It's been a while...

Is been a frustrating month of snail slow progress :(  fortunately granite was installed today so something to report.  The granite looks beautiful and you can also see our paint colors which turned out much peachyier than I expected but it's growing on me.

Kitchen cabinets

They are mostly in and very white!

Already adding on

After seeing our amazing views from our back deck we decided to cover it and double it's size...it looks Aaaamazing! ( in Oprah voice)

Interior color selection and some inspiration

While mom was in town we went to as many model homes as we could.  I took photos of some of the features I loved.  

After seeing all the new trends in colors I decided to drop my original creamy wall color for something with a little more grey so here are my interior colors! 

Getting to know the neighborhood

We spent a good portion if the weekend hiking the trails around our new house.  It's so perfect there!  They cleared out a large area below our house for a little park along the river. There is a fallen tree perfectly placed from the shore to a little island in the river that is home to a big beaver dam and lots of lovely ducks.  We all made it across fine, skipped some rocks, tried to feed the ducks but found out that not all ducks enjoy pizza crusts hurled towards their heads.  It must be a park duck thing. Crossing the river back to shore, I fell in.  Water is still pretty chilly this time of year! We also took the trail behind our house to where it meets the Jordan River trail and goes under Bangarter.  We are really going to have to improve our bike skills we have miles and miles of bike trails at our fingertips! We also caught 6 butterflies and scaled a tree branched hanging over a pond, fun times! Can't wait for June, oh did I forget to mention... Looks like we won't be moving in much before June.

Don't take it for granite

I forgot to post this a couple of weeks ago.  Mom was in town so it was fun that she got to help with my granite selection. First we went to the installer's boneyard and picked out scrap peices for the basement and bathrooms.  Cannon stayed home from school that day so he got to pick the granite for the boys bathroom, it's a deep green color.  The girls room is a gorgeous creamy marble.  Our master bedroom is a pretty solid travertine.  Next we went to Arizona tile to choose our granite slabs.  I was hoping to find something very neutral that almost mimicked Carrera marble with white, cream, grey, black, and brown in it, I also didn't want it to be super busy.  The first day we found about 5 styles we sort of liked but nothing totally fit the bill; the were either too pink or too gold.  We went back a few days later and there it was, the most beautiful creamy white slab ever!  It's called White Ice, it was exactly what I was looking for.  Unfortunately that particular slab was already spoken for but they had another one that I think will work great.  It's a little busier than I wanted but the colors are perfect! It reminds me of being in an airplane looking out the window and seeing a little of the Earth below through billows of creamy clouds.

Meeting with the builder

Had our second post dig meeting with our builder and met the superentendant supervising our house.  I LOVE these meetings.  Our builder is so great about little changes along the way as well as suggesting solutions for issues we encounter.  Here are a few things we decided to change; the bedroom downstairs faced the backyard but had a side window, we decided to put one on the back as well.  The deck was currentley uncovered but seeing how awesome our yard and view is going to be we are pricing a covered deck.  Some doors were changed around a little.  We changed out all the arches in the house plans and squared them off to be a little more modern.  Added room for a second hot water heater.  Reworked the ceilings upstairs so the kids loft spaces were adequate height. We also asked about opening up the stairwell to the basement so they don't seem so basementy!

We have lift off

Framing started last week.  It's expected to finish up this Friday!  Exciting, to finally see things come together.  Also a little scary to see if spaces you hope work will actually work.  So far the things that work; the wall of windows, so amazing, the view over the river with mountains in the background.  The master closet; bigger than I had envisioned.  The computer nook and pantry are perfectly sized.  The view from the dining nook, wow.  Things that aren't quite what I expected; the mud room and laundry room seem smaller than I thought they would be.  We will have to see if my opinion changes as things move along. 

Changes

We met with the builder yesterday to see if we had any changes.  We had a few. We removed the sidelights by the front door (there shall be no peeping Toms).  Took out the basement kitchen, scooted the fireplace down a bit to be centered.  Redrew the theater arches/columns and moved the back deck to take advantage of the mountain views.  

Also had our lighting meeting.  Lighting is hard to choose! I love love love the kitchen island lights.  Two of these babies!

The other light I am really excited about is this one in the master bath.  It will look like bubbles floating in the air.

Then I found this for Gigi's room off of etsy... It's so cute!

Cabinets

We have now built 3 houses and my all time favorite meeting to go to is Cabinets!  Also the place where I get in the most trouble.  Here are some of my kitchen cabinet inspiration pics.

I'm thinking we came very close, now we find out Monday if I was anywhere near staying on budget :/

The master bath we want to feel like a fancy hotel bathroom. We have a picture in our heads of the bathroom at the Venietian in Vegas.  Then I looked up a pic of the room bathrooms at the Venietian and it was not what we remembered, pretty gaudy 

So we are doing our own version of a fancy hotel bath! Here is our inspiration for cabinets 

Here is the sample cabinet door we chose

Exterior color selections.

We saw this home in Herriman during last  years parade of homes and really liked the colors ( at least I did, jason said " eh they are ok") which was the best reaction to date.

I finally located the stone they used, it was a natural stone, we are trying to save on exterior so we needed to stick with a manufactured stone.  Gigi and I went to the "rock" store 4 times and Jason and I once.  Fortunately they have free suckers so both of them were tantrum free.  We finally decided on this rock

Mineral county pacific ledgestone by Veneerstone.

Here is a pic of it on a Holiday Inn Express (so it must be good)

Stucco color is Synergy oatmeal 

Trim is white and Sherwin Williams Mexican Sand

As well as white.  Our door is sw Plantation Brown

Foundation 2/5/14

Moving along!

Footings! 1/31/14

Yeah first sign that things are starting to roll!  You can sort of tell from the pic, the river in the background is so beautiful and misty on this cool morning.