First fire

The fireplace is finally finished and we waited two days before trying it out.  It was in the 70's here today, but that didn't stop us.  

The mantle is about 7 feet long and I'm not sure how I'm going to decorate it.  I don't want it to look cluttered and it needs to compliment the stag.   And reality is I have bigger things to be concerned with at the moment than that. (STILL no vent hood!!)

You can't tell in the top picture because it's so dark but the top, middle rock is shaped like Arkansas.  We love it!  The brick layers did it without asking which we thought was funny because Brad and I had talked about trying to find an AR shaped rock to use either on the fireplace or somewhere around the front door. 

I wasn't the one who wanted the fireplace but the pyro in me sat and watched the fire all night!  This thing might get used way more than I first thought!

Big changes

I think we've had the most productive week yet this week.  The biggest news is that our countertops came in and we have sinks!  With running water!!

I know this looks like "just a sink" but that's the point!  We've only had bathroom sinks for the last two months.  

Laundry room sink.  Both the sink and faucet are from Ikea.

It's the Numerar sink and I love the washboard in it and also how deep it is. 

This side of the laundry room is actually finished.  You can see in the reflection of the dryer that the cabinets on the sink side don't have doors.  The cabinet guys were drilling holes for all of the handles and drilled in the wrong place on all of the doors in here.  We were SO close to having a room finished.

Speaking of sinks and being close to having a room finished....we finally got the powder room sink installed after having it sit in boxes since the week we moved in.

And it's the wrong sink.  

I would have just kept it if I liked it at all.  But I don't like the curve at the front.  So now we have to wait 6 weeks for the right one.

The appliances came yesterday.  We got everything from Shay's here in Mountain Home.

The fridge is large and in charge!  I had hoped that it wouldn't look so big once it arrived but it does.  Oh well, it was still the best deal so that makes me happy.

I'm afraid that I'm going to have to read the manual for this thing cover to cover.  But once I figure it out, I think I'm going to really like it.  I love the double drawers!

And here's the range.  I can't use it yet because the vent hood isn't installed and who knows when it will be.  I won't go into all the trouble the vent hood has caused because I want to pretend building a house is fun.    I'll just say the builder and I don't see eye to eye on this......

So since we finally had sinks and I could actually do dishes I decided to cook dinner tonight!  Brad had been talking about lasagna for a week so that's what we had.  

Obviously, I could have used these small appliances all along but I didn't have a way to do dishes so I couldn't have washed anything.  The thought of washing dishes in a dishpan in the bathtub disgusts me so bad that I'd rather do without a home cooked meal than do that.

I do believe this is the first time in my life that I was excited to do dishes!  I'm pretty sure that I won't take my sinks for granted for quite some time.

The fireplace was also installed this week.  I would have been fine with gas logs but Brad wouldn't have it.  So it has a gas starter but will burn wood.  We'll see if we actually use it.  The brick layers are supposed to here next week to put the rock on and I think the mantle will be here too.  It actually came in last week but somehow got lost and our builders never got it.

We've had our eye on the Iron Stag from Restoration Hardware for a while.  We went to the store while we were in Dallas last week and I asked about it again. I knew it was online only but was glad I asked.  It happened to be on sale and they gave us free shipping!  

I thought it was going to be a while before it shipped but it arrived today!  We LOVE it!

And if all of this wasn't enough, Brad found the two lampshades that I've been looking for since the first week we moved in!!   I had decided that they'd fallen off the moving truck.  

A GRAY house!!!

Things are starting to happen around here again.  It's been SO SLOW and frustrating the last couple weeks.  The house is still so far from being finished, yet no one shows up to do anything.  

Luckily, I got away from it all last week and didn't have to think about the state of affairs at Coppercreek.  I was in Little Rock and Dallas for seven days and while I was gone, some things actually got finished!

When I left, it was still the house of many colors....

Still only partially painted.  And the gas tank was only partially buried.

But when I got home, the brick was painted!

It's finally a gray house!  FINALLY!  

  

The gas tank is still not buried which is why all the red dirt is still visible in this pic.

We told the painters that we wanted the garage doors painted but we thought they forgot.  Turns out, they painted them the color of the trim.  We wanted them painted gray.  I guess that little detail wasn't communicated properly.  

I would like to point out that both trucks AND the tractor are in the garage while my car sits outside.  :(

The electrician also came back and put our front porch light up.  I love it!  You can't tell in this picture very well, but the floor up by the door is still not finished.  Paul said it would be 2-3 weeks before the wood came in for that.  Now that we are a year into this project, I know that means we shouldn't expect it until a couple days before Christmas.

Finally, something to talk about

We've been in the house a month now and are still living without "normal" amenities.  You can't even believe how aggravating it is to live without a kitchen sink.  But Monday we started getting our kitchen cabinets and today almost all of the others!    I hope the appliances come soon!  

Kitchen from the sunroom looking at where the refrigerator will be.

Even though its far from being finished, I already love it!  The gray turned out PERFECT!!  We used Fulbright Cabinet Shop in Mount Pleasant and they did a fantastic job.  I didn't plan on having him build the vent hood cover initially, but it was more inexpensive to go that route and now I'm happy we did.  I like the plain look of it with the shaker style cabinets we went with.

It will still be a couple of weeks before we get the countertops and even longer for the island.  But it finally resembles a kitchen so I'm happy!

The pantry.  We should get the countertops for these tomorrow.  There will be a hutch-type shelf on the left for food and open top shelves on the right.  I wanted open shelves instead of top cabinets in the kitchen but Brad said no so we compromised and are putting them in here.

The laundry room.  They're not that exciting but I'm doing open upper shelves in here too and it looks good in my head!  The countertop for this room came in broken so we'll have to wait for that as well.

Island in the master closet. I really like how this turned out.  All of the cabinets need drawer pulls/handles but this piece is kind of screaming for them!  But I think all of our clothes will fit in it just fine. There are drawers on both sides and a shoe shelf for Brad on the other side.  The closet has looked oddly large but this makes it look perfect!  There will be electrical outlets on both ends and we'll probably have to put a glass top on it for protection.  

We have had the dryer hooked up to our gas grill gas tank all month so it was exciting to get the real gas tank today. However its going to be a while before they get it hooked up to the dryer for some reason.

I've been really bored with the little progress that's been made since we've lived here.  But the brick layers are finally gone (even though they still have some steps to do) and the rock looks great.  I'll try to get a picture of that soon.  Also, you can see in the picture of the gas tank that part of the house is painted and part of it isn't.  It looks crazy right now, but we're waiting for the 30 days to pass so the painters can paint the brick.

Ready or not, here we are...

The house is so far from being finished but we moved in the basement a couple weeks ago anyway.  It is not the most ideal living situation, to say the least, but we're trying to make the best of it.  

This sign was so unexpected and brought a big smile to my face when we pulled in on moving day.  Our friend Jennifer was in MH visiting her family and was so nice to make this for us!  And then she and Tom came over for pizza a couple nights after that.  They live in Providence, RI and its been way too long since we've seen them so we really enjoyed visiting with them!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the next two years that they'll move here after they finish residency.

I promised Brad that I wouldn't keep the sign because I have a bad habit of giving things like this sentimental value and keeping them forever.  I took it down and told myself to toss it, but then I noticed it was the perfect size to put on the fridge in the garage.  So that's where its at for now!

Getting closer

They're still working on the brick but almost finished.

They finally finished the big wall.  

The tile in the breezeway.  All the tile is down, they just need to grout it.

They stained and finished the floors upstairs.

We wanted a light color and a dull finish.  We didn't get it.  

We were so frustrated this weekend when we first looked at it and I think we both tried to like it because its completely finished.  But there's really nothing about it we like so they are going to have to completely sand it back down and start over.  And they can't start until late September.  

This shot shows closer to how dark the color actually is.  So we'll live with this for a month and pay to have them re-do it and we'll keep reminding ourselves that its better than having a floor we hate.

Pottery Barn delivered the sofa for downstairs last week.  I was afraid it would take up the whole room and look overpowering but I think its the perfect size!  And super comfy!

This mess is the septic system,  which I think is finished.

This nice display is right next to garage.  I'm not sure who left it for us, but we thought it was quite interesting.  It looked a little spooky after dark though!

The house isn't near as close to being finished as we wished it was at this point, but next Tuesday, we're moving in.  

Air conditioner, floors, and doors

We have air conditioners!  

The wood is on the floor and, you can't really tell it here, but they finally put the step between the kitchen and dining/living room.  

The tile is down.

And they started staining the basement floor.  It looks better in pictures than in person.....

All of the interior doors are installed.  They still need to be painted, but we really like them.  I had a hard time picking the interior doors and these are not the ones I initially wanted.  But the ones I wanted were like $600 per door so we had to find something else.  I just knew I didn't want a raised panel door and that is really about all we could find and they were the most inexpensive (of course!).  So this is what we ended up with.  We were afraid they would look too country, but we don't think they do.  And keeping with the theme of the rest of the house, they're just pretty plain.  :)

The brick layers are moving along at a decent rate.  Maybe it won't take two months after all!  I like brick and think it looks great!  Brad doesn't like brick and I think he just wants to get some paint on it!  HA!!  But that will be awhile.

I feel sorry for them having to build and move all of this scaffolding.  I can't imagine how hot they must get.  

All of these pictures are from about 2 weeks ago.  I was up there this past weekend but didn't take any pictures.  I think I'm getting bored with it!  HA!   Actually I forgot my camera at the hotel the last day I was there and I didn't want to go back to get it.

Update

It seemed like a lot was going on last week but the overall progress still seems slow.

They delivered the bricks and when Brad was there last week, they had started setting up scaffolding to begin laying it!  The brick layer told Brad it would take them TWO MONTHS to finish!  Sounds crazy to us...we're thinking we could lay it faster ourselves.  And once the brick is laid, we have to wait at least 30 days to paint it.  So if that guy is correct, we're looking at 3 months before it's finished.  

Their sand and mortar.

They had laid the block for the apron.  I think Brad said they had poured it before he left on Wednesday.

You can't really tell from this photo but it's about one brick high on the left side and about chest high on the right side.  

They finished the ceiling on the front porch.

They started preparing the basement to stain the concrete floor so they did this to the stair opening so we wouldn't go down there.  Maybe we listened, maybe we didn't....

The bathtub for the basement arrived.

And the shower base in the master is in place.

We picked up most of the lights in Jonesboro.  The front of the truck was full also.  The electrician was supposed to be there last Wednesday or Thursday to put them in.

And we had another pretty rainbow!  The cloud at the end of it looked kind of like a mushroom cloud!