More work on the Cabinets!

The cabinets along the walls are in, most with their doors on. The island, bar area and bottom cabinets will go in soon, they were moved to the living room for now so that PJ and Phil can sand the floor to make sure it's smooth when they and the flooring are put in.

Cabinets start to go up!

Lots of boxes everywhere, but it was so neat to see the cabinets start to go up on the walls! PJ and Phil worked on those today, while Kerrey did some touch up work on the paint, in places where the paint touched the ceiling.

Basement is cleaned and ready for drywall

PJ took a lot of time to clean up the very messy basemtent area to prepare for drywall. The drywall should be going up tomorrow, April 15th. It will be nice to have all the walls done and the insulation enclosed. Benjamin and I went to visit PJ a couple times and Ben figured out that he could push the insulation away in a few spots and thought it was fun. It will be nice when more of the house gets done so he can be over there with out it being such a hazard. =)

Lighting fixtures

Above are pictures of our light fixtures in the kitchen, dining room and living room. All alabaster glass and a bright white light. It was actually a bit challenging to find the right light fixtures that we wanted, style wise, and then to make sure they were compatable with the bright white light bulbs that we wanted throughout the house. Some light fixtures only took flourescent bulbs and so on. We also wanted to make sure the fixtures all had the same brushed nickel color metal. It took a couple of trips to Menards, but we finally found the exact ones that we wanted.

More pictures of painting

Above are pictures from Ben's room, the entry way by the garage, our bedroom (and for some reason one of the pictures looks like we have a deep dark green on one wall, when it really is a red) and of the bathroom.

A lot of work painting!

After we put up the paint samples and decided to go with those choices, we were anxious to get started. I ran to town that very evening (I believe it was Wednesday evening) and got the paint (while also anxious to find a different paint sample for our dining room accent wall.)

At this time I am remembering that I must not forget to mention our dry wall man, Mr. Klump, who did an EXCELLENT job of mudding, taping, texturizing (and extra work making the kitchen and Ben's room flat for the borders) and painting our ceilings! Thanks so much!

Kerri, PJ and Phil were able to start painting the next day, on Thursday! They did a wonderful job and got a really good start on the bathroom and our bedroom. The colors looked great! I was at school most of the day, but took a little time off to help out some myself. I was able to paint on the first coat of blue in Ben's room.

On Friday, Kerri, Phil and PJ worked more on finishing the bedroom, bathroom and Ben's room with second coats of paint. It really was coming together nicely.

The pictures above are of the living room, kitchen and dining room. The sepia tan and the palace white blended well together, but took PJ and I all day on Saturday to put up just one coat in the entry way by the garage, the laundry room (which is next to Ben's room), the pantry, the kitchen, the dining room, the hallway by our bedroom and bathroom and the living room. PJ plans on putting up a second coat on all those walls in the next few days.

Time to choose the paint colors!

After looking at colors with my friend, Jenell; my mother-in-law, Kerri; PJ; and Paula and Brad (owners of the Color Center in Ashland) we finally got paint samples and anxiously tried them out on the walls. We had good luck as all of the colors looked right, except one, the accent wall in the dining room. After going through a couple more samples on that wall, we have finally decided on that color also. Above are pictures of the color samples. The bright blue room is Benjamin's room. We took a blue and deep green out of the dinosaur border that will be going around the room. We have decided to add some whispy clouds afterwards to add dimension to the large blue section of the wall. The walls are 8 1/2 feet tall...so that's a lot of blue, it will be nice to break it up a little.

The accent wall in the dining room will be a pomegranate, a deep dark red, which will not only put a break in the very large open sepia tan of the living room and dining room, but accentuate the border that will be visible from the kitchen area. The kitchen is a lighter tone than the sepia tan, a palace white, which goes well with the border that has navy blue, off white and burgundy colors. The pantry and the laundry room will also be palace white. The entry way from the garage is a sepia tan, which continues into the living room and dining room and the small section of hallway to our bathroom and bedroom.

Our bedroom is a bit brighter, using tuscan red and vellum (a yellow goldish tone). We have a few photo frames that are black from our wedding and a very nice black and white photo with black frame of Benjamin that will accent this room nicely.

Our bathroom colors came out of our choice of shower curtain. A very nice mellow light tan tone and a grey/blue tone to accent. The colors match perfectly to the curtain!

Overall the colors have a very earthy, warm feel, which is what we want are home to feel like. Warmth and welcome!