighting job since we started. Bad idea... really bad idea.  No one feels they are responsible for getting the job done right. You tell one foreman something and then he is not back for a week, and of course it doesn't get done. You then get to tell someone else and the process starts all over again. We picked the foreman we communicated with the best and asked that he be on the job all the time. I hope everything will work the way we think it's going to. If it doesn't, at least  we will know who to call.

The audio wires have been run throughout the house, and Rand's band room has been wired.  I will elaborate more on that stuff when I understand it.

Getting stoned...

It seems like there is a lot of progress on the house in little ways.  We now have steps up to the porch, which means no more jumping up and down. Yeah!  We also have the cedar tongue-in-groove on the ceiling of the porch - plus more progress on the siding.
 .

The siding is making progress.

 The stone on the house has started.  This has been very enjoyable part of building the house. We love our mason, Acey.  He has let me help every step of the way.   I can now say I helped lay the rock on our house.  I have put up one piece of stone, grouted maybe a whole line, and even used the brush to clean up some grout lines.  I now have some skills and can seek employment as a mason if ever the need arises.

The first area of stone going up - still needs to be grouted. We picked a grey grout after a little trial and error.  We had originally chosen a brown color and didn't like it.

 The stone looks beautiful.  This section is all finished with the grey grout.  Yes, also the part I did in the upper left hand corner.

Because of the cold we have to tent the house and heat that area so the mortar can dry. Honestly, it's the warmest place around.

This deck material is only on the master deck.  I thought this was the finished product, but came back the next day and he had covered it over with a new layer. He must not have liked something about the way it turned out.  We will have to wait until spring to see it completely finished - it should look something like this.

Progress is happening all the time.  Before we know it, the house will be done and we will look back on all of this as a fun, happy (nothing ever went wrong) adventure in home building.  Maybe they will make a movie about it.  Raiders of the Lost Subcontractors.

Roofing

The roofing has finally gotten started. Stacks of roofing tiles have been lining the road up to the house for over a month. They have finally made it up onto the house.  This is good news - the insulation and sheet rocking can begin because the house is watertight.  It drives me nuts to have snow and water in the house. 

A little progress on the roof - some tiles have been laid... others still waiting.

Roofing has taken forever, and still is not done.  I would say that the roofing debacle has tried our patience. Our job must be the last on the list as far as priority goes with the roofers.  Hopefully it will be done before we move into the house. 

Roof still not completed months after it was started.  Little piles of tile in places.  Still waiting for the metal roof that goes over the covered porch.