-- More Updates

Well, we finished all of our meetings at the design center.  I could post a ton more pictures of all of the tiny decisions we made but, quite honestly, I'm sure you've already got the big picture down.  There were just so so so so so so so so many decisions that had to be made, down to some pretty minute details that it would boggle your mind.  Let's just say - design phase is over.  Next on the agenda is to pick out all of our lighting fixtures.

We drove by the property this weekend because we are scheduled to be breaking ground any day now.  While we didn't see that, we finally saw the sign on the property had been upgraded from FOR SALE to SOLD.  I know it was a tiny thing but we got real excited about it.

So now we're at the stage where we have to start thinking about moving.  You know, we found out we were moving from New Orleans to Chattanooga and only had two weeks to do it, and we accomplished that.  However, the thought of moving about 7 miles in 5 months just seems overwhelming.  I guess last time, we didn't have time to panic, and this time we have more stuff.  Penny has already been going around collecting boxes.  I don't know why, it's not like we have that much that we can pack now, but it seems to make her happy.  :-)

Anyway, hopefully I'll have something more to update shortly, like maybe the picture of our foundation.

A boy can dream...

-- Pictures!!!!

Well, I promised you pictures of what we were doing, and here they are:

The outside brick that is going to go around the house is Spanish Forte:

The stacked stone is going to be the Shenandoah colors:

but in the style of the 19th Century stone with the multiple sizes (kind of looks like a castle):

The Cedar Door in front is going to be stained this red color while the cedar shutters and trim will be this green color  (I tried to do a color match on this sample as best I could.  It looks completely different when it is actually stained on the cedar, but this will give you some idea):

(If you can see the little color samples squares, they are on the bottom row, far right and far left.)

There is an exterior Hardy Board Shake section on the house and the garage door that will be the color of the Backdrop (the lighter color on top).  All of the trim will be in the Well Bred Brown color (on the bottom):

The interior of the house will be the Functional Gray (the lighter color on top) throughout the house, except for the Dining room, which will be the Griffin color (on the bottom):

Those choices are all locked in.  So no comments if you would have done anything different ;-)

Now the following isn't definite yet, but we are leaning to the following choices:

The bottom floor will have this hard wood floor style and color.  The wood sample will be the color of our kitchen cabinets, and the granite sample will be our kitchen counter tops.  You may also look closely and see the kitchen paint sample square and how it would blend in.  This picture is a little "yellowey" which isn't a word,  I know, but I snapped it fast and the lighting may not have been the best.

For the kitchen back splash, we are leaning to the larger tile on the left of this picture with some of those glass tiles in the middle spaced throughout on a diagonal.  Once again, not the best pic color-wise, but you may get an idea of where we are headed

Oh, and I also forgot to mention that we have selected our appliances.  These are the actual pics of our makes and models:

Gas Cook Top

Wall Oven

Convection / Microwave oven  (we are doing a double wall oven, but the bottom is going to be the true oven, and the top is going to be this convection / microwave combo.

Dishwasher

Chimney Hood

-- Designer Meeting Number One

Well, after a little schedule rearrangement, we met with the designer today for the first time, a nice woman named Sharon. We met from 2:00 to 5:00. It was Penny and I, Penny's sister, Tisha, and our agent, Susan.

BTW if you are in the Chattanooga area and are looking to buy a home, I can not recommend our agent, Susan Reardon with Prudential, enough.

Anyway, we were really glad to have both of them along. We started the meeting reviewing some documents and the floor plan, but quickly moved into choosing the exterior. I wish I had snapped some pictures of our finished choices, because me describing them won't do them justice... but I'll try.

I didn't really have any strong feelings about the exterior either way. I know the kind of stuff I don't like, and was more than willing to speak up if I saw it. But overall, I was going to just trust Penny. Penny, on the other hand, needed someone whom she could bounce color ideas off of, and that someone had to be less blasé about it than I, so she invited Tisha.

When Tisha, Penny, and I walked in, Tisha became obsessed with the color of the receptionist desk. "This is the kind of chocolaty color you need to have somewhere in your house." she kept saying. Then when we got to the brick, she thought we needed a peanut butter shade of grout. And when colors were matched up that she liked, they looked "yummy." Then Tisha started asking, "Is there a vending machine around here?" and "I could go for a Snickers." and suddenly it it hit me. With chocolaty brown and peanut buttery grout, Tisha is subconsciously steering our house to look like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup because she's hungry!!!!

While all of that is funnily true, in all seriousness, Penny and I were both so glad she came along. She has this unique gift of being able to see the big picture in her head of what everything would look like. There were so many choices to make, and I'm afraid I was not a whole lot of help. Penny admitted later that she would have definitely been overwhelmed there if it weren't for Tisha. And, if I do say so myself, I think the house is going to look awesome, and that is due in no small part to her with ideas like making the door a different color than the shutters, or bringing in the idea of green to our color palate. Actually, now that I think of it, the ideas of the colors of the shake and trim were hers as well. Big shout out to Tisha again!

So to describe it as best as I can, we have a light brown brick, with a reddish brown accent brick. Our stacked stone is multi colored (all "Earthy" colors, for lack of a better word) we have the brown from the receptionist desk as the color of our shake, and a lighter version of that shade for the trim. Red cedar posts and shutters, and a dark green stained front door.

I'm going to have to post some pictures.

We then went over our spa shower and electrical plan. We chose our faucets and then finally called it a day. We meet again on Monday the 16th at 8:30am to review all of our choices and sign off on them, and then choose our interior colors and cabinets, etc.

Big day today. Lots of decisions made, but we are sooooooo excited!!!!!!