Monday, January 30, 2012

1st Floor Tour

Our settlement isn't scheduled yet, but we're expecting to close within the next two weeks. Everything at the house is pretty much completed, so here's the official 1st Floor Tour...

We're hoping to widen the driveway to the edge of the house in the spring.
Close-up of the upgraded front door hardware.
Looking from the front door, on the left is the office, then a coat closet, followed by the dining room and family room.The first room on the tour is the office.
This is where my pretty blue sofa will sit.And the desk will sit in the opposite corner and extend to the middle of the windows (still not quite sure about how that will look, so I just have to wait and see).Next up is the dining room.
Looking back down the hallway you can see the 2 different light fixtures that I'd like to replace so they are the same.
Next up is the kitchen and family room. I just realized I don't really have any good shots of the family room, but you can see it in some of the kitchen pics.
From the back corner of the family room you see the entrance to the front hallway, stairs to the second floor, pantry door and mudroom.Not much space in the mudroom, but the garage is straight ahead, the powder room is on the left and basement stairs are on the right.I couldn't really get a good shot of the powder room.
Finally, the last stop on the 1st floor is the garage.
I don't think there's a single thing I would change on the 1st floor, I love everything about it. I can't wait to set-up my office and I LOVE the kitchen. I'm getting very anxious at this point, both to close on our old house and move into the new one, but we're so close to the end I just need to be patient and try not to obsess (easier said than done).

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Lighting

I'm starting to narrow down the list of light fixtures I like and figure out what needs to be moved or replaced. We're going to move the one entrance light into the loft and the other will go in one of the spare bedrooms. I think we're going to get one ceiling fan to put in the master bedroom too, just haven't found any I like yet. Here's what I'm thinking so far...

Office

Entrance (we would put 2 in since there are currently 2 different fixtures there). -Dan isn't a fan of this style, but I like it.
Dining Room Option #1
Dining Room Option #2
Thoughts??

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Stone Concerns

After looking at the completed stone several times now, I'm still not sold on it. Dan doesn't like that there isn't any contrast between the stone and the siding. I think it looks kind of orange/peach. The PM said they could pressure wash it which would make a little difference, but I'm still not really liking it.
Despite the weather, they got a layer of blacktop down on the driveway. We assumed we would be driving on gravel until the spring, so this was a nice surprise.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Branding

I was reading an article yesterday that got me thinking about the paint color in my office. I would like to have some kind of artwork that incorporates my logo. I'm thinking that I would like to do a photo collage wall with pictures from past events (possibly all b&w), and maybe my logo framed in the center.
Sneak Peek of the Office
I hadn't really taken my logo into consideration when thinking about paint colors, I was more looking at the light blue sofa that I want to put in the office. I think I want to go with a gray/silver wall color, and possible even wallpaper above or below the chair rail.

Most of my branding (website, business cards, etc) is done in green and black, but I have used other color variations in the past too.
So I guess my question is, do I put the green/black logo on a gray wall above a light blue couch? Or do I ask my designer to change the logo to match the furniture and paint? Or is it tacky to have a logo hanging on a wall in the first room you see when you walk in the house?

This might seem like a stupid thing to worry about, but my work is a huge part of my life. I don't plan on having meetings in my home, but I'm sure I will have clients over from time to time. I'll spend a significant amount of time in this room so I want it to be as close to perfect as possible.

Any advice or other ideas???

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Stone is Up

I was getting really nervous about the stone choice (Aspen) and I've been dying to see it with the siding. The PM said they had started the stone today, so I was able to stop out this afternoon and check it out.
I don't hate it, but I don't know if I love it yet either. I'm definitely happy with it though and I'm looking forward to seeing it completed.

The guys working on the stone were super nice and told me they really liked how it looked (and didn't mind if I took a few pics).
I do really like the front door now that it's been painted. This pic shows pretty much all of the facade components, Stone Mountain Clay siding, White trim, Aspen stone, Bianco brick and the Black Bean front door.
The guys did say the stone was a little wet and would lighten a bit once it dried out. I was expecting it to be significantly lighter based off of the 2'x2' sample we selected, and that was my big worry that it was going to be too light. I think it looks different in the pic below, maybe it's the mortar? Either way I do like it and can't wait to see it finished with the shutters and porch column.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Getting Close to the End

Now that we're in the final weeks, it seems like they're getting a ton of work done. Our settlement date was supposed to be the 13th, but was moved to the 25th. However, at this point we can't close on the 25th.

We received an offer on our current house over 5 months ago. The buyers had some issues with financing, and since mid-September the bank has continued to say they should have a clear to close any day, then they request more paperwork, and the cycle repeats week after week. We moved out of our house and into Dan's mom's basement at the beginning of October (because we were expecting the sale to go through at some point in October). About 2 weeks ago the buyers decided to go with a new bank that said they can get them to closing in 3 weeks. We're hoping to get a closing date next week.

Unfortunately the delays our buyers have had will impact our closing with NVR because we have a VA mortgage, and are planning to get another VA loan for the new house too. Since you can't have 2 at the same time, we need the clear title from our current house before they can process the loan for the new house (NVR said this is a 3-4 week processing time). The 2 biggest differences between a VA loan and a conventional or FHA loan are closing costs and the fact that you don't pay PMI. So to go with conventional or FHA we would pay close to $15k more at closing + the monthly PMI.

So now we're just waiting. Waiting to hear from the bank with a clear to close on our current house, and waiting to hear from Ryan/NVR on how flexible they're going to be with our settlement date given our situation. But I digress...

A lot has happened this week, but still no stone (fingers crossed it goes up early next week, I can't wait to see it). The hardwood floors were finished right before Christmas, but when we were there last week they were completely covered. Yesterday when I visited, they were mostly uncovered and the carpet had been installed.

Close-up of the Simple Touch "Sand Swept" frieze carpet with the Silver Sage paint sample.
Entry- Manchester 2 1/4 "Gunstock" Hardwood
Office
Dining Room
I'm really happy with the choice to carpet the family room and have hardwood everywhere else on the first floor. I also really like how the non-standard flooring break turned out.
Loft- same carpet as the family room.
2nd Floor Bathroom- Initiator 66181 Vinyl Floor
Gameroom- Simple Touch "Capri" frieze carpet
(a little darker than the carpet in the rest of the house)
Paraiso "Artico" 13"x13" ceramic tile in the game room bathroom.
Our appliances were also delivered this week.
The hot water tank was installed and I believe the gas and water lines were installed/connected. There was also some electric work done and we now have power.

I don't know if I've posted this before, but we had Guardian install ceiling speakers in the family room and also a speaker outside of the back door and a cable hook-up outside too.

Here's a close-up of the volume control for the outdoor speaker.
The square beside the upper right corner of the sliding door is the speaker and below that is a regular outlet and a cable outlet.Dan is into cigars, and since he won't be smoking in the house he needs a place to be able to watch "the game" and enjoy his cigar. His friend has a similar set-up and they are always on the deck with their cigars, so I know this will get a lot of use.