EXTERIORS

The farther along we get with building this house the more excited I get about the outside.  I've spent lots of time daydreaming about living IN the house, but haven't put a whole lot of thought into what I want the outside of the house to look like.  I mean, I've decided on siding, roofing, windows, etc.  But I really haven't narrowed down the colors until now...I think.  I change my mind constantly if you haven't noticed, so by the time we area actually ready to start working on the exterior I'll probably have changed my mind.

The one thing that kind of limits my color choices is the roofing.  My husband is a big fan of metal roofs so that's what we'll be using.  There's not a whole lot of choices for metal roofing colors...there's a good selection, but I want a neutral...those are sort of hard to find.  I'm going with a slate grey...so whatever house color I pick will need to go with that.  I want some wood elements to warm things up so the gable ends will be shingled, and the doors will be stained.  I'm thinking the house will be painted a dark grey with white trim.  Here's some inspiration:

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Hoping the dark grey roof and siding isn't going to be too much, but hoping the white trim will make it POP and the wood will warm things up a bit.

I love these house numbers:

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And these lights (only in glossy white) next to all the exterior doors:

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Well, I'm off to finalize the roofing order!

HOUSE UPDATE AND NEW PINS

Well, the house is coming along...finally!  My husband finished up with all of his other construction projects and, with the exception of plowing piles of snow, is able to focus on building our house.  Things have been crazy to say the least.  I'm up working on the house whenever possible.  Some days we bring the kids up there and they play and if we can we send them to a grandma's.  We're extremely fortunate to have all of our parents living in the same town.  Oh, and all of them are retired.  We absolutely know how lucky we are.  Brent's dad has been coming up and helping build most days too.  So, we have all of the first floor exterior and interior structural walls put up.  We're ready to install the floor joists for the second floor (wahoo!).  This time of year really puts a damper on things though.  Yesterday Brent ended up plowing all day.  I shoveled out the house.  Building in winter time sucks, but there really is no other way for us to do this.  You do what you gotta do, right?  I'll post pics maybe when we start putting up second floor walls.  In the meantime, here's what I've been pinning:

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(you gotta check this whole apartment makeover out...love it!  I'm a huge fan of Emily Henderson)

Seriously, though, what did we do before Pinterest?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADYBUG!

My sweet girl just turned 3.  My kids are three years and three years apart so we normally do a combined birthday party for the two of them.  This year they each wanted their own party.  My son, Jack, had a sleepover party with a bunch of his buddies (wow that was crazy, but fun).  Anna wasn't so picky other than she wanted her own party.

Here are a few pics that my friend Heidi snapped (I never remember to whip out my phone for pics):

Love my blonde girl!

MORE KITCHEN INSPIRATION

I have no new concrete plans as of yet to change the kitchen design, but like I said in my last post I am definitely considering an all white kitchen.  Basically all I would change are the base cabinets in the kitchen design...they would match the uppers and be white.  I'm just thinking that down the road (like probably after a couple of months after living there) I'll want to change out pillows, rugs, furniture in the living room and dining room.  If I go with the blue/grey base cabinets I'm ALWAYS going to have to choose things that work with them.  I can't live with that kind of commitment!

So, with that in mind, here's some white kitchen heaven:

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Love them!  I'm digging the white+marble+brass look right now...why is it so easy to change my mind?

LIVING ROOM DESIGN

So, I know I said I was going to figure out Photoshop and start using it for design boards.  I haven't gotten around to it...and I think that's why there's been a little lull in my posts.  Probably does't matter either way though, I don't know that anyone reads my blog (yet?)!

Anyhow, I really wanted to share my ideas for the living room in the new house.  I really want a nice, big, cozy, camel colored leather sofa.  The one on my wishlist is the Belgian track arm sofa from Restoration Hardware:

I love this sofa.  I will never own fabric upholstery.  The only way to go with kids and dogs is leather or slipcovered.

Here's the rug I'll be using.  It will be layered over a natural jute rug to give adequate size for the room.

The sofa will face the fireplace and I'll have two chairs on one side next to it (so that the chairs/sofa make an L shape).  On the opposite corner of the room, sort of next to the fireplace, I'll have another chair...hopefully wingback.  It seems like it should be some sort of wingback anyway since it'll be placed next to the fireplace.

All the rest of the furniture in this room is TBD.  All three of the chairs will be slipcovered.  I want a pretty good sized coffee table sitting in the middle of the room.  I'd like the coffee table to be made out of reclaimed wood.  I just love that look.

Here's a little inspiration, obviously I'm going for sort of an eclectic look:

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Here's my super unorganized design board I've been playing with for this room:

The fireplace wall will have white horizontal planking on it.  The mantel will be a chunky stained piece of milled lumber from the property.  There will be matching dressers flanking the fireplace.  Oh, and my husband's grandma has a giant pair of elk antlers in her attic, I just need to figure out how to get them from Oregon to Alaska.  Ignore the chairs, ottoman, lamp and end table shown.  I'm not sure what I want here and was just playing with ideas here.  I'm in love with the blue velvet on the sofa in the first inspiration picture.  I might try and use some of that on the two matching chairs.  Wanting that blue velvet has me re-thinking the dark blue/grey cabinets I planned on using in the kitchen since the kitchen/dining/living rooms are basically one big room.  I'm thinking an all white kitchen now, but that's for another post...

NEW DIGS SERIES: MUDROOM DESIGN

I believe, without a doubt in my mind, that the mudroom will be the most utilized room in the house and it will also probably save my life.  Or at least it will keep my from literally going insane.  I cannot wait to have a room dedicated for keeping mud and dirt at bay.  The dogs and kids routinely come in the house covered in mud after playing outside and my contractor husband is knee deep (if not neck deep) in dirt most days.  My almost 6-year-old is so excited to have a "mudroom."  He thinks it's a room for us to have mud fights in.  I think I'm in trouble.  I started calling it the "cleanroom," but it hasn't caught on.

Here's the floorplan:

I wish I would have labeled the drawing, but the giant "X" you see is a dog wash (slash kid wash, slash husband wash).  The four rectangles on the other side of the room are cubbies.  Here's the design board for the mudroom (I'm finally getting photoshop, by the way, so I can finally make real design boards):

I'll be using the same cabinets as the base cabinets in the kitchen, the light fixture you see is one I'll be using above the sink in the kitchen.  The knobs are the same as the ones I'll use in the kitchen too.  Flooring is where I'm stuck.  I'll either buy a dark tile and install in a herringbone pattern or go with the encaustic tile if budget allows.  The encaustic tile is like $17.99/SF or something like that (ouch), but I love it so.  It's not too big of an area to tile, but if our budget is blown by the time we get to tiling the mudroom it's out.

NEW DIGS SERIES: POWDER ROOM DESIGN

Just a quick post for today.  The powder room is on the main floor of the house centrally located between the living room, kitchen, den and office.  It's a pretty small room and will have just a pedestal sink and toilet.  I want to do something fun on the walls and will probably go with wallpaper.  The mirror shown I have in our current bathroom and I'm taking it with me.  I love that thing.  The big chunky sort of rustic wood totally appeals to me.  Anyhow, here's the design board for the powder room:

I had originally planned on doing a wallpaper with a blue design, but for some reason when I put everything together all of the ones I looked at seemed a little much.  I really like this one shown by Serena & Lily.

NEW DIGS SERIES: KIDS BATH DESIGN

The space we have for the kids bath is really nothing exciting.  There's a tub, a toilet, and a vanity.  A single sink vanity at that.  I had originally designed the bathroom so that there were two sinks (one for each kid) but Brent (my husband) nixed that right away.  His argument was that when his family built a bigger house when he was growing up they put a double vanity in the bathroom that him and his sister were to share.  He said that there was NEVER a time that him and his sister were using the bathroom at the same time and that's really only the reason to have a double sink.  Why waste the space with a sink when you can have more drawer storage (which is what you really need with kids).  Seriously, kids have a lot of $h*t!  It truly amazes me how fast we've outgrown this house.  When it was just me and Brent and the dogs it was perfect.  Then came along one little monkey, things got a little tighter...then another little monkey, and man we're squished in here for sardines.  I joke a lot about being cramped and it's true but we manage.  It really could be much worse.  When  you have a small house you learn to live small and I really like that way of life.  I don't want to have a bunch of junk around that I don't need or want, but at the same time I need more room for the basics...like toilet paper.  Also, my son collects a lot of rocks, shells, and sticks and I want to encourage that.  We just need somewhere to keep everything.  Oh wow!  How'd we get here...I was talking about bathrooms.

Anyhow, I want the kids bath to be super casual and relaxed, not too precious.  A little bit cottage, a little modern, a little rustic.  Here's the design board I made up for this room.

I want a little bit of the same feel as the master bath because the rooms should flow.  But in this room I want black counters and white floors instead.  I absolute love the leather strap mirror.  White hex tiles instead of the black, oil rubbed bronze hardware and lighting, and rectangular white vessel sinks.

I like the neutral/black/white scheme because it will grow with the kids.  We can add colored towels and fun artwork and change them out through the years as the kids grow.

NEW DIGS SERIES: MASTER BATH DESIGN

I keep going back and forth about the feeling I want the master bath to have.  At first I wanted to use marble tile in the large shower and on the floor.  Then I thought about the yellow/orange colored soap that my husband absolutely has to use daily and how we would end up with yellow stains all over the marble in our shower.  First off, let me show you the plan for the master bath:

Here's the elevation view of the vanity:

You can ignore the cabinet codes at the bottom.  And the sconces I've shown are going to be a different style.  The cabinets will be shaker style.  I don't think I mentioned that in my kitchen post, but all the cabinets in the house will be the same style...varying only in color.

Here's the look I'm going for in the bathroom:

I like the black hex tiles on the floors, subway tile on the shower walls, white paint, and cabinet color is tbd.  I'll either use white painted cabinets for the vanity or maybe a medium brown stain...warm or grayish...I'm not sure which direction I'm leaning but I definitely think the room needs some warmth with all the black floors.  Some sort of wood has to go in here. Cabinet hardware will be oil rubbed bronze, faucets and lighting will be vintage brass.  Countertops will be the same marble or light quartz that will be in the kitchen.

Here's a super messy design board showing all the materials/hardware I've picked out for the bathroom:

I'll probably put some sort of furniture on the empty wall...maybe a small wooden vanity with a seat?  Maybe a slipper chair?  I guess it all depends on what I have room for.  I'm so excited for this room.  Right now we live in a 1,000 square foot two bedroom home and the word cramped is an understatement.  The four of us share one bathroom slash laundry room and it's a pain in the rear.  To have a separate master bathroom is going to be h.e.a.v.e.n.  Oh, and the separate toilet room...awesomeness...just keeping it real here.

NEW DIGS SERIES: KITCHEN DESIGN

The kitchen is probably the room I'm most excited about for this new house.  I want it to be gorgeous and totally reflect my style.  The kitchen is open to the dining & living rooms so the layout was a little bit tricky.  I wanted a gigantic island so that our family of four could all sit down and eat at it together.  In our current home we all eat at the bar, but it only seats three...I always end up on the other side with my knees up against the cabinets (no overhang on the kitchen side of the bar).  We rarely use the dining table (usually because it's covered in the kiddos works of art), but hopefully that will change in the new house...more on that later.

Here's the kitchen layout:

The doorway that you see leading into the kitchen is from the mudroom.  I'm thinking of putting in a sliding barn door.  I have no doubt in my mind that that door will be open at all times, so why not make it look cool.

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You can view my last post to view the kitchen layout with respect to the first floor.  Here's an elevation view if you're looking at the wall with the range on it:

I wanted this wall of the kitchen to be as symmetrical as possible.  I love open shelving but don't think I could live with a kitchen with only open shelves for uppers...I really need the storage space.  The base cabinets are all deep drawers.  I love using drawers for storage.  I wish I had more in my current kitchen.  Here's a view of the refrigerator/sink wall:

 
I really want to use dark grayish blue lower cabinets and white uppers.  The opens shelves will be reclaimed wood.  Countertops will be either Carrara marble or some type of whitish/grayish quartz.  Here's a few pics:

Appliances will be stainless.  I'll be using a 42" counterdepth refrigerator and a 36" gas range.  I want antique brass knobs/pulls and faucet.  The lighting will be either antique brass or oil rubbed bronze.  Oh, and I will absolutely have an apron front sink.  The flooring will be the same wide plank oiled oak that will be used in the rest of the house.