Drumroll, Please...

Our granite went in earlier today and I could hardly wait to check it out! I held my breath as I walked into the kitchen, but thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't color correct any of these images, so what you see is what I saw. There was some natural light coming from the morning room windows, and the recessed lighting was on overhead.

Here's the wall that will eventually have the refrigerator and stove:

The entire kitchen (along with the rogue dishwasher off to the side, waiting to be installed):

Another angle:

Obviously not a pic of granite, but I was super excited to see our GE Cafe' microwave was installed. You should see it in real life... it's kinda high, but we were totally expecting that. I find it slightly comical, but definitely something we'll get used to rather quickly I'm sure. ;)

Here's a pic of the granite on the gourmet island. No scary "vein" running throughout, and no visible seams. Win-Win!

Here's the area near the sink/bar. It's crazy how busy the granite countertops are compared to the laminate counters we're used to in our current home. I'm sure this'll be a quick adjustment, too. :)

A close-up of my granite, Santa Cecilia.

Overall I was very pleased with the look of the kitchen now that the cabinets and granite (and some appliances) are installed. It's definitely coming along and I think I like it! The only thing I was a little disappointed by was that the granite guy installed the 4-inch backsplash that we specifically requested NOT be installed (since we're planning on a glass tile backsplash instead). It's no biggie -- they can remove it and patch the walls. I haven't mentioned too much about the drama with the kitchen floor or the drama with the alarm company charging us for work that wasn't completed, but let's just say we've added the backsplash miscommunication to the list of issues that we're currently working through. Thankfully we haven't hit any major roadblocks along this journey (so far). I don't mind working through these kinds of things.

So, what do YOU think? Did I make the right choice? I think so... And ultimately I guess it doesn't matter 'cause there's no going back now! Haha! ;)

Sickness and Flooring

I dragged my sick, tired self stopped by the house yesterday with the kiddos to check on the progress since it's been FIVE WHOLE DAYS since I've been by there. We had a busy weekend, and I've been sick since Sunday. No fun.

So let me back up to yesterday morning. I started off with a quick trip to the grocery store with Chase, during which he coughed (a horrible sounding cough -- enough so that our cashier asked if he had asthma) the entire time. This then prompted a last-minute sick visit for Chase at his pediatrician to puh-leaze get to the bottom of his obnoxious, irritating cough. The poor kid! It's been awful all. day. long. and of course even worse at night.

Doc's prognosis?

Probably just allergies.

Gee. Thanks.

Chase just finished up 10 days of Amoxicillin but he went ahead an prescribed another round of antibiotics, this time some Augmentin, just to be sure we're getting rid of anything that might need to be rid of. But we'll be trying some Zyrtec (allergies) for a day or two to see if that helps; if not, on to Round 2 of antibiotics!

Anywho, after the morning grocery store run, followed by the trip to Chase's pediatrician, we were off to get LO from school, then to stop by the house to check progress, then off to an impromptu doctor's appointment (with two kids past due for naps, I might add) for mommy's sore throat and obnoxious cough.

Almost two hours, a blood draw, a throat swab, a steroid shot, a declined chest x-ray and a strep throat diagnosis later, we were FINALLY on our way home with late afternoon NAPS (prescribed by mommy) for ALL THREE of us.

It was a glorious nap. And about 7 hours later, that steroid shot started to kick in and I finally started to feel some relief late last night. Joy!

Now to revisit the stop by the house to check progress. I was stoked to see all of our doorknobs were installed--including the front door--which worried me that we would soon be locked out and impromptu trips wouldn't be possible. But hubs checked with our PM and the house is only locked at night, although we can get a key if needed. Yay!

So nice, shiny, nickel doorknobs everywhere -- woot! Also, the resilient/vinyl flooring was installed in the kitchen, pantry, morning room, powder room and mudroom downstairs. It was mostly covered with cardboard to keep it protected, but I was able to get a shot of it.

After looking over these pics with hubs and comparing them to the actual flooring we selected for the kitchen, I'm not so sure it's what we ordered and/or were expecting. Here's a pic of our selection from the Armstrong flooring website. See?

Not sure it's just the lighting. Seems the floor they installed has a LOT more orange-y/peach-y tones in it than what I was expecting. Of course we'll get to the bottom of this, but my biggest fear is that the flooring IS right and it just happens to look THAT different than the sample we selected it from. See how unorange-y/unpeach-y it looked in the flooring showroom?

Weird. The one I thought we selected was a very soft beige-y/creamy/off-white-ish tone and I really liked it. ((sigh))

Moving on... The master bathroom was completely tiled! This includes the garden tub, shower with bench and flooring.

There will be a glass wall separating the shower from the tub, and another glass wall in front with the door to the shower. Can't wait to see it all together!

Guess that's the latest update for now. Thanks for following along with us on this exciting journey. It's fun for me to share our progress with you guys and I hope it's not been too boring for you!

I'll keep you posted about the kitchen flooring, of course... ;)

A Belated Valentine's Post

I fully realize Valentine's Day was yesterday, but since I had to work last night, and since I've been sicker than a dog for the past few days, I decided the family would celebrate Valentine's Day today (assuming I feel well enough to conquer below). That's just how we roll.

So I thought I'd share a little peek at what Valentine's Day dinner looks like around these parts. Hubs and I have never been ones to go out to dinner to celebrate holidays like this. We have no desire to fight the crowds and aren't keen on waiting forever for a coveted table for two. Instead, we like to celebrate with a delicious meal at home.

While we will be dining together as a family tonight (before opening gifts!), I'll be honest and tell ya there's slim to no chance that the kids will enjoy any of the menu I have planned, except dessert, of course. The kiddos will probably enjoy some fine dining that includes a pb&j or grilled cheese, fresh fruit and yogurt.

But for hubs and I, well, we will be dining on this tonight:

Yum.

And for those who are interested, here are the links to the recipes I'll be using:

• Stuffed Mushrooms
• Peppercorn-Crusted Steak
• Twice Baked Potatoes
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Here's hoping I can muster up the strength to hit the grocery store with two kids and find the time to get all of this done by tonight!

Happy belated Valentine's Day, hubs (and the rest of y'all)!

Valentines Time!

LO and I worked on her valentines for her K4 class a few weeks ago with one of her friends from school. I really LOVE how they turned out and am so grateful for the awesome idea from Pinterest!

Here's the picture I used:

And here's a ((horrible)) pic of her valentine with the Tootsie Roll pop attached!

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!!

Some Recent Happenings

Lots of cool stuff happened at the house last week! I thought I'd compile all of those happenings into one blog update. Read on!

Our back patio was poured last Wednesday. We chose to have it extended the length of the house so we'll have enough room for the patio table and chairs, gas grill and several of the kids' toys. We'll have big plans for this space... eventually.

Our driveway and sidewalk were poured last Wednesday as well! Yay!

The fireplace granite, mantle and trim. Done!

The master bathroom vanity. I LOVE the contrast of my espresso vanity with the white marble counter and sink. The floor plan actually calls for dual sinks, but hubs and I have never been ones to fight over sink space. We preferred having the extra counter space for all of our junk instead. ;)

The master bedroom. All of the window trim, baseboard and doors were finished on Thursday throughout the entire house, and all of the walls and ceilings have been painted as well.

Here's the laundry room door and one of the bedroom doors. I wasn't expecting the laundry room door to be different than the ones in the rest of the house, but I don't think I care (unless it results in minimal soundproofing, in which case we'll have issues). ;)

The bedroom over the garage -- probably Chase's. I didn't take pics of the other bedrooms or the loft. Or the kitchen, now that I think about it. Or the great room or morning room. What a random update this is turning out to be.

Our attic stairs were installed, too! Told ya -- random!

The handrails for the stairs are also in -- just need to be stained.

Our front door received its first coat of paint, and the post on the porch was finally added. I'm hoping they plan to paint it white because I'm not sure that taupe-y color matches anything... ;)

Our granite vendor was at the house on Friday when I stopped by to take some of these pics. He was measuring for the countertops, which should be going in THIS WEEK!!! The flooring should start this week, too! Should start to see some big changes in the days ahead! Woot!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

I thought I'd share one of LO's latest masterpieces with you guys today. It's our family portrait!

Oh, and obviously she wrote HER name above her picture, not LO. ;)

Granite and Cabinets

As promised, I have a little update on the house for y'all today.

You may remember Monday's post about a little granite issue we were having. Well, we met with our PM Tuesday morning and he brought samples of both granite options for us to make a final decision. Here's what they looked like:

Santa Cecilia (LEFT), Giallo Napoleano (RIGHT)

After waaaaay more debate than one would think necessary, hubs and I decided to revert to our first choice that we selected initially, the Santa Cecilia. While I liked that the Giallo Napoleano's "blotches" were more spread out, appearing less "busy" than the Santa Cecilia, I couldn't get over the orangey/peachy/gold tones in the Giallo Napoleano. I will mention that our PM gave me something new to worry about though: veins. He said sometimes the Santa Cecilia has a huge rust-colored vein running across the entire slab, most noticeable on large island countertops (such as the one we'll have in our kitchen). So I've officially started holding my breath over the "vein" issue. We should have the granite installed in the next week or two, so here's hoping!

OH! And a special shout out to my Facebook friends and Twitter followers who shared their opinion on which granite they liked best. Y'all set my mind at ease knowing you all preferred the Santa Cecilia since it just so happened to be the one I had chosen!

Okay, so I'll warn you now about this next "issue" with the house: hubs and I are ridiculously anal and obnoxious. No surprise there, right? So we saw our garage door had been installed Monday evening. Notice anything strange about it? Take a good look:

PUH-LEAZE tell me you saw it.

Did ya?

No?

Look again...

Are you looking?

Did ya see it??

OhMyHeavens. I can't get over the fact that the garage door handle is NOT CENTERED on the garage door! Who does that!? It looks like they were supposed to cut the door down the middle and use it as a single-car garage door. WHY oh WHY wouldn't the handle be in the CENTER of the door like God intended??? I know it seems VERY nitpick-y, but seriously folks, we'll be using this garage door EVERY DAY for the next 30 years!!!! The worst part is that we have yet to see ANY garage door with this issue in ANY of the Ryan communities we've been to. What gives? Waiting to hear back from the PM on this one.

On a brighter note, our kitchen cabinets were installed earlier this week! Yay!

So exciting!!!

What's up next? The interior doors and trim were put up yesterday and will be finished today, then they'll start painting the final coat of paint inside the house. Next week we should see flooring start to go in! Fun!

A To Do List and an Illness Report

I had to work last Saturday from 9A-6P, which meant hubs was flying solo with the kids for the day. It was a busy day for me at work, so I didn't have the opportunity to check in as often as I usually would via text or phone call. Imagine my surprise when I came home that even to a fabulous meal from Outback Steakhouse waiting on the table -- via candlelight -- from my sweet family. Apparently it was LO's idea to light the candles (that's my girl!). Hubs had taken them up to the restaurant to pick up all my faves: a bloomin' onion, salad w/ ranch dressing, ribs, bbq chicken, steamed veggies and bread. It was DIVINE! And so completely unexpected (that's the best part!)! We enjoyed a nice family dinner together, during which LO explained what was on the docket for the rest of our evening.

Apparently my girl put together a "To Do List" (now that's my girl!) of the things we were going to do together that evening. Earlier that day, she sat down, grabbed a crayon and a piece of paper, and got to work writing out the activities of the evening. I was shocked and amazed to hear from hubs that she did this completely on her own, writing out each task herself. Obviously the spelling isn't quite there yet, but I find it incredible that my 4 1/2-year-old was able to write this list out herself. Check it out!

And now, here's her list again... along with some translations from mommy:

At the end there, she wrote "Dessert First" then "Brownie" -- I found this quite comical! She is her mama's girl!

What a great night of family fun we had! The only games from the list we didn't get to were Uno and Zingo, but we'll be playing those ones once the kids are feeling better.

Speaking of which, I guess I haven't mentioned here that LO currently has pink eye and a sinus infection, and Chase has had a chronic cough for the past 2 weeks. It's been awful! Chase had pink eye 3 weeks ago, it was finally cleared up for over a week, then LO picked it up. And both of them have had a horrible cough for 2 weeks -- Chase especially would cough All. Night. Long. and sounded completely awful. I called the pediatrician last Tuesday; they said give Benadryl & Delsym. Three days later, on Friday, I took him in to see the doc; he said Benadryl & a humidifier (duh). Two more days later, on Sunday, I called and inquired about it possibly being allergies (hubs has 'em and they've been acting up with this "early spring" we're seeing here); doc said Zyrtec. After another horrible night of no sleep for Chase (as well as hubs and I, of course), along with LO's now worsening nose gunk, I took them both in on Monday. Doc confirmed pink eye for LO as well as a sinus infection, and put both kids on amoxicillin. Chase didn't have a diagnosis per se, but I was adamant that a persistent cough for two weeks was unacceptable and no OTC meds were helping. So they both started the antibiotics yesterday and Chase seems to be acting much better, although his cough is nowhere near gone yet. LO is still pretty miserable but I'm hoping she perks back up soon!

Good times!

Oh, in case you're curious, I'll have a house update tomorrow -- complete with new pics! :)

CHD Awareness

Today I'm taking a break from all things house-related to share about something that has undeniably changed my life forever. My life was turned upside-down the day our son, Chase, was diagnosed with a CHD called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, or HLHS. Essentially the left side of his heart didn't form in utero and he would need a series of three life-saving heart surgeries to enable his heart to function.

February 7th through 14th is Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness Week, so I thought I'd share the video I created for Chase's dedication. I composed the song, wrote the lyrics, played the piano and sang the song that I used for this video. I'm certainly not a professional in any of those areas, but I needed to express my heart and did so the best way I could -- through music.

Our journey hasn't been easy, but we have been overwhelmingly blessed by the fact that our little Rock Star is still fighting and living each and every day to its fullest. He amazes me and I can't imagine my life without him. I thank God for him every day and love him with all of my heart!!!!!

Granite Debacle

Happy Monday morning, folks!

Many of you may have read through Friday's post about the drama surrounding our granite countertops. It's seriously a total nightmare and I am so confused, it's not even funny. Here's the gist:

• We made our initial granite selection of Santa Cecilia when putting our "dream house" on paper with our Ryan rep.
• We went to the flooring company to make additional selections, and OMWord! The sample of Santa Cecilia they had made me want to puke! They had another sample -- Giallo Napoleano -- that I loved waaaaay more than the ugly Santa Cecilia one. Honestly, their Giallo Napoleano sample truly reminded me of what I thought the Santa Cecilia we originally chose with our Ryan rep looked like. So we switched our granite selection based on this.
• I stopped by to see our Ryan rep and asked to borrow their sample of Giallo Napoleano to try to match backsplash samples to it. I was beside myself when I saw their sample. It was hideous! Very peachy/orangey/UGLY. I said a little prayer that maybe it was just cut from an ugly slab and tried to move on.
• So the way Ryan works, once you sign on the dotted line and they begin building your house, you don't have a say in anything. You can't make any changes, you can't truly know what's going on unless you drive by (three times per day, like some of us) and you have to rely on ONE weekly 5-minute call from your PM for your "update." It sucks. We don't really work that way so, not surprisingly, we've forced ourselves into the process and have become more involved. Case in point: I asked our PM for the name of the company that would be installing our granite. I just wasn't comfortable that it was going to be what I wanted it to be, and I wanted to talk to The Source to be sure I'd be happy. I asked the guy questions and essentially told him I would be willing to drive to their Georgia fabrication plant (over 2 1/2 hours each way) so I could hand select OUR ACTUAL SLAB myself. He instead offered to send me a pic of the actual slab our granite would be cut from. I waited. And called again. Then waited more.
• Two weeks later (this past Friday), I finally got a picture of the slab. Upon my first sight of it, I literally curled up into the fetal position, threw up in my mouth and began crying an "ugly cry." Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad but seriously folks, I had a knot in my stomach you wouldn't believe! It looked NOTHING like the one I imagined! WTHeck??
• I immediately got in touch with our Ryan rep and explained the situation. I put together a graphic using the pics I've taken over the past 3 months to better explain the mess I was seeing. Take a look at it and see if you can understand the madness of the situation (I think you can click it to make it bigger):

• Seriously! I know, right? Please tell me you can see all the differences and discrepancies between samples of the SAME COLOR. I get that there will be variances, but GEEZ! This is impossible!
• Long story short (or quite long, actually), our Ryan rep told us our granite vendor and PM will be at our new house tomorrow morning, and that the granite vendor will bring an actual piece of the actual slab of Giallo Napoleano that our counters will be cut from (the hideous mess from the pic above). I asked that they have the vendor also bring a sample of the actual slab of Santa Cecilia that our counters would be cut from if we decide to change our decision (which I'm 99.9% sure we will) so I can have the actual slab in my hands to make this decision. No more worrying about variations, differing slabs, etc. We would see THE only two options we would be choosing between, so we can figure things out and move on.

For the record, I honestly can't imagine how much time, money and effort I saved Ryan by maneuvering my way into the granite game plan. Had I not, that ugly slab of Giallo Napoleano would've been fabricated and installed in our house, only to have me see it, throw up, and get it the crap out of there. Then there's the delay they'd have with ordering a new slab, having it fabricated and delivered, installed, etc. I just did them (and me) a HUGE favor. Honestly, I think it all comes down to those samples at the flooring store potentially being mislabeled. I think my Santa Cecilia that I loved was incorrectly labeled Giallo Napoleano, and vice versa. Who knows if we'll ever know.

On a happier note, the drywall is complete and they have painted the first coat of paint throughout the entire house! Yay!

Kitchen Time! -- Updated

First of all, sorry about the lack of posting yesterday. Lame. No excuse.

Secondly, when hubs and I were making selections for our new house, we had NO IDEA if we'd like what the finished product would look like on the outside. We selected our colors and crossed our fingers and, thankfully, we loved the way it turned out. Yay! I had asked our Sales Agent on several occasions if she could find me an existing home with our siding color, or our brick color, or our shutter color, and alas, she was never able to find any combination of any of our selections on any of their homes in our entire county. Shocking, right? Apparently Ryan makes changes to their colors, options, vendors, etc. rather frequently so our siding color, for example, had only been an available option for a few months prior to our selections, and no one happened to have chosen it so we could see it "live" and in person. No biggie.

Except it was a biggie.

I needed to see it. So I created a mock-up of it myself, as you've seen here before:

It wasn't fancy, it wasn't perfect, but it got the job done and allowed me to visualize our color selections before they came to fruition. Cool. So now? Now I'm in the same boat, only this time, it's with my kitchen. We've already made our cabinet, countertop and flooring selections, so those can't be changed (trust me -- I tried to get them to allow me to choose a different granite that they don't even technically offer, and got a big fat NO). So I'm fine with all of that. Now I'm trying to visualize what all of it will look like when it comes together. And this is no small feat. Apparently I lack imagination or something because I can't see a single cabinet front, a 4-inch square of granite and a 2-foot flooring sample and envision my new kitchen from it. Call me crazy.

So I took to my trusty MacBook and busted out a Photoshop representation of what my kitchen will look like. It's not my best work, but it's enough to help me see what I needed to see. Then I added the backsplash I'm currently contemplating. Then the drawer pulls. And before I knew it, I could See. MY. Kitchen. Wow! It's not perfect, but it's a decent 2-D conceptualization of what I should see coming together in reality over the next 6 weeks.

Like how I was sure to include my first new house purchase in my kitchen rendering? Haha!

Oh, and please be sure to imagine that there's cabinet crown moulding across the top, and that the backsplash is much more seamless than the one square sample I had to copy over and over.

I am completely smitten!

((UPDATE))


I had asked our granite installer over 2 weeks ago for a photo of the actual slab that is going to be used for our countertops since I've been VERY concerned about it. It's such a HUGE decision that will make such a HUGE impact in my kitchen, and I wanted to be sure I liked what they would use, or else I would fight like a crazy person to get what I wanted. I finally got the picture today and there are NO WORDS to express the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I opened the email. I almost literally threw up. Let me show you why.


Here are the samples I've found online of the Giallo Napoleon granite we selected. These examples look VERY similar to the 4x4 sample we made our selection from:

See how light the base color is, then it has the darker shades of espresso and some gold sprinkled about? Yes? I like it! That's why I chose it. Duh.


Here's the sample our granite guy sent me today of THE ACTUAL SLAB our countertops will be fabricated from:

Are you kidding me?!


PUH-LEAZE tell me you see what I see. Please tell me this slab looks absolutely NOTHING like the ones pictured above it.


I quickly threw in the actual sample to the kitchen mock-up I created. Behold:

How dark, dingy and dirty does that look??


I could literally die.


((END UPDATE))

Oh, and I didn't bother to do the other wall of the kitchen that has the sink, dishwasher, bar and additional countertops because, really, what would be the point?

So dare I ask? What do you think? Any specific thoughts on the backsplash? I really like this Tuscany one the best. I happened to see something very similar to this on the pilot episode of Smash in Debra Messing's character's kitchen, and I immediately scoured the web to find something as close as possible to it. This Tuscany is pretty durn close:

But a close second would be the Tao:

My only other thought, my original thought, was glass subway tiles, which are traditionally 3x6. However, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of oversized subway tiles, like maybe 6x12, but I'm not sure such a thing exists.

I'm thinking white will look okay for the backsplash, even though there's not actually any white in the granite to technically match it to exactly.

Thoughts?? I'm listening... ;)

A Peek Inside

The kids and I stopped by the house yesterday to see that they had finished the drywall in the garage and have mudded (?) all of the walls in the entire house. What a mess! ;) I'll be interested to hear what we find out from our PM today about what we can expect to happen at the house later this week and into next week. I think we've reached the point where the progress starts to slow down a bit so you can probably expect a few less house-related posts. ;)

But for now, let's take a peek inside the house (in no particular order)...

First up is a look at our Master Bathroom. Not the most exciting pic, huh?

This is one of my most favorite rooms in the new house: the Loft! This will also be known as our play area for the kids.

Our Morning Room off the kitchen! I love this room, too!

The Great Room!

Told ya these were in no particular order... Here's our Master Bedroom!

The front door with the Living Room to the right.

The Dining Room.

My Kitchen!!!!!

The Garage.

I didn't take any pics of the 3 other bedrooms but hopefully that gives you the gist of where we are with our housebuilding progress! So excited!!! Yay!!!