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Ten Things I’m Glad We Did While Building A New Home

June 17, 2015 By: Stephanie45 Comments

If you are building a new home, be sure to think about these ten things I’m so glad we did!

This post contains affiliate links to products mentioned for your convenience. 

A list of things to consider when building a new home. Some great suggestions on this list!

 

If you are considering building a new home, it might help to hear from someone who has been there and lived to tell the tale. We survived the experience of building a custom home! Yay! That means you probably will too, right? Of course! Being able to build really is a dream come true, but it can also be stressful and intimidating. It can be hard to sort through all of the limitless options and decide what is best and most cost efficient. In the spirit of helping you sort through some of the clutter, here are ten things I’m glad we did when we built our house. 

  1.  We changed the roof line. In the original plans we bought from an architect, the roof line was much more complicated, and therefore more expensive to build. Our son’s room was supposed to jut out on the left side of the house, as you are looking at the picture. Instead, our contractor suggested that we extend the roofline to make the other rooms flush with that one. That gave us extra square footage in our office and the kids’ bathroom. We use both of those rooms every day and I’m so glad we made the decision to make them larger. Even with the extra cost of materials for adding footage, it was still cheaper than doing the roof the original way that it was designed because with the new straighter roof line we were able to buy pre-made trusses instead of paying for the labor to have a custom roof built on-site. 
  2. We took windows and doors out of the design. (I know, right?!) This seems odd, doesn’t it? But we’ve been living in this house since 2013 and I’m still glad we did it. In the original design there was a door leading outside from the bedroom that our daughters share. I knew I didn’t want them to have a door now while they’re little and I definitely didn’t want them to have a door when they are teenagers. There are four other doors around our house, it’s not like that one was going to be missed by someone who bought this house in the future, if we ever sell it. So we took the door out. We also took out windows that seemed redundant or unnecessary. (For example, I didn’t particularly want a window in the toilet closet in our master bathroom. Or if a room already had 2 windows, we took out the third.) The windows we did keep we made as large as we could. Whenever we entertain we get comments about how much natural light we have, so I’ve never missed the windows we removed, but taking them out did save us a good bit of money, which let us do other upgrades. We also changed one of the windows in our bedroom to a french door. I don’t think the crew (or my husband) were too happy with me about that change because I got that idea and was very insistent on it while they were literally framing the wall it was supposed to go in and they had to do it over. 
  3. We moved the laundry room. This is by far my favorite change we made to our house plans. In the original plans, the laundry was supposed to be in a hallway closet, just off of our garage. I knew that laundry in the hallway was one thing I really was not going to love. I have three small children and laundry is a constant losing battle. I didn’t want to see baskets of dirty laundry in my hallway every day. So I asked if we could possibly move the laundry area into our master bedroom closet. And they said yes! Our contractor tucked the washer and dryer under a set of stairs, so there is a laundry closet within our closet. We were able to turn the original laundry closet into a very large pantry.  That also freed up space where the original, smaller pantry was supposed to be located, so we were also able to add a wet bar off of our kitchen with space for a wine cooler.  

    our laundry closet

    our laundry closet

  4. We thought about where the sun rises and sets and how we wanted to orient the house around it. I did not want the sun shining into my children’s bedroom’s at 5am if I could help it, and the nice thing about building a custom home is that you can help it. It is important to think about those kinds of things in advance because some things, like paint colors, you can always change in the future if you change your mind, but some decisions are forever.
  5. We decided to go with IKEA cabinets in our kitchen. Don’t let their reputation for cheap dorm room furniture fool you. You know the kitchens renovations you see on home improvement shows? Those are often IKEA cabinets in the after photos. In terms of performance and durability, they actually outperformed several more expensive brands in a study done by Consumer Reports, and they are very affordable. The money we saved by going with cabinets from IKEA allowed us to do several other upgrades that we would not have been able to afford otherwise. You can read more about our IKEA kitchen and see photos in this post. 
  6. We spent the extra money and got real wood floors. Not engineered wood or wood veneer on top of a layer of plywood. Actual wood planks that can be sanded and refinished over time, more than once if need be. The same kind of flooring that you see in 100-year-old houses. We have 3 kids and a dog, so they already have a few small scratches, but we expected that and I think they just add to the character. After all, we built this house so we could live in it. 
  7. We had our contractor install Craftsman style moldings. He made these by hand out of stock lumber. Other than the extra labor cost, which wasn’t a lot because he had budgeted to be installing trim anyway, they actually didn’t cost very much more than generic molding. It was one of the biggest differences in terms of adding character and charm and turning this house into our home. You can find a book with plans for moldings like this here: Shop Drawings for Craftsman Interiors: Cabinets, Moldings and Built-Ins for Every Room in the Home . 
    foyer
  8. We did a detailed plan for where we wanted outlets, and then we walked through the house again with the electrician. He thought about things that I never would have, like adding an outlet in our pantry to keep small appliances, like our dust-buster, charged, and we thought about things as we were doing our walk-through that we wanted to add or change. If we had just handed over the initial plans, I’m not sure I would be as happy with our final lighting and outlet situation as I am.  
  9. We added a water pump in the back yard. We have several acres of land and I knew that if I planted large gardens or raised chickens in the future (I’m still trying to talk Eddie into the chickens) that it would be a major pain to get water to that area of our property. While the yard was torn up for utilities anyway it was pretty easy and inexpensive to add a pump. Having the water pump also came in handy while we were building the house because that was hooked up far before there was any access to water in the house itself. 
  10. We took a video of everything inside the walls before they put the insulation and drywall up. This was at the suggestion of my uncle, and I’m glad we did it. Now we have pictures and video documentation of where all of the wiring and duct work is behind our walls in case we ever need to access it or try to avoid it during future renovation projects. 

The finished project is something we couldn’t be happier with. It truly did feel like home from the moment we moved in because we had a say in every single aspect of the design and construction process. I know a lot of people say once they have gone through the process of building a custom home that they would never do it again, but that wasn’t our experience at all. I loved working with our contractor and I would do it again in a heartbeat. As a matter of fact, we hired him again a year later to turn our basement into an in-law suite for my mom. 

Our finished house:

finished house

You might also want to check out how we installed our stone fireplace and how we built our floating fireplace mantle. 

If you liked this blog post, don’t forget to pin it! I would also love to connect with you on Pinterest, especially if you are also building a new home!

Follow Binkies and Briefcases’s board Best of Binkies & Briefcases on Pinterest.

Click here to see Ten MORE Things I’m Glad We Did!

You will also love: 

 

Ten More Things To Do When Building a New Home Homemade dishwasher soap DIY fireplace mantle 

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How to Build a Floating Fireplace Mantle

November 15, 2013 By: Stephanie21 Comments

Thank you for your patience. I know it has been a long time coming, but we finally figured out how to build a floating fireplace mantle, and we’d love to show you how we did it!

Build your own fire place mantle with 5 boards

We still need to finish filling the nail holes and some touch up paint, but for the most part, it’s show-off-able.

Want to see how you can make one of your own? Watch our video!

http://binkiesandbriefcases.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/vidGzgMtg.mp4

It was surprisingly hard to find instructions online to build a floating mantle. We actually didn’t find any that looked like what I wanted, so we got creative and made things up as we went along.

Me: All I want is a chunky mantle that is classic and substantial, but not too simple-looking that fits well with the southern farmhouse feel of our home but isn’t distressed. And I need it to float in mid air and be sturdy enough to hold heavy stuff like Christmas stockings and giant candle sticks and not come crashing down on the kids.

Eddie: Oh is that all?

We went to Home Depot and I started taking out boards and holding them up to each other like a 10 foot long jigsaw puzzle until I figured out what I wanted. Then Eddie got to work with the “float in mid air” part. 

First we used lag bolts to hang a 4×4 securely on the wall, into three studs. This is what we attached all of the painted pieces to. If you are going to use pressure treated wood for this step, make sure you use galvanized or stainless steel screws, bolts, and nails for the whole project.We left a 3/4″ gap on each side of the 4×4, so that our mantle would be flush with the wall when we covered it up. 

HomeRight fireplace mantle

Then we used our handy dandy HomeRight paint sprayer and painted the pieces we were using to build the mantle. Besides the 4×4, we only used four boards from the hardware store to build our mantle. However, we still need to go back for one additional board to cover the bottom.

HomeRight sprayer

We used:

a 1×10″ board (for the top)

a 1 x 6″ board (for the “skirt”) 

a piece of decorative edge trim (for the top)

a piece of crown molding

Since our fireplace is an unusual size and yours is probably different, I’m not going to give you specific measurements, but I’m sure you can figure it out. It was a pretty simple process once the engineer (my husband, who really is an engineer) was confident we had a safe way to build it.  First Eddie attached the 1×10 to the top of the 4×4, making sure it was level. DIY Fireplace designDIY Fireplace mantle with 6 boards

Then we cut the 1×6 and used it to make a “skirt” around the front and sides of the 4×4. DIY fireplace from a few boards

I guess if you were looking for a really  simple mantle, at this point you could be done.
DIY mantle

But we wanted to fancy it up a bit, so we added a decorative edge around the 1×10 on the top. DIY Fireplace mantle 

Then we put crown molding around the “skirt” as well.

DIY crown molding mantle

 

All that’s left is to fill in the nail holes, caulk, and touch up paint. (We are planning to cut a piece of plywood to cover up the bottom as well.)

We put a baby bumper around the hearth to soften the sharp edges for the kiddos.  

Build your own fire place mantle with 5 boards

If you’re interested in how we did the rest of this fireplace wall, check out these posts. The stone hearth and the AirStone wall are also D-I-Y projects!

If you like this posts, I would so appreciate your shares and pins! And please pop over to my Facebook page so that I can get to know you too!

Installing the flagstone hearth

DIY stone wall

The Mantle, part 1

Also check out 

A list of things to consider when building a new home. Some great suggestions on this list!

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How To Build Your Own Fireplace Mantle Part 1

October 30, 2013 By: Stephanie7 Comments

Although we are officially moved in to our new house, we still have projects-a-plenty to complete around here.

Our first project is the mantle for our DIY fireplace.

I am excited to partner with HomeRight for this one. They are my newest sponsor and they sent me their Finish Max Fine Finish Sprayerso that we could get a professional looking paint finish.

This project is too big for me to tackle by myself. (Read: Eddie is doing most of the work.)

The first thing my handy hubby did was attach a 4×4 over the fireplace with lag bolts. We could only find pressure treated wood in this size. Because this piece will be completely hidden, I’m not worried about it.

HomeRight fireplace mantle

NOTE: It is important to use galvanized nails and screws when working with pressure treated wood. Eddie counter sunk these so that everything can be flush when we attach the painted pieces.

HomeRight fireplace mantle DIY

The gashes are from the mutli-tool he used to cut space around the bolts when we forgot that we needed to countersink them in the first place. Such is the life of a DIYer. Learn from our mistake and countersink them from the start.

Then came the fun part, playing with my new toy.

HomeRight Finish max

We went to the big box store and bought our lumber and trim. (I will have a full tutorial for the mantle coming soon. I’m still in the process of making some design changes.)

We took an extra piece of painted trim from the builder and had the store color match our paint so that the mantle will be the same color as the trim throughout the house.  We got paint and primer in one so that we wouldn’t have to deal with taking the sprayer apart to clean it in the middle of our project. 

HomeRight paint sprayerHomeRight sprayer

Even Eddie had to admit that the Finish Max was easier to use than our previous paint sprayer (which is still a mess because we couldn’t get it clean after he used it to stain a fence at our first house).

We liked the vertical and horizontal options, and there wasn’t much over-spray at all.  See how clean the cardboard under the painted section on the right is?

It was still a little bit of a pain to clean, but you just can’t avoid that with a paint sprayer. It did clan up very well with just soap and water and we liked that the package included a detail brush for cleaning all the nooks and crannies.

I can’t wait to show you the finished project soon!

UPDATE: It’s finished and you can see it here with step-by-step directions. 

or watch our video

http://binkiesandbriefcases.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/vidGzgMtg.mp4

Thank you to HomeRight for sponsoring our fireplace mantle. I was provided with product and compensation for this review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you so much for visiting the blog! I really appreciate all of your pins and shares. 

If you liked this post, you might also like: 

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Building the Dream: We’re Moving In!

October 23, 2013 By: Stephanie6 Comments

This is the week that we can start to breathe.

All of our inspections passed and we are picking up our occupancy permit TODAY!

My dad and step-mom are picking up the kids tomorrow and keeping them for a few days so that we can start moving.

We are going home!

finished house 1

Welcome!

finished house 2

The past week has just been about finishing touches. Our contractor and his son are still working this week to touch-up paint and trim, install mirrors, and closet shelves, but for the most part it is ready and move-inable.

Once we are in, I will take you on a tour room by room, for now I will just show you some highlights.

I think our master suite is my favorite part.

finished house 4

finished house 6

 

finished house

 

Yesterday the counters were installed and the fireplace was hooked up. Sorry for the horrible phone pictures of the kitchen, I forgot the camera!

The kitchen is not really blog-ready because we still have to build a range hood and put the trim around the cabinets, but it is fully functional. Woot-woot!

(I swear it looks better than this in person. I’m actually embarrassed to show you this picture.)

finished house 7

 

On Monday the landscapers came and seeded our yard, so now there is a layer of grass seed and straw mulch to cover up all this mud.

 

 

finished house 5  

I cannot wait to finally be in this house and settle down. For good.

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Building the Dream: Let There Be Lights (and tile, and vanities, and molding…)

October 16, 2013 By: Stephanie2 Comments

Um, you guys…

We move in to this house in TEN DAYS!

It is looking so much different than last week! Want to see? Please excuse the mess.

Big thanks to my husband for taking all these pictures for me while he was working on the kitchen at night (despite having bronchitis). Didn’t he do a great job on photo duty?! If they seem a little dark, that’s because it was way late.

almost done 1

The lights are in.

almost done! Kitchen light from Overstock

We bought our kitchen pendants from Overstock.com. I’m kind of in love with them.

Speaking of the kitchen, the cabinets are mostly in now. This is a bear of a project, but will be so worth it very soon.

almost done 3

The counter guys were here yesterday to make a template. The counters are scheduled to be installed next week.

See our steps to the left of the kitchen? They stained the treads to match our wood floors. I’m kind of in love with those too.

What else am I in love with?

Oh, there’s this light fixture in our breakfast nook…

Almost done! Kitchen lights

 

These sconces (on clearance at Lowes for $19!) in our entryway…

almost done! Lights

 

These bathrooms…

This one is for the kids. The floor is vinyl, but I really like it anyway and I especially love that we were able to get double sinks in here.

almost done 2    

And, um, our master bathroom?

I lurve it.

Almost done! Master bath

When we were picking out tiles and fixtures and paint colors, I tried to only choose things that were timeless and I knew we could live with for a long, long time. This tile reminds me of my grandmother’s house, although hers was the classic black. I thought black was too harsh, so I had the tile guys replace the little black squares with gray ones cut from a different kind of tile. They charged us for an extra hour of labor, but I think it was totally worth it.

And I can’t forget to talk about our molding because I love it too. We went back and forth with our builder several times because he had never done this kind of molding before, and we were probably kind of annoying about getting it exactly right, but, again, totally worth it. 

This is an example from the kids’ bathroom. The door on the left will be to their linen closet.

Almost done! Molding

And here’s an example from the office. (I get an office!)

almost done! Office molding

There is still quite a bit of work to do. Last week a huge rainstorm caused a lot of flooding in our area and wiped out part of our driveway, so the crew lost a day dealing with that mess. 

For the next few days they will be working hard to finish the moldings, install hardware, carpet, mirrors, and all of those last minute details.

Eddie and I (mostly Eddie) will be working tirelessly to finish the kitchen details and the fireplace mantle we are designing for HomeRight. (More on that soon!)

He started the mantle by himself last night.

mantle

The man is a machine, I tell you.

Ten days.

Breathe.

We can do this.

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Building the Dream: Floors and Our Ikea Cabinets

October 9, 2013 By: Stephanie11 Comments

Eeek!

ONLY 17 MORE DAYS! 

Then we can finally move in. 

This week there was a lot of progress on the house, particularly the floors and the kitchen. 

Remember when I was debating about what kind of cabinets to use and ultimately decided to go with Ikea? 

 I’m actually really glad that I did. We decided to go with the Ramsjo white Ikea cabinets and I have to say, I am really pleased so far.

The kitchen isn’t finished and there is a big learning curve, but once we figured out how to interpret the cartoon instructions, everything started going together very efficiently and we LOVE the soft-close hinge dampers. don’t worry, I will give you a full tour when it is finally finished, but for now this is what we are working with.

ikea cabinet installation

I didn’t think I was going to love the white washed look of the cabinets. I thought they were going to need to be painted, but now that I see them in the space, I think they are going to coordinate really well with the counters and light fixtures I chose. (I hope!) The doors are solid wood and wood veneer and the hinges are very good quality.

Other than the fact that we had to put them all together ourselves, I have no complaints at all about the Ikea cabinetry.

We did have a pretty major setback when we realized our kitchen sink had shattered inside the box it was delivered in. We had to take almost a whole  day over the weekend to drive out of state to the nearest Ikea to exchange it. They were very nice, the exchange itself was easy, and the kids loved the Playland, but  it ate up a lot of our time, so we are further behind with installing all of the drawers than we would like to be.

But the kitchen isn’t the only thing that happened this week.

Our siding is also finished.

Our hardwood floors are in!

(But they are covered with cardboard and dust right now, so they are a little hard to see.)

hardwood floors

We chose a very dark floor and we can already tell it is going to take a lot of effort to keep clean, but I still love the way it looks.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but there are a lot of people working extra-long hours to get us in soon!

This week  they are working on our trim, bathroom floors, and closet shelving and the electrician and plumber should be finishing up their jobs too.

The builder is scheduled to be finished by next Friday, then we have allowed an extra week for permits and bank transfers and all that not-so-fun legal stuff.

The important thing is that by all accounts it looks like we will be in and getting settled before Halloween.

Yay!

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Building the Dream: Painted Walls!

October 2, 2013 By: Stephanie10 Comments

Are you ready to have your mind blown?

There is now paint on our walls!!!!!!

Ok, maybe that’s not as exciting to you as it is to me, but this week things started really chugging along!

Our flooring has been delivered and is in the process of being installed and our kitchen installation starts today.

The sewer lines are installed and the pool is in.

The doors are hung and the trim work is getting started.

The siding is about 90% finished.

So. Many. Things. Happening.

Want to see pictures of paint?

paint 1

We chose colors from the National Trust for Historic Preservation (available at Lowes) and the painters had them color matched at Sherwin Williams because they said they prefer working with SW paint. I wanted to chose colors that were timeless as opposed to trendy and I didn’t want anything too “in your face.”

This is the girls’ room. It’s La Fonda Dawn.

paint 2

Our master bedroom is Woodlawn Silverbrook. See that small doorway? I call that The Harry Potter Closet because it leads to a “cupboard under the stairs.”

paint 3

The main living areas are Churchill Hotel Ecru.  I love the way our DIY fireplace looks on this wall now! We still have some caulking to do and we need to build a mantle, but it has really come a long way in just a little over a week. 

paint 4

By the end of the day TODAY this room will be housing my kitchen cabinets. (Finally!)

paint 5

On to the outside.

They are really making a lot of progress on the siding!

This is what the porches will look like when we move in. I want to finish the front and back porches as soon as we can because the unfinished look of the raw wood just makes everything look so, well, unfinished.

 

paint and siding

I am squealing with anticipation about showing you the pictures next week. Mostly because…floors!

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DIY Stone Fireplace with AirStone

September 26, 2013 By: Stephanie48 Comments

A few weeks ago I reached out to AirStone to see if they would be willing to partner with me on our fireplace design. I was SO excited when they said yes!

Airstpne Fireplace Makeover

I knew it would be the perfect product for us because I had been told by our builder and my engineer of a husband that the structure of our house wouldn’t support the weight of an entire wall of real stone, like I originally wanted. The living room is in the middle of the house, so this fireplace is on an interior wall sitting over the middle of our open basement. It just doesn’t have enough structural support for that much weight in one spot, not to mention that there was no way real stone was going to fit in the budget. 

AirStone weighs 75% less than real stone, but you honestly can’t tell the difference just by looking at it. The texture is rough and it is cool to the touch, just like real stone, it just weighs a lot less. Plus, it is made out of 80% recycled materials and it is super easy to install, as you will see in a minute. AND it’s very reasonably priced.

DIY Fireplace with AirStoneThe first thing we did was install the flagstone hearth.

I also painted the walls behind the AirStone a dark color at the recommendation of one of our contractors, who had worked with this product before.

We used the online calculator to figure out how much we would need. There are flat edge, natural edge (for edges that will show in the finished product, like the sides of our fireplace wall), and corner pieces available. We needed some of each for this project. We also needed two buckets of the adhesive. We placed our order online for pickup at our local Lowes and I picked up our supplies the next day.

Airstone Kit

Airstone adhesive

One of the hardest parts was getting started. We were a little overwhelmed because it seemed like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Our contractor was there and he gave us a few tips and told us how he would usually install a product like this.

Once we got up the courage to get started, it wasn’t hard at all.

Just use a putty knife to spread the adhesive on the stone like you are frosting a cupcake or buttering a piece of toast, then stick the stone on the wall.

Airstone installation

 It’s really important to clean the front of the stone right away if you accidentally get some adhesive on it! That is some strong stuff and it dries pretty quickly, but I really appreciated that the smell wasn’t noticeable. We were doing this project with our kids in the house and no one complained at all, not even Nicholas, who has some sensory issues and is very sensitive to smells.

We started working up each side, using a pocket level to make sure we were keeping our lines as straight as possible. We used painters tape and cardboard to protect the fireplace insert.

Airstone fireplace

 Airstone- use a mini level

 If we needed to cut a piece we would take it outside and cut it with a hacksaw. This worked fine, but Eddie said it would have been much faster if we could have used his angle grinder. Unfortunately, a lot of our tools are still in storage. It does make a lot of dust, so I recommend doing it outside if you can.

 Airstone- cut with a hack saw

 Under the hearthstone we used the corner pieces. We had to buy a whole box just for six pieces. I wish they sold these pieces individually.

We used 1/2″ strips of plywood to keep the stones on the hearth slightly up off the floor so that there is a gap for the carpet, which will be installed in about two weeks.  

Airstone corners  

When we got to the top of the fireplace insert, we had to cut vertical supports so that the stones wouldn’t side down before the adhesive set, due to gravity.

Airstone- keep it level

 One quick tip: We used small pieces ripped right from the AirStone box as spacers to keep our stones level.  It saved us a lot of frustration.

Airstone- using cardboard spacers

 We had been warned by someone who had used this product before that it was difficult to keep level, especially once you get to the top. We found this to be true as well.

The last three stones were definitely the hardest!

We still have some caulking to do around the gas fireplace insert and scrape off the drywall mud that accidentally was spread onto it. (I have to admit I’m more than a little irritated about that because there are also two large scratches on it from where someone tried to scape off the mud.)

Overall, I’m really  happy with the finished product!

Airstone Fireplace DIY    

 We will be making a nice big, chunky mantle within the next few weeks and the painter is starting TODAY.

Only about three weeks until our projected finish date!

 UPDATE: See our finished fireplace and how to build a floating fireplace mantle:

Build your own fire place mantle with 5 boards

Thanks to AirStone for sponsoring this project! I was provided with the materials to complete this project. All opinions are my own.

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Fireplace Makeover Part 1: How to Lay a Flagstone Hearth

September 25, 2013 By: Stephanie6 Comments

Last weekend we spent ALL DAY Saturday on our fireplace. It took us about 10.5 hours total, but it was so worth it. We starting by preparing the walls and laying the flagstone hearth.

First we had to prep the walls for the AirStone we were going to be using. I took all 3 kids with me to the home improvement store to pick up paint and supplies and got to work paining the walls a dark color. (If I had it to do over again, I would have primed the walls first because some of the paint started to peel later.)

Fireplace Makeover

Fireplace

While I was painting, Eddie went to a local concrete supplier and picked up the Pennsylvania Flagstone (also called Bluestone) we had ordered.  We had also checked landscaping companies and fireplace suppliers, but the concrete yard was the only place with an 18″ deep piece in stock. Living in PA means we have access to a lot of great stone. Even though the budget and the structure of the house didn’t allow for us to be able to use real stone for the entire project, I wanted a native piece of flagstone in the house. 

Eddie’s parents came by to keep and eye on the kids and his dad and our contractor helped us get the giant piece of stone into the house. It measures 72″ x 18′ x 2″ and weighs about 300 pounds. This type of long, rectangular piece is called a “tread stone.”

We had already reinforced the framing for the hearth with plywood and vertical supports (which are hidden under the plywood). 

Fireplace Hearth, flagstone

 

Our contractor, Mike, let us borrow his rubbing stone to take the sharp edges off the flagstone and make it a little safer for the kids.

fireplace hearth installation

 

Originally we had planned to use mortar to attach the flagstone to the hearth, but when he saw how heavy this stone was it was pretty clear it wasn’t going anywhere and Mike thought silicone would be the way to go. It made the process pretty fast and easy. The guys laid a thick bead of silicone.

fireplace hearth

 

Then they marked a center line on the stone and one on the fireplace wall and they picked up the stone (carefully!) and laid it down, matching up the center lines.

 

fireplace flagstone   

I was really happy that we were able to select a local stone that coordinated so well with the AirStone we were going to be using.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2. đŸ™‚

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Building the Dream: Drywall and My Covered Porches!

September 18, 2013 By: Stephanie5 Comments

This week and every week from this point forward will be super exciting!

First, the drywall is up!!

It’s amazing how much this changes the look and feel of the space.

drywall

I’ve already picked up the AirStone for the fireplace and we are planning to install it on Saturday. Hopefully I’ll have a big reveal for you soon.

One of my favorite places in the whole house is the girls’ shared bedroom. I love the double closet with the window seat (which will double as storage). I had the electrician add a recessed light that wasn’t originally in the plan because I want to create a reading nook in that area. I’m also in love with our extra tall windows. The ceilings are 9 feet high (12 feet in the vaulted living room) and the tall windows let in a ton of natural light.

girl's room

The pool is going in! I took this picture from our back door. I pinch myself every time I look out at this view. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that this gorgeous space is our back yard!!  (It’ll be a little more gorgeous without the construction fence and giant piles of dirt.) I can’t wait until next summer when I can sit on the back porch and watch the kids play out here.

pool view

 And speaking of the porches…They are in!

One of the biggest reasons I fell in love with the design for this house was the large covered porches on the front and back of the house. I forgot to take pictures of the front porch, but here are a few of the back.

back porch

 

back porch 2

And the siding is continuing to go up as well.

siding 1

Only ONE MONTH left on the schedule! This time next month we will be moving in!!!!

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