More to smile about

A lot has happened in the last 3 days - more sinks were installed, faucets, mirrors, and appliances were put in, and we put up our very first window treatments!



Jaeden loves the new jacuzzi tub!

And we have countertops!

One of the highlights of the building process - installation of our countertops! We picked these out back in November or December so we're so excited that they're finally in and they look great! We couldn't wait to come to the house today to see them.

In the kitchen we have "Uba Tuba" granite:






Close-up:


In the kids/guest bath we have white quartz:


In the master bathroom we have "Black Galaxy" granite:


And in the laundry room we have "White Diamond" granite:


I plan on painting that cabinet in the laundry room white one of these days.

As you can see, the undermounted sinks are installed too. The master bath will have vessel sinks which sit on top of the counter, so those aren't in yet. That's up next!

Master bath tile

... is finally done!! This is huge because of all the tile in the house, this was the one that took the longest to find, probably because this was the one we cared about the most. I (Kalei) had a vision in my head for a long time of the look that I wanted in the bathroom, and not just any tile would accomplish that look - it had to be a certain one and I knew that when I found it I would know. (By the way, is it really pathetic that i'm talking this way about TILE?)

Anyway, after going back and forth to Home Depot and Lowe's a dozen times, and just when we thought we would never find what we're looking for, we ended up checking out a wholesale flooring store in Salt Lake and stumbled across it (no pun intended). Best of all, Jared and I BOTH loved it! Upon deciding that this was the one we wanted, we unfortunately found out that it was out of stock and would take a month to come in. Much to the dismay of our contractor, we decided to get it anyway and figured, we waited this long, we might as well wait a little while longer instead of hoping to find something else that we would both like - which probably would not happen.

Another lesson to be learned here in home construction: stick to your guns! Don't listen to what anyone else says - if you love something, fight for it! We're so glad we stuck with it because we LOVE how it looks in our bathroom!

Ideas, ideas, ideas...

Now that the end is in sight, i'm getting to the point where all I think about nowadays is how i'm going to decorate all the rooms in my house once it's complete! I can be very scatter-brained sometimes so I wanted to get all my ideas down on paper (or on computer, I guess I should say) so I can keep track of everything and organize my thoughts a little better. I found out about doing idea boards from a home decorating message board that I frequent, so I decided to make a couple for myself using the trusty MS Powerpoint program. I highly recommend doing something like this if you ever decide to re-do any of the rooms in your house.

Here's how they turned out:

Master bedroom


Guest room


Whether or not the rooms actually turn out this way is a whole 'nother story, but hey, at least I can say I tried. More idea boards to come!

The "cabs" are in

Cabinets are now in! We actually had a few problems with the cabinets at first: some were very damaged so they had to be reordered. The arrival of those new cabinets took a while so installation was delayed.

Here's a tip if you ever buy new cabinets: be sure to check each and every one as soon as you receive them so that if any are damaged, you can order a new one right away. Unfortunately none of the boxes were opened and checked until they were ready to be installed so our contractor didn't know that some were damaged.

Anywho, just a small setback in the building process and we're glad that everything has been settled. Don't they look great? We were nervous about whether the color would look too dark or too light once installed, but we're very happy with it.

Here are the computer renderings of the cabs when we ordered them:

Kitchen:




Master bath:


Kids'/Guest bath:


And here are the actual cabinets in the kitchen (along with our brand new Samsung refrigerator):




Master bath vanity cabs:


A last minute addition - a cabinet in the laundry room:

Bathroom inspiration

We looked at a countless number of websites in search of inspiration for our new house and saved many of the pictures we found onto our computer.

Just to give you a little taste of the look we're going for in our master bath, here are a few pictures that we found and will use as inspiration:

Aren't these vanities beautiful? I'm loving the vessel sinks - they're a must have!











Great idea - a shower niche to hold bath essentials:


Love the tilework in these showers:




We'll have a corner shower too:




That's a sneak peak at what we're hoping for in our master bath. You'll have to wait and see how it turns out!

Finally... gutters and a driveway!

Gutters are installed and the days of parking on the street for my mom are finally over!!! The driveway is now finished and cars can park inside the garage!!

These two additions were LONG awaited and highly anticipated steps in the building process.

A new (evening) view from the outside:

Progress on the Kids/Guest Bath

Just an update on the progress of the kids/guest bathroom. The shower tile and floor tile are in. Kalei had always wanted white subway tile, so it was just a matter of getting Jared to agree.

The floor tile wasn't so easy. It took a long time for us to decide on the floor tile. We've been back and forth between Lowe's and Home Depot trying to figure out what to get but nothing seemed right. Finally, feeling the pressure to make a final choice, we found and ultimately decided on this one. Luckily it looks great in the space!



Oh, and the cabinets are in there too!

Painting the Interior

The drywall is up and the walls are being painted. The upstairs was painted before the downstairs. We were able to go through the house and take a look at all the different paint colors we selected actually up on the walls. It's nice to see how they all look together.

Here's the master bedroom. The color is Ralph Lauren's "Dovecoat":





Here's the master bath - the jacuzzi tub is in too!


The shower looks tiny - we promise it's not as small as it looks!




The guest bedroom, the laundry room, and the office are painted Behr's "Gobi Desert".

The guest bedroom:


The laundry room:


The office/exercise room/music room/library otherwise known as the "catch-all" room:


For this bathroom I wanted to paint it a fun color since it was going to be the bathroom that the kids mostly use and occasionally the one that guests who stay with us will use. I went with Behr's "Celery Sprig" as the paint color. It actually turned out a little brighter than I thought, but I love it!


The backerboard is up in the shower waiting to be tiled!



Here's the tiny 1/2 bath on the first floor. The color is Behr's "Tide Pools".


Here's the living room and kitchen - as you can see, only the edging is done so far. The color down here is Ralph Lauren's "Haystack":



That's the edge of the island in the front


Can't wait for it to all be painted!