This is the most exciting part to me at this point! I'm lovin the way the front porch is turning out. The trim was painted this week and the roof is going on today!
There are some final details that will really finish the cedar woodwork on the entry. It involves metal and I can't really picture how it's going to look just yet but am looking forward to seeing it!
Do you see something else that is new to this area of the house?
Our front door!!
I love it! We had the glass frosted for privacy even though we sit pretty far back on the lot. Is there a security issue here with all this glass? Probably, but nothing the alarm and 95 lb man eating dog can't handle so I'm willing to risk it for the loads of natural light it will provide.
The trim was the lovely color of unpainted hardiplank...
after lots of paint swatches and samples...
which revealed that many greige colors were way too blue..
We ended up here.
I know! It looks really dark. This corner of the house is so misleading due to the amount of sun it gets. When I stepped back to take this pic I got real nervous since we had already told the painters we wanted Sherwin Williams Porpoise on the trim and Anonymous on the stucco.
But every time I looked at the sample board we had done at home those are the two that jumped out at me so we just went with it.
At this point I'm glad we did! One thing I didn't know was that in general they paint the underside of the eves the color that the stucco will be. We decided to buck the system and paint them the darker trim color.
Think cozy cabin in then woods contemporary ranch barn. Yep that's what we are going for.
Here is another view of the porch. See those skinny little post behind the chunky ones? Those will be clad in stone to beef them up and I think it will totally change the look of front porch.
Here is how the front door looks from the inside. I wish I could see the trees from inside but I was more creeped out about someone standing there looking in so I was wiling to give that up for some sanity.
Now you can't tell much from this but this is how far back it sits and the kind of privacy we will have.
Unfortunately that privacy makes it hard to get good pics and I often end up taking a picture of the garage. If I would have known how prominent the garage would have been we would have turned the house quite a bit more but....live and learn. I would consider having a surveyor come mark the house so you know the exact angles and views and such. Shoulda coulda woulda but now you can since your in the know;)
Let's dive inside a bit.
Your looking at the fireplace wall in the living room.
We wanted a good size hearth that people could sit on so the fireplace sits up a little higher and we eyeballed and marked where we want the hearth framed out but I'm not sure when they will do that.
This is one of our favorite parts of the casa! It's the "dining room" or dining nook really. We didn't want a dedicated dining room tucked away that wouldn't get much use. Instead we have this area that juts out from the kitchen and is surrounded by windows. We are a little concerned that it may feel like a greenhouse in this space at certain times of the year but we will deal with that if it becomes a real issue. For know I think we will just enjoy the trees. I think we are actually going to have to take one down so we can see further and it's a bit of a fire hazard anyway.
Here is the dining room with the new windows and a roof.
Check our our little man trying to see what his view will be like once we trim the trees.
Speaking of tree trimming...It is slow going! It's been really hard to find time to do it without 3 kiddos in tow. We obviously don't want them involved in that part so on a very very rare (like once) occasion we got our there alone to do some trimming and dragging. It is a great workout! Especially when it's 102 degrees as it was this day.
O.k. back inside. We have these 3 square windows in the bedroom.. I am excited about these because well I just have a thing for square windows.
These two windows will be above our master vanity and let in lots of natural light along with more square windows on the bathtub side of the room. We couldn't do square above the vanity due to the ceiling height in the master bath. We have 9 foot ceilings in here.
More squares:)))))
So this is looking fun right? It is but....
Just in case you thinking about building I want you to be warned. I'm sure you've heard it's not for the faint at heart right? It's true. Is it worth it? Hmm..Probably.
Let's just say there almost isn't a day that goes by that there isn't some sort of issue or decision to be made. We go out there alot! There is a reason. Like for instance this..
Did you see the issue? Uh those are the two windows in the living room and the framers didn't seem to notice that they were two different sizes.
This next one well I don't know how it happened really but there is a window sitting up much higher than the others.
You see it? At first I thought it was kind of fun but I really do want to be able to see out of the windows so we had them lower it.
Then there are things of personal preference that you just figure out as you go. I mentioned that we had a change of heart on the windows in the dining nook in my previous house building post. So we ordered more and had to spend more $$. We intended to sell the ones that we had already purchased but when I went out there one day they were gone. Yup...I tell ya there is always something a brewin.
Oh and what about the time a guy from the neighborhood association board had to call us because the trash from the subs had gotten out of hand and was blowing into neighbors yards. It really was looking like a dump. Why people don't pick up their trash and take it with them I will never understand. Just bring a trash bag people and take it home. That's an embarrassing phone call that you don't want to receive on a saturday morning. We are going to be good neighbors I promise!
Then there are things like where your going to put the pole that brings electricity to the property. I don't have pics of this. We weren't told where the pole was going but the neighbor was ( I guess by the utility company?) and he wasn't happy about it. We didn't blame him so there were then more meetings about the best place and approach for electricity.
Then there were the eves of the house. Apparently they are bigger then normal? So we had to get out there asap and make some decisions before the framers were going to be back.
I like them! They bring in that contemporary barn ranch look to the exterior. Bonus!
I'll end this picture heavy post with this(it's changed a bit since I took this pic). How fun is it to be driving up the street in anticipation of seeing what has happened since the last time you were there?
So even though we have learned that most of the time we find something that needs to be changed or fixed it is still a fun process. You just have to grin and bear it. It's part of the the journey! (now don't get me wrong it get's to me at times;) We are really ready for the next journey! Move in day will be so sweet!
