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!

We have a retaining wall

The retaining wall was finished today. It's just made of CMU blocks and then plastered over. We needed to build a retaining wall both to level off the front yard and to create some sort of barrier between the front door and the very near sidewalk. One day we hope to put a black aluminum fence on top, but for now it'll stay as is. Hopefully the painters will have time to paint it later on to match the house.



Hopefully we can do some nice landscaping in this front yard and it can be a nice place for the kids to play one day.




The front view of the house looks so different now!

BIA Home Show

Since we're in the process of building a new house, we thought it would be a good idea to check out the BIA Home Building and Remodeling Show at the Convention Center. I'm so glad we went because we got to check out a lot of different vendors and get lots of ideas for our house. These are just some pictures we took while we were there: