Things are moving along nicely at 227… both the master shower and Harry’s shower have been tiled and they look amazing. Mariano is a master tiler and a truly nice guy
Here is the shower being built and waterproofed:And then tiled:

Trying out the shower bench:

Harry’s bathtub tile also turned out really well. I love the vintage feel with the white subway tile and marble accents combined with silver shadow grout.On a sad note, our 400 pound cast iron bathtub finally arrived but UPS dropped the crate and scratched up the tub, so they are sending another one from Pennsylvania. Another week to wait for that one…

Our concrete garage floor was poured as well as the back patio and front walkway. And then Jonah and his Dad got into the action and built a workbench in the garage which turned out great. Of course now Jonah thinks he needs all sort of new tools to fill it up. Lastly Bodi got a lot of our window trim done and started the staircase. I love the craftsman trim and the staircase details are looking superb. Here’s a pic of Bodi in action…Craftsman style window trim:Of course I again had to take a picture of the ferry and mountains out the window (and neighboring houses). Obsessed!

My vision of the staircase is finally coming to life. The built-in bench will be connected to the wedding caked stairs on the left and then drawers will be in the empty space on the right. I’m excited to see it completed.

The trim detail looks really great on the stairs and the posts are well crafted too.

Well that’s about it for now. I’ll end this post with a pic of Jonah and Harry as they were resting on the deck while I was running around shooting photos. It will be nice when we can actually hang out up here! Until next time…

For those who remember our adorable backyard playhouse and the accompanying saga to find it a good home… I have an update! The family that took it home actually built a loft inside, painted it and spruced it all up. Their daughters love the playhouse and it looks so adorable in their yard! I love how they put a lamp and Adirondack chair on the front porch We are so thrilled to see the happy outcome. A special thank you to the family for giving us an update and photos. We hope you enjoy this playhouse for years to come

If you missed the original story, it is archived under “September 2011″.

Since my last post, the outside of our house looks pretty much the same: But inside the house, a lot has been happening! The base coat of paint has been applied. I’m so glad because it gave me the opportunity to really check out the colors we selected and see if there should be any changes. And well, yes, I changed 2 colors… just made them a little bit lighter. But you expected that, right? They’ll be fixed when the final coat of paint is applied. The first pic is the master bedroom and it’s one that will be lighter. The gray in the family room (foreground of next pic) will also be made a bit lighter.Then the hardwood floors were installed and they look fantastic!
Here’s a close-up of the floors (wide plank oak) although they are really dusty….

Even Harry’s secret room got hardwoods:Nice surprise here…. the neighbor’s trees started blooming and look so pretty out the living room windows So then we had to choose outdoor lighting fixtures which come in all different sizes. So we made cut-outs of the different sizes and Jonah held them up so we could analyze and figure out which ones to order.My boys got a little worn out waiting for mama to make up her mind Here are the fixtures we ordered with a nautical feel. They look really great in person too!
Here is our mail slot:
And we FINALLY got our cabinets ordered! I’m so glad to have that off our plate. Here are the two different door styles. One is for the mother-in-law apartment and the other is the main house. Not much difference… but the one on the right is a little bit more expensive because it’s more customizable. Our interior doors also came in and they look great. The cottage-looking door is the mother-in-law apartment entrance door. I wanted the tenants to feel as if they were entering a beach cottage The other interior doors are 3 panel craftsman doors (just primed here).Finally, we had to order tile for the bathroom floors and shower walls. To save money, Jonah and I have been hauling them from stores in town and getting some shipped directly to the house. Harry came to help us check on some tiles. He’s so stinking cute! Our little peanut Had to sketch out how we want the tiles to be put up in the master shower…The mother-in-law bathroom tiles got set just today:So that’s where we are at…. tile is continuing for the next week or so and Bodi, our trim guy, is going to start doing all the window & door trim and moldings throughout the house. I’m really excited to see that happening!

Lastly, our cherry tree we planted when we got married survived the demo and construction and even bloomed this spring. I love this sun-streaked photo of the house

Well this morning I was finally able to get in and test out colors at the house! After visiting 3 paint stores and getting my samples, I spent a couple hours painting and visualizing. Jonah says I’m a bit obsessed with paint colors, but doesn’t everyone start with about 50-60 color choices and work their way down to the top 11? Yes I actually did narrow interior colors to 11 different colors. They all work together really well though in my humble non-professional opinion. Here is my paint testing setup:
The heat was on high in the house to dry out the drywall stuff and all the windows had plastic over them, so I was pretty much a ball of sweat. It was like a hot yoga session being in there. Don’t know why I felt the need to mention that, but at least you have the complete picture now Here are a few pics of my progress:
Can you see the 3 layers of colors here? Greyish green in foreground, creamy in middle, and greyish blue in back. Since the floorplan is so open, I wanted to be sure they all harmonized:Dining Room sample:

Jonah’s office sample:

Jonah and Harry came to check everything out and gave me the thumbs up! Happy colors make us a happy family:The door may look white now, but it’s going to be green, green, green! See the hole for our mail slot?

A sneak peek at some of my color choices:Colors for the Mother-in-law apartment:Master bath color w/ light fixture and tiles:Guest room color & light fixture:And…  after a lot of figuring out, I found this amazing wall art mural from Anthropolgie that I fell in love with for Harry’s room. I knew it was meant to be because the size of the mural is the exact same size as Harry’s wall. it comes in 8 panels to wallpaper up. I’m painting the other walls the dolphin gray color that surrounds it. There’s nothing that makes me happier than whimsy I’m so excited about it!So painting begins on Tuesday. We are still figuring out the cabinets. They are my nemesis! And the gutters/downspouts have been installed. Our hardwoods are in and waiting the word to be delivered to the house for acclimation. And that’s where we are at. We are hoping to move in by the end of May…

I stopped by the house today and it took my breath away. It’s such a dream to see something I literally first sketched out on paper actually become a reality. Here’s the latest photo with the new columns and porch railings:Changes… we removed the arches from under the porch straightaway and instead arched the gable area to go along with the porthole window above. I think it looks much better and more balanced this way! The end of the porch was intentionally left open so we can put a porch swing there They did a great job on these!We are in the middle of mudding right now and it’s a messy business! I can’t walk through the house without becoming mudded somewhere or another. We are also in the middle of figuring out interior cabinets, trim, & built-ins. Getting everything we want within the budget is pretty tricky, but I have faith Yesterday I went around and eliminated things here and there that would help save money. Today I spent time with a cabinet specialist to figure out ways to bring down costs on my built-ins too.

Another big decision to make soon…. paint colors! Ack. This one has me working overtime in the research department. I’ve been a part of house building boards and home decorating boards. It’s been a fun process sharing ideas with other people who are also building their home. Here’s the result of my trip to the paint stores today:Oh yes! I mean business
I know I want the master bath to be some shade of blue and the main living space a creamy color. But the rest is up for grabs, so I need to get to work!

These are some of my tile samples. The tile is for the kitchen backsplash. The pebbles for the larger family room fireplace and the sea glass tiles for the living room fireplace. The front door color is going to be a fun one to figure out. Here is a potential green:I like the idea of a reddish door but that’s so common that green might be a nice way to mix it up a bit. Decisions, decisions… right now the door is wood, so there is always the possibility of just staining it, but I love color and this would be a great place to add color.We also had to get some sewer work done. The City of Edmonds required us to open up the sewer to see if we needed to put in a 6″ pipe there. After getting it all dug up, we found out the 6″ pipe was already there. Of course this required special permissions from the city and police and public street closure. So just another $3000 out the window for the whim of the city…. sheesh, there goes my crown moulding!Oh and I’m not sure if I mentioned this before but Bodi the trim expert is going to build a bookcase for Harry’s secret door. So it will look like a bookcase, but will swing open to a secret room behind it! I love it. Who knows… maybe it will become my secret room too when I need to get away from it all So mudding/taping/texturing will keep happening for the next couple of weeks and then the drop coat of paint. Our hardwoods will also get delivered so they have time to acclimate. I’m picking out floor tiles right now. But I’ll save that for another post since Harry just woke up from his nap. Ciao for now

All the insulation is done and we’ve had our inspections. Now drywall has begun. The ADU is pretty much done and they have started on the upper floor of the main house:
The insulated skylights:The new tongue & groove knotty pine soffits are now up too:The front door trim is finished:Bodi the finish carpenter extraordinaire came out yesterday and analyzed our exterior. There are some issues with mis-matched column heights and our arches. Bodi and his designer wife Holly actually redesigned it a bit for us and I’m really excited about the changes! Jonah doesn’t even know yet… I’m going to wait and see if he notices after they are done. He heee So take one last look at the house before we change the porch stuff:Bodi is also going to work on my “secret” door for Harry’s secret play space under the stairwell. I’m so excited about it! Here’s a look at the door from the inside before it gets all drywalled up and hidden:Peek at the ADU from the main house:View from ADU bathroom. Love that they will be able to see the ferry while it’s sitting at the terminal! We had a couple crazy mishaps but overall things are going very smoothly. I’m so excited that we are getting into the “finish” stage of things. This is the fun part picking out everything and watching it go in. Harry is sleeping longer now so I’ll try to post more. Thanks for looking!

So the rest of the siding went up on the house and the garage area was changed so that both sides match up and I’m sooooo much happier with it now. The exterior columns and other trim will be finished up when the interior trim gets done. The hardwood floors have been picked out and after much negotiating the winner is the wide-plank oak floors! I love these floors and think they’ll fit into our “coastal craftsman” house perfectly The electrical wiring has been completed and the insulation is almost done. I watched them blow insulation into the exterior walls and it was pretty cool to see. Here are some pics:

inside garage

powder room

dining room

hallway

family room

living room

playroom

Harry got to spend time in his new house and I think he liked it this time
My stairs finally got fixed up (to eliminate the gap between the up and down staircases) and it sure did add a bit of length to each stair:I also met the cabinet man and went through the house with him showing what type of cabinets and built-ins we want. Things are starting to happen quickly now and a lot of decisions will need to be made soon. Hopefully Harry will be a good sleeper so we can make wise decisions!

Next up…. drywall!

So we’ve had some crazy weather up here in the Pacific Northwest causing some building delays for about a week. We hibernated and didn’t even go by the house during that time, so no pics of the great snowfall of 2012.

But now things are back on track and the electrical wiring will get finished up this week as well as the rest of the siding. Then we can move on to insulation & drywall so we can button up the hatches!

Kevin, part of a twin brothers duo, is finishing up the storm system and getting the dirt moved around:Finally got a photo of our builder Mark Schoenfeld during a meeting last week. He and Mark Ledbetter of Multi-M Construction have been doing a wonderful job on our project. They make a great team and our house is looking fantastic I took baby Harry to visit the house. He wasn’t all that impressed with the view, but I sure got excited thinking about spending sunny days on the deck! Please don’t mind my sleep-deprived close-up Other deck angles:Deck lighting is going in along with speakers and a heater!The family room fireplace is also in place now. It’s going to have built-in bookcases on either side and a mantle that goes across the entire top:The front porch is getting more details in place like the arches under the eave that I just love:Well that’s about it for now. I’ll try to keep up with my blog more often! Thanks for reading

It’s been a busy month since I last posted. We welcomed our son Harry into the world on December 20th! He’s the absolute love of our life and now we have a great reason to get this house built even faster
It is coming along nicely. It’s really starting to take shape with all the exterior siding and trim that has been going up. The interior heating/plumbing has been completed and now the electrical begins. Our mother-in-law unit above the garage is also looking good:We realized they had put up panels for soffits under the deck/porches, but it’s just too much blue for us so we are replacing them with natural knotty pine tongue & groove boards instead:They also started working on our fireplaces:I’ve been picking out light fixtures and found some great stuff. I really want the most interesting fixture in the house to be the front stairwell chandelier which will be viewed from both downstairs, upstairs, and out the main center window at the front of the house. I have a couple contenders but I’m going to keep them under wraps for now. I’m leaning towards one that’s made from recycled metal and glass and is really cool. Stay tuned

The deck is finally being built! Can’t wait to walk out there and check out the view this weekend. I’m sure it will be a much used spot when all is said and done. The arches were also created on both sides of the kitchen and I love the look of them. We are having a 13 foot island in the middle so the pony wall was also built.Here’s a picture of Mark, our builder supervisor. He’s doing a wonderful job and I’m so thankful to him for coming on board. He’s playing Santa tomorrow and I think he’ll be great at it. All the downstairs windows were moved down and I’m so happy about it. They feel so much better now. Probably completely unnoticeable to the average Joe, but I can tell and when Mama’s not happy, ain’t nobody happy!You may be wondering what the back of the house looks like as I always tend to take pics from the front. Well here’s a peek. Above the garage is a mother-in-law apartment that has really turned out great. The inside is spacious and has amazing views. That’s gonna be one lucky tenant.Our neighbor Toni took this photo of the moon above our house. Pretty neat: Next week we are getting the HVAC system installed and siding will be going on. The plumber should be done with all the rough-in too.