There's drywall!

Once drywall goes up you feel like you're ready to move in, or at least I do.  You finally get to see the space come together and that's exciting to say the least. 



Here is our morning room with light pouring in.  I love the windows and with the drywall up this room is really coming together.

Our living room with the fireplace in and surround up.  

Our kitchen area.  I love that the stairs in our house come down right in the center of the house, the kitchen to the left and living room to the right.

This is the view when you walk up the stairs.  We opted for a loft here instead of closing off the space for a fourth bedroom.  We currenlty do not need that space and like the open concept for now until we need that space, if ever, down the road.

Here is the view looking left from the top of the stairs.  I love that we have a nice open hallway up here.  There is a bedroom to the left of where I am standing, the loft to the right and then up there on the right another bedroom.  In front of me is the main bathroom (right) and the laundry room (left).  Our master suite is all the way to the left.  

We are getting closer to finally calling this house our home and I cannot wait.  All of the drywall taping takes some time but we'll get there.  I can't wait to share more with you.  I will share more once the walls are at least primed and we have the trim going up.  Thanks for following along on this journey.

Christine

The countertop

Part of the fun with building is that you get to make so many choices and make your house your home.  It can easily get overwhelming and as much as I enjoy it I am so indecisive it makes me cringe.  From light fixtures to siding to knobs, it's all in there.  

You wouldn't think picking a countertop would really be that difficult would you?  Oh how I was wrong...when you go to the supplier you just see samples.  Our samples were 12x12 which is generally a good size but not when certain samples don't show the busy pattern that is clearly there.  

We decided to go with quartz as I wanted something in the white and gray family.  I really love the look of marble but have read it is not that durable of a surface and can stain.  Quartz is my go to since it looks gorgeous and is extremely durable and should last forever. The countertop we started with we thought we loved and then we saw the slab ::queue tragic music::  Oh my, how I was disappointed.  The sample we saw looked like a mix of grays and whites, perfectly neutral and what I wanted to pop with our white cabinets.  

See my dilemma right here?? This quartz is Berwyn by Cambria and it definitely has warmer brown tones to it than the cool grays I was hoping for.  I swear our sample looked nothing like this, not this busy, the color seemed so different.  This is why they say you should always see the slab to make sure.  Once your countertop is in, it's yours. 

This is Summerhill by Cambria.  This is actually the first countertop I picked when looking at samples because the colors were right.  However, I saw the slab and all that movement, it looks like a map to me.  I know that counters are not this wide, however we have a large island and you would see a lot of this movement.  We did a change order anyway and switched to Summerhill because I definitely didn't want Berwyn so we were stuck.  The picture doesn't show all the lovely sparkle this counter has and I did love that but again it was too busy but I was having a nervous breakdown and just said this is better than the Berwyn.  When you look at pictures from Cambria's website you get a better idea.

So after another week of not sleeping because all I could think of was countertops I made another appointment to look at more slabs.  I had originally always wanted something like marble so I did A LOT of research.  This is Torquay by Cambria.  I saw this one from the beginning but just figured it was too much white, not realizing this was their dupe for marble.  I have seen hundreds, no probably thousands, of pictures of Torquay online, in peoples kitchens, professional pictures, all of it.  I fell in love with it and I will say the picture here of just a slab (which still has the plastic film on it as well) does not do it justice.  One blogger I follow, 7th house on the left, has these countertops in her kitchen with white cabinets and I just love it.  Seeing hers all put together pretty much sold me.  

So after weeks of being extremely indecisive I ended up with what I wanted all along, a marble look-a-like.  Cambria's Torquay is exactly what I wanted and since I did this change order (our kitchen guy just smiles every time I reach out to him.)   I haven't had one ounce of regret and am so excited to see these in our kitchen.  I can't wait to show you all once we're there!

My life lesson here is to always see the slab.  If I would have just seen the 12x12 sample I would have originally gotten Summerhill and been so disappointed.  Don't get me wrong the other two are gorgeous in their own way, just not what I was looking for.  

Christine

The roof

There's a roof so does that mean we can move in yet?  During this building process we have been living with my parents.  It's honestly been fun and we're lucky enough to have family to put up with us and the Riggle Monster (the cat's nickname) for six months so far.  It has been amazing in the saving money department and we couldn't be more grateful for that so we could build this amazing home.  

The roof is BP Twilight Gray and I love the dimension it creates with the two tone look of black and charcoal.  

Here is the view from the back.  Our plan is to put a concrete patio to the left of the morning room in that rectangle area.  We don't want a deck because we don't want to be up high and the last patio we had just shifted so much from winters and everything else.  We decided concrete is the way to go and we like the look of it so, we're going with that.  

More to come, insulation is next but that's not really that fun to look at so I may spare you until drywall...

Christine

A second story

We have a second story which makes the main floor really come together.  Even though you can see through most of the walls the ceiling makes a huge difference.  Seeing this house come together is just altogether amazing.  I absolutely love the fact that we now have a porch with this house.  Our last house was a simple colonial style and completely flat.  We have two peaks and a porch that give the house so much dimension.

I'm standing in what will be our dinning room looking out with the kitchen to my right and the living room to my left.

This is our living room with a fireplace that I am so excited about!  I wanted a fireplace in our last house so bad but we couldn't afford to do it so this time around I made sure we could.  Our plan is to put the TV above the fireplace.  I know this is one of those debates that you should or your shouldn't do that.  We honestly like it and we'll do it.  Done. 

This is walking out of our front hallway.  The front entry, basement staircase, and our office are all behind me.

It's hard really get a sense of this but here we are upstairs.  Lots of temporary supports are still up so pictures don't really work so well.  I figured I'd share but it'll look more like a room later on and I'll share then.  This area I'm in will be our loft.

Here's the lovely and amazing, did I say amazing ::big smiles:: hubby and I.  He really is the best husband anyone could ask for.  He works hard and does everything to make me happy...he's doing a great job.

Christine

We have walls

Once the framing starts on a house it's truly exciting.  Again, without ceilings and actual drywall, it looks smaller than it is.  I still can't wrap my head around this one but let's move on.

There she is, only one story so far and I think it looks so funny.  I don't know why but I laughed when we pulled up.  It just looked so small to me compared to the other finished homes.  The garage isn't framed yet but you can see the foundation there on the left.

There's Jason standing in what will be the walkway between the living room and kitchen.   

This is our morning room, as they call it.  We plan on using this space as our dinning room and I love that we have windows on all sides.  There is so much natural light flooding into the house.  We back up to a pond so it's nice to have the view of the water.  At our old house we had trees in our backyard which was great for privacy but not so fun for all the leaves that fell each year.  This house is going to be great since there's none of that.  I do miss that view though but Jay is excited for the pond view.

Another view from in the corner of the living room looking out.  The kitchen is across, along with our garage entry and powder room.  

Progress is progress and this has been coming along quickly so far.  Once the second story is up I'll share that!  Thanks for stopping by.

Christine 

Welcome to Ashwood

Hi all!  I'm Christine and I want to share my journey with you.  My husband Jason, our cat Riggly and I are building our second home and I figured I'd take you along for the ride. 

After college we moved an hour and a half away from friends and family.  You think that's not too bad but you're wrong.  That was just close enough that we were expected to be home for everything, and far enough away that it drained us each weekend.  After six years of feeling like we were nomads, since we had one home where we paid our mortgage, and another home where we lived our lives, it was time to make a decision.  It was either move back or move farther away.  We made the decision to move back to our hometown.  Lucky for us, we met in high school so we have the same group of friends and family in the same city.  It was an easy decision to come back, this is where we belong.



So with all of that, I'll start you on how our adventures began...



I know we are extremely lucky and blessed to be building a home, especially a second time.  We are building our home with David Homes, a custom home builder in our area and I am in love with it. We're lucky this time around as our first home sold within two days of being on the market which is just amazing.  We've been living with my parents, and without a mortgage payment, we've been able to save up enough that we were able to get more of the finishing touches I love.  Trust me, the hubby loves everything about this house too but he would live in a shack and be happy if we're being totally honest. 

Let's get started on the building process...

This is a picture of the foundation being started from the front left of the house.  It's funny because it looks so small but it's really 2,500 square feet.  Funny how things look smaller without walls and ceilings...

This is a couple days later when the basement foundation walls were completely poured and set.  This picture is also from the back of the house.  Framing is up next! 

I hope you'll stick around for this adventure

Christine