The House that Built US - Mini Home Tour

A whole lot has happened but today I'll keep it short and just give you what most have been asking for...a MINI HOME TOUR! Keep in mind I am still decorating and deciding but this little home of ours is coming together quite nicely. Four nights here and we are all still sleeping like babies each night! I even just recently started looking at new Christmas decorations...don't judge me. ;)

Anywho, here it is!! The Home that WE Built and that will BUILD Our Future! (sorry for the bad phone pictures)

Still waiting on the Loveseat to come in

Oh, That back splash though... 😍

MASTER

Master Bath

One of my favorite pieces for the new house!

Finally got our outdoor barstools in!

So there it is, well the majority of it anyway. I hope to get bettwe pictures soon but as crazy as it has been 'round here lately it may be Thanksgiving before that happens! We are starting on finishing the basement next week though so I will do a few updates for that as well! 

This is "The House That Built US"

Holy cow has it really been almost 4 weeks since the last house update?! Somedays it seemed like NOTHING was going on then the next there would be a whole load of work done. I have been told that is typical for the end process of building but boy is it frustrating when all you want to do it be in your new house and it seems like everything is moves at a turtles pace.

The past 4 weeks have ran together pretty good so I will start with just saying that the house is officially done. I started this blog post with another week to go but as of today we have the keys! 

It is still hard to imagine myself living in it though. Everything just seems so nice and neat and un-lived in so imagining mess and chaos is hard but I am sure it will only take 2hours for the place to be run through and appear "lived in".

I cannot even begin to tell you my excitement to sit on my front porch with a cup of coffee...or glass of wine depending on the time of day! 😉

The past few weeks have been extremely busy yet I have had some time to reflect on the building process of this house. How has this house built US? To be honest I wasn't really sure. Building the house has been a learning experience but we have went at it as a united front, agreeing on the majority of decisions to be made. It was in those moments that I realized that we have built a beautiful house that we will soon make a home but the house that built us was that tiny little gray house that we have called home for the past 11years.

Two weekends ago we had to move out of that little home and it was an emotional 3 days. We moved to Tennessee 12 years ago as two young kids right out of college never dreaming we would make this our home. We had dreams of one day going back to WV. The first couple years were like an extended vacation with weekend trips to see family once a month but then we brought a sweet little boy into this world and suddenly we seen everything different.

As I sat on our brown couch I could vividly remember holding him and nursing him on that couch while home on maternity leave. I would walk the hallway hundreds of times each night to try and calm his colicy self. He learned to run down that hallway and swim in our back yard. I've kissed more boo boo's that I can remember outside and I believe between he and Lanie they have been in time out in every single corner of that house.

I sat out on the front porch holding a 2 week old baby watching the fireworks for his first 4th of July.

Then just a few short years later we brought a sweet baby girl home. I took a picture of her with the girl swinging from the tree in her room. I was so excited when I was pregnant to have that mural painted on her wall. It was a vision of the little girl that she would become and here she is turning 6 next week.

We watched her learn to swim and each of them learn and grow. We went from young and in love to parents who had no support close by and had to figure it out on our own. We learned to depend on each other and not take a single moment for granted. We laughed together and cried together in that house. We poured blood sweat and tears into that little home and made it exactly as our hearts desired. We made it ours and it molded and shaped us into who we are now. I hope to cherish all those memories that those four walls have seen.

So as it stands now, that little gray house on Water Oak Dr. has "built US" but that house on Laramie Lane will get to take over in the next few weeks. We will move in, work on it and make it our HOME. It will see my children grow and will help build US as we move into the phases of life that is to come.

I thank God each day for such wonderful memories and how he has used these places to build and mold us into the family that we are. 

I hope you enjoy this little tribute to "The House That Built US"! I hope to get a New Home Tour up soon! 



Love,
Mel

The House That Built US - Week 24

OOOHHHHH BOY!!!! There was a whole bunch accomplished at the house this week! 

Monday the flooring guys showed up and started laying our hardwood. It only took them 4 days to get it all down and it looks beautiful. We went with a Greystone wood flooring. It has a smokey haze over it and really just works well with the style of the house.

Master Closet

Tuesday the concrete men showed up and poured the from porch and back patio. I'm really digging the back patio! We extended it out a bit further then the picture showed and curve it around the boat garage. That really makes it look all fancy without a lot of extra cost.

Back Patio 

The rest of our lighting came in so some of the outdoor lights went up along with the rest of the ceiling fans. There are only a few more lights to go up. We realized after the fact that they didn't put the right type of lighting on my front  porch but honestly I am kind of glad. We had originally decided to do 3 can lights on the front porch. Well they put regular light boxes in there and today when they were hanging lights said we didn't have fixtures for out there. We are now going to do 2 outdoor fans and then a hanging light. I am super pumped about the front porch fans since I plan on many evenings of front porch sitting watching the kids ride their bikes! 

Master Vanity Light

Wednesday the front walkway and driveway concrete was poured and they continued to work on lighting and flooring.

We still need the step up to the porch 

Sidewalk and driveway

Thursday the granite showed up and I was excited and nervous about seeing how it looked with our cabinets. WOW!! The Vinscon White was a PERFECT pick for our cabinets. Oh and in case the info is helpful to you we went with Harbor Gray and White cabinets with a platinum glaze on both.

😍😍😍

Lanie's Bath 

Master Bath - There are two vanities and sink I just couldn't get it all in 1 picture

Over all a very, very good week. I needed that after the past couple where I felt like the work was creeping by! 

One thing this build has taught me is that it is the little things that seem to mean the most. 

Our house is a 3 bath house therefore the kids will have their own bathroom. Kinley's however happens to also be the upstairs guest bath. I picked out a beautiful blue and gray shower curtain and was going to accent with some farmhouse style decor. Well I guess after really seeing the toilets in and hearing again that his bath is also the guest bath he was very upset. After some contemplating and taking with the hubs we decided to let him totally decorate it. Not bad except we are in this "EMOJI" specifically the poop one, phase. As of now there isn't much out there for bath decor but I figure with the movie it will explode. He is determined also to find the matching toilet seat cover. 

Just a favor to ask, if you come to my house and see the 💩 emoji toilet seat cover, just think of it as an ironic reminder of what you came to do! LOL

Now on to the next week and hopefully we will have a move in date by he end of this week!!

~Mel

The House That Built US - Week 22 & 23

Well once again I am falling behind on the blog! Trying to move during the summer while building a house and preparing to go back to school in a few weeks is kicking my butt. Here are two weeks I missed and I promise to try and get another update for this week done this weekend! 

For week 22 they finished painting the outside except for one small part that on the front porch. They said they would finish that after our front porch was poured. They even painted under the back deck. I hadn't seen that done before but it will look so much nicer with out big patio that will be under the deck.

I love the under painting! 

We had some issues with the fireplace. We have gas ran to the fire place but we decided to also do wood burning to begin with. Once they started placing my mantle and decorative columns they found out that since it is wood burning nothing combustible can be within 12'' from the sides and 20" on the bottom. This meant we couldn't take out hard wood floor all the way to the fireplace like we had originally wanted. It also meant no columns because they would be out further then the mantle. We spent two days playing around with ideas and finally decided to tile the floor in front of the fireplace with leftover tile from the kids bathrooms. Once they did that it looked great and I am really glad we decided to go that route! 

The shower and tub are both completed and they also look great! The majority of the light fixtures and hardwood floors showed up this week. 

Light Fixtures! 

A few of the light fixtures were hung but then everything came to a stand still over the long holiday weekend. It is so hard to be patient when I see all the parts to my house just sitting there. Building has definitely been a lesson on patience. 

After the 4th they came back and hung a few more light fixtures and framed up the back patio and front porch. The quotes for the closets came back and were more than we wanted to spend so we did what we are good at. Headed on down to the Lowes with my trusty notebook and pen and priced matched two awesome closet systems for the kids. Then we went on up the the Home Depot and bought all the shelving for our pantry. 

Another big thanks for my daddy for spending his Saturday helping us install all the shelving. We also planned out the designed for the shelving system in the master closet. Once the flooring is down we can get started on building the shelving. 

So Much Shelving!! I. CAN'T. WAIT. 😁

The weather seems good for the coming week so hopefully we will see some big changes this week!

Until next week! 

~Mel

The House That Built US - Week 21

Our contractor was on vacation this past week so not a whole lot got done but we did get to see the house transform with color as the painters completed the inside and 70% of the outside, DARN RAIN!! 

Master Bedroom

Mudroom Dropzone! 

I LOVE my black front door! 

It is just simply amazing at what a difference the paint colors make. 

The hubs and dad worked long hours each day on the tile tub and shower. They almost got it done and then ran out of bullnose. That was special order so they are stuck waiting on Tuesday to roll around so they can put up those last few pieces then start grouting it. 

Bad lighting but it is absolutely stunning!

😍

I cannot tell you how good my daddy is at tiling y'all!! He never ceases to amaze me at his perfectionism. We decided to border the tub, something we were not going to do originally and I am so glad we did. It really just made it all come together! 

We also ordered our cabinet pulls and I picked up interior door knobs. We found some cabinet pulls at Lowe's for around $4ea then we found the same exact ones on Amazon for slightly over $1ea!! Make save there since we needed almost 70!! 

I also started on some crafting projects for the new house. I am just loving the Farmhouse style decor and it seems to flow so well with the layout and color scheme of the house! I just can't wait to put it all together!

I made throw pillow covers for our bed!

I also started with some major packing this week. We have boxes EVERYWHERE! I am trying to not let it get to me but that is hard. My anxiety kicks into over drive every time I walk through the door. 

Kevin comes back next week so hopefully we will see some more big changes happen. I am getting super anxious about being in the new house!

~Mel

The House That Built US - Week 20

So I managed to go all week at the beach and only text about the house once. I made the comment to Kinley that I was going to ask for pictures of what all they had done and he told me not too because he wanted to be surprised! lol I kept my text simple just making sure that everything was going well and see if we needed to do anything next week.

We traveled home on Saturday and made a trip by the new place before we even went home. I cannot express my shock when we pulled around and seen that half the exterior had been painted!!

Inside the house they had also started painting with Kinley and Lanies room being completed. Talk about one excited little girl when she went in and seen her all purple room. 

They also started on my fireplace mantle, built my mudroom built-in personal drop space, finished the crown in my tray ceilings and had the AC units in and running (which I am sure the painters appreciated). 

This next week we are starting on tiling the master bathroom shower and tub. That should take about a week then the contractor will return and hopefully we will be starting on all the finishing touches for the house! 

I would love to think that we will get to move from our house now into the new one but most likely it will be a couple weeks into August before we get to move in. 

Right now I am using my free time to pack and pinterest new decor for the house. I have fell in love with all the Farmhouse style decor. It is so shabby chic and keeps a nice clean look. I am in the process of finding me an old church pew (if you know where I can get my hands on one please text me) and a couple small wooden spools. 

Until next week!

~Mel

Week 18 & 19

Well last weekend was Kinley's birthday party so I was slacking on posting for the week.

A lot has happened the past two weeks. The tile showed up and they had all that done in like 3 days. It seemed to go crazy fast. I absolutely loved our kitchen floor and can't wait to see it once it is all cleaned up. The masterbath floor turned out to be gorgeous too! The gray color grout we used just made the tile pop in the bath. 

Kitchen

Kinley's Bath

Master Bath Floor

Lanie's Bath

We picked up all the tile for our shower and tub and plan on starting that project after vacation.

We also closed on our current house at the end of May. That is a HUGE relief and now that they are renting it to use for the next 2 months it really gives us time to pack up and starting moving stuff. 

More of the soffit and hardie board was put up and they are about 80% done with that part. 

Love my shake style gable (the other will be the same)

Almost done with the hardie board

All the doors went in and the first pantry door showed up...not what I wanted so it is going back and a new one will be here in the next couple weeks. 

This past week the cabinets showed up and within two days they had them all hung and in place. Talk about making the kitchen feel like a kitchen... EEKKK!!! We believe we have picked out a granite however it is coming up from New Orleans and we are on vacation this next week so we will not be able to lay eyes on it for about a week. We have done a quite a bit of research on the granite we like and we found one particular slab we like except depending on the block it is in some has a whole lot of black while the other blocks have more white/gray. After much search our granite girl sent us pictures of the lot in NO and I believe it will be the winner! The slabs are on their way here with our name on them now so hopefully in 10 days we will be signed on those and they will be getting prepped to be put in. 

Ahhh the kitchen! 

Master Bath

The first thing Lanie wanted to know was why her cabinets weren't PINK like she wanted! LOL

Still waiting on the crown molding for the trey ceilings and two other interior doors but aside from that we are ready for paint!! 

The garage doors were installed yesterday and I love the way they look! I can't wait to see the outside once it is painted...speaking of we finally decided on a paint color for the exterior too! Hopefully the weather will cooperate over the next two weeks and everything will be getting painted! 

I can't believe we are now closing in on all the finishing touches. It seems like we are so close but still have a TON to do! 

For now we are headed to the beach and dreaming of the changes taking place back in sweet little Seymour! 

Til' Next Week,

Mel