Tray Ceilings, Race Cars, and Tequila?

Tray ceiling in model home-crown molding is raised to top of tray

The master bedroom tray ceiling in our home-crown molding is dropped to bottom of tray

When we had our pre-construction meeting, our PM told us he would like to change the molding in our bedroom.  He described it to me but I couldn't picture it.  I googled it on my iPhone and found an example.  It didn't look right to me (it was a bad photo) so I told him to raise it back up like the model home has.  Once I got home, I searched for more examples and I found better photos of the lowered crown molding.  After that, I decided to go with his original plan.  We had them install an outlet behind the molding so that we can run rope light behind the trim.  It's going to be connected to a switch so we can easily turn it off and on.  I love how the lowered molding gives the tray more dimension.

Gentlemen, start your engines!  Yes, that is Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Sorry the photo sucks but I only have my little camera right now.  This is the view from the windows surrounding my bath tub on the second floor.  I can't believe how close we are to the track.  Considering how well we can hear the race cars here at Concord Mills (our apartment is beside CM), we will definitely be able to hear the ruckus from our house since it is closer.     

Do you see the interesting thing about this photo?  We checked out our house last Sunday and saw that huge empty bottle of tequila in my boys' bathroom.  Odd, huh?  Our PM drilled all the workers from that weekend to try to find out who drank it but no one fessed up, of course.  He was fairly angry but I told him not to worry about it.  The house looks amazing.  If my tiles start to pop off the walls because the workers were drunk and installed them incorrectly, then we would have a problem.  He checked to make sure everything was straight just in case they were too intoxicated to do so and all was well, lol.

Our Future Mortgage---A Phenomenal Rate!

We officially locked our rate a week ago at an amazing 3.75%.  How awesome is that?!  It's for a 30 year fixed loan.  We were thrilled in 2008 to refinance our Colorado house to 5.25%.  Back then, that was good.  The rates right now are really hitting bottom.  I am so glad that we didn't have to lock back during summer because it was around 4.5%.  It's crazy how the rate can drastically change over a short amount of time.

Tile Work Preview

Master shower

Master tub-there is a lot left for the tile guy to finish.  The windows will eventually get sills and the floor will be tiled.

Closeup of the tiles

Downstairs guest suite shower-it is missing the tile shelf in the corner

Closeup of the tiles-the blue ones are glass and really pretty in person

The boys' bath is white tile.  That tub better not ever get that filthy after we move in. :P

Hubby's Birthday Dinner [11/26/11]

We spent Thanksgiving and Clayton's birthday in Banner Elk, NC.  My cousin owns a humongous house up there that sleeps 17.  It was a full house and every bedroom was filled.  We had a fun time with Christine's family, her friends, and my cousins Sheila (Christine's sister) and Rachel (Sheila's daughter).  Since we didn't have our house yet, I gave up my yearly tradition of hosting Thanksgiving this time around.  It was totally worth it. 

To celebrate Clayton's 35th birthday, Christine made him his favorite dinner (meatloaf) and an orange pumpkin spice cake.  How sweet is that?!        

Cousin Christine (she started singing as she was carrying the cake over to CJ)

Clayton was uber embarrassed thanks to everyone singing Happy Birthday, lol.

Cousin Jake is the boss (Christine's son).  This photo cracks me up!

Kitchen Cabinets

Emerson was checking out the hole where the double ovens will go.

I was happily surprised to see our cabinets yesterday.  The color is called 'espresso'.  They are supposed to be a really dark brown but I would personally say that they are black.  I love them!  I can't wait to see them with the Santa Cecilia granite that we chose.

I look forward to using all that valuable real estate on the island to cook and bake. :)

Drive By {11.27.11}---Stone is complete!

While we were away in the mountains for Thanksgiving, the house continued to take shape.  My wonderful new neighbor, Jessica, sent me a pic via Facebook so that I could see the new stone front.  I was so excited after seeing it that I couldn't wait to see it in person today.  All that needs to be done to the outside now is the shutters, the decorative trim over the bottom 2 windows on the front, and the 4 columns on the front porch.

For the inside, I was hopeful that the cabinets would be in and guess what?  They were!  Much to our surprise, the tile in all 3 bathrooms was almost completed too.  The tile has bits and pieces that still need to be filled in, but the majority is done.  I will post many photos this week to show you how everything is looking so far.  We love all the options that we have chosen. :) 

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Today is Clayton's 35th birthday and we are celebrating it in the mountains. He now has Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and the new anniversary edition of Halo to keep himself busy.  It's a good thing we brought the Xbox with us. ;)

My cousin Christine is making Clayton his favorite meal tonight (meatloaf with buttered egg noodles) and she is also making him an orange pumpkin cake.  Yum!!

Emerson playing at Grandma's [11.13.11]

Rock and Roll [11.22.11]

The color of our house is very different from this photo.  I think the morning sunlight skewed it.  It looks tan on here but I assure you that it is more of a gray color (called silver light).  Anyway, all of the siding and trim has been completed.  Today, the stone will be added to the part that is blacked out.  It will also cover the gray blocks on the bottom.  I hope that they complete it today so I can get a photo this evening.  

Driveway and Drywall [11.20.11]

Our driveway, sidewalk and patio got poured over the weekend.  I was hoping to etch our name and year into it but missed the opportunity.  We also had locks put on our doors.  It is early to get the locks but we have good reason.  On Saturday night, we visited the house at 8pm to find 2 men inside.  They were not construction workers.  I busted in and asked why they were in my house.  They told me that they were door-to-door salesman and they were there to keep warm while waiting for their ride.  They had no sales stuff with them and they did not apologize nor attempt to leave.  I was pissed.  Their attitude was as if they owned the place.  I flat out told them to get out of my house and they didn't.  We went and looked around the house anyway and then I mentioned calling the police to my hubby.  That's when they went out the front door.  I reported the riff raff to my sales rep and my PM.  It could have been innocent but a house in another neighborhood had all its wiring removed while another had a fridge stolen.  New construction tends to bring about curious people who think that they can just take whatever they want.  Ugh..... 

the stairs will be dark hardwood

 Clayton checking out the morning room

tray ceiling in the master

Drive by [11/17/11]

Sorry, no photos today.  It was just too dang muddy and my kids had to sit in the car.  I had to make my walk-through as brief as possible.  Surprisingly, I found out that we now have walls.  Yay!!  All of the drywall has been put up.  There were lots of large buckets of putty in the scrapbook room so I know that they will likely start on that task tomorrow.  Our driveway and patio have been put on hold thanks to the recent rain.  The stone for the front of the house was sitting in the side yard.  That will go up on Monday.  

I will get some pics next week of the rock and hopefully some of the inside. :)

Ahhhh, the views!!

The view from the morning room

Our master bedroom windows on the second floor

We love all the trees and landscaping around our lot.  It's going to be nice not seeing the side of a neighbor's house as our view.  The house in Colorado was terrible for that.  I don't have a photo of it, but you can see Charlotte Motor Speedway and the skyline of downtown Charlotte from the master bathroom.  Crazy, huh?

Our PM (project manager) emailed me yesterday to say that the insulation is now in.  Our driveway and patio will be poured tomorrow, as long as the weather is good.  Drywall will also begin tomorrow.  The stone will be put on the front of the house on Monday.  Yay!!  Everything is moving right along.  :)  

Emerson's 7th Birthday [11.8.11]

We don't have a house (yet!) so we chose not to have a birthday party for E (Hayden won't be having one in January either, just to be fair).  Instead, we took him to his restaurant of choice with my parents.  He chose Friday's.  He opened all of his gifts there and then he picked worms in dirt as his dessert.  I really wish I could have baked him a monster cake but all of my cake supplies are somewhere buried within the depths of our storage unit.  Anyway, Emerson loved his gifts.  He got an Under Armor sweatshirt like his Dad's, Sorry Sliders, Uno Roboto, Pokemon figures, money, Spongebob Legos, a Perplexus ball, an Angry Birds game, a dry-erase board with lots of markers (he specifically asked for that), and several new mans (he calls all action figures "mans", cute huh?).  

Being silly-He sooo didn't want his pic taken and we were obviously torturing him, lol.

Making a wish

Drive By [11.12.11]

We drove by early that morning so I am sure that the siding was finished yesterday afternoon.  I will drive by later today to see. :)  

Awesome News :) :) :)

Our Christmas present this year is going to be H-U-G-E.  I just got word from our project manager that we are set to close on our house December 22nd!!  I am beyond ecstatic!

We had our pre-drywall meeting today and everything looks awesome.  The siding goes up tomorrow, the insulation goes in this Saturday, drywall goes in starting on Tuesday, and the patio/driveway/sidewalk gets poured on Thursday.  The drywall will take 7 days to complete and then the cabinets will be installed on the day after the drywall is finished.  After all that is done, they will start to install all the fixtures and small pieces.

This Boy...

rocks my world :)

Today, I am now the mother to a 7 year old and an 8 year old. That doesn't sound right. Weren't they just 3 and 4? Geez, time sure does fly. Emerson (or Big E as we like to call him) celebrates his birthday today as a 7 year old. Since the boys were out of school today for election day, we went out for breakfast.  E chose Waffle House.  He adores their cheesy eggs.  Tonight, Grandma Ronda and Grandpa Bobby will be joining us for dinner and go-carts.  We tried to let E pick the restaurant but he wanted Rock Bottom Brewery (Clayton is so proud of that, lol) and there isn't one close by here.  His second choice was Bone Fish Grille (I was proud of that one!) but again, there isn't one nearby.  I think we have settled on On The Border but who knows where we will end up.  Regardless, we will have some fun afterwards.  I think we should go to the Nascar Speedpark to ride go-carts or maybe to Dave & Buster's.  We'll let him decide.

Drive By [11.7.11]

This is the morning room off the back of the house (I adore those windows!).

Things are beginning to come together at the home site.  I saw 2 large trucks of men there today working on the heating/air conditioning.  There were also guys on the roof working on the soffits (our shingles were completed yesterday).  We have an appointment with our awesome project manager on Wednesday for a pre-drywall meeting.  I would have to assume that drywall is the next big step that they are going to tackle.  I can't wait to show you guys inside the house. :)

Speaking of inside the house, we took the boys in for the time last Saturday night.  It was dark so I used a flashlight app on my iPhone.  We showed them their rooms and the playroom.  They were so excited!  This house is going to be so special.  We picked every little detail about it and we saw the lot start off as a field.  This experience has been incredible, to say the least.    

This is the biggest benefit of our lot.  See that rock wall?  We are nestled right behind it.  I love it!!

House Updates

Sorry I haven't taken pics over the past 2 days but I can tell you that the house is coming along fabulously.  Yesterday, we had the plumbers complete their work inside and the morning room was finished (I will have to post a photo of it soon-it has a beautiful window in it that I adore).  The roof also got covered with black paper.  Today, we met with Guardian and marked where we wanted the surround system installed.  We chose to put everything in the bonus room on the second floor.  That's where we will hook up the Xbox and Wii.  We will eventually get  a monster TV for in there.  It's going to be awesome!  I can see us all hanging out in there to watch movies and play games.  We will probably only use the family room downstairs on rare occasions or when we have guests over.

Seeing the inside of the house was so exciting!!  It was easy to see how everything fits.  I can't wait to move in. :)

Drive by [11/2/11]

We now have a roof!

The house is really coming along now.  I love driving by and seeing it progress.  One good reason for that is I caught a mistake today.  In our garage, there were 2 shower/bath inserts-one for the guest bath and the other for the boys' bath.  We aren't supposed to be getting those.  All of our showers and baths are going to be tiled so I knew that was wrong.  Our tub was lifted overhead and placed in the master earlier today (according to a neighbor), so I assume that they put a shower insert into the master also.  Ugh.  Now they are going to have to rip those out this evening because the plumbing is supposed to be completed tomorrow.  It's a good thing I noticed that.  I almost left before I saw them. :P    

Halloween 2011

Hayden as Link from the game Zelda (his wig is really out of place, lol) and Emerson as Jason.
We went trick-or-treating in our soon-to-be neighborhood.  Clayton fashioned their costumes for them.

My little Link

Emerson was thrilled to have a bloody weapon to carry, lol.  Yes, we know it is demonic.  This kid is a quiet, laid-back kind of guy so he isn't like the hellion that he portrays.  He always picks something scary to be and we find it hilarious considering his personality.  And no, he doesn't even know who Jason is nor does he know the Scream guy that he dressed up as last year.

Drive-by [11.1.11]

The windows and the front door were added today. :)