in the homestretch??

well, Mike says we are anyways. 3/4 of the lights are in, several of them even turn on!! Supposedly the fireplace will be done by this coming Saturday, which means the carpeting can be put in after that. Porch is supposed to be started this weekend, waiting for materials. Then the final grading can be done around the house (which the guy came and did start, so in front of the house is relatively flat instead of mounds of dirt and the big hill dipping to one side). Countertops were put in last Thursday, and the plumber is supposed to be around this coming Thursday to do sinks/faucets/toilets. I am really disappointed in my counter choice in the laundry room. I chose not to do white thinking it would be too white in there with the white cabinets, and went with a grey instead. Should've gone with white. We got laminate throughout the house, so it wouldn't cost much to replace it. I kind of would like to the tile the countertop or do something fun to it in there someday.

The kitchen countertops are really nice looking; I chose something that looks like granite, without the price of granite (you can get laminate for $10-20/ft, I've seen some granite/corian for $100/ft!). It has beveled edges to look even more like granite. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the counter is speckled and has a shinier finish.

The master bath counter is kind of plain, but it has beveled edges, too, and somehow seems to match almost perfectly with the paint color. Laminate is so much cheaper; it's something if you are redoing a room or building a house and you want to save money somewhere, that would be a place to start. And it's something that is relatively easy to replace down the road if we ever want to do granite instead.


Yea! The balcony is done, I just need to get the stain so I can stain the bare wood to match the hard wood floors.

I am a little disappointed; not in the house, but my choices for the house. While the first coat of yellow in the kid's bath seemed okay, it now seems to be Packers yellow (not exactly what I had in mind). As you can see in the pic.... I don't know what color to do this room!!!!

I am also beginning to think I should've gone with black finish on the lighting in the kitchen to go with the black fridge. I don't care for the red in the entryway, but it's so dark it would take forever and many coats to cover it up. I don't feel like everything ties together like I envisioned it would, and it's all on me, since I'm the one who picked out most of the stuff.