The Wilson's Build Their Dream House Update

We are getting closer and closer to finishing our house, and we are getting really excited about all the changes we're seeing every day. This week was mostly focused on two jobs: finishing the hardiboard siding on the outside and starting on the cabinets/trim on the inside. We found an AMAZING cabinet guy from Jackson and his work is outstanding. You'll be amazed once you see what they did in just four days!

Monday, August 1

On the outside, the workers started hanging the hardiboard on the eaves of the house. This is not the color the siding is going to be. Just wanted to make that clear. We'll be painting it once they're finished hanging it all. 

On the inside our cabinet/trim guy started hanging all our crown moulding. I love all my crown moulding. It really makes our rooms pop now!

Tuesday, August 2

 I realized too late that the way to get my workers to work faster was to feed them. On this particular day, I woke up and told Josh I thought we should get them donuts. I delivered them to the guys at the house and asked for a trade...donuts for columns. As you can see, it worked! Not only did they install my columns on the front of the house and the back, but they also finished hanging the hardiboard on the right side of the house and completed one dormer. Ahhh, the power of food!

Our cabinet guy measured, cut, and assembled all of our custom made closets. His crew is unbelievably fast and so efficient. They do all their cuts at once and then go lay the pieces for each piece in the individual rooms. When it's time to assemble, they have all the pieces they need right there and they just go to town with the nail gun. In a matter of minutes you have a closet!

Eli's Closet

The two little shelves in Eli's closet are removable if we need the hanging space. He just wanted to give us the option of more storage if we wanted it.

Linen Closet in the hallway

Guest Bedroom Closet

It was a deeper closet so he was able to add additional storage on the sides.

Josh's Closet

He has TONS of shoes and this should be able to hold two pairs of shoes per shelf.

My big walk-in closet :)

This is my chest of drawers he's building for me with shelf storage overhead.

My closet

Trim work around the windows

Crown moulding in the living room

Wednesday, August 3

I woke up early because I was worrying about Eli starting PreK-3 the next day. I heard Josh in the living room so I got up and talked to him for a few about all my unfounded fears. Since I was up, I decided to try the food route again and see if it worked like it did yesterday. On this particular morning, I made sour cream blueberry muffins with fresh blueberries. Once again, food worked! 

Our cabinet guy took the mudroom that was in my head and made it come alive. Seriously, the fact that he could produce this after the limited amount of explanation I gave him just shows how AMAZING he is. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my mudroom!

They also built the cabinets everywhere else in the house. See? I told you they were fast!

Laundry room

Master Bathroom
(Josh's closet in the foreground, linen closet up close)

Vanity in the guest bathroom

Vanity in the Master Bathroom

Thursday, August 4

After we picked Eli up from school, we walked in the house and discovered our kitchen. WOW! I am in love! I can't wait to get in this space and cook for my family :)

I just thought it would be neat to show all the sawdust that has accumulated from them building all the cabinets. WOWZERS!

I gave our cabinet guy one picture of a kitchen that I liked and he took that and created this for me. 

We ran into one small hiccup, but thankfully it was resolved. Our plans called for a curvy island like this. Our cabinet guy made this top according to the plan and then called to see what we thought. We both immediately said it was too big. It took up WAY too much space and was cutting into the space we'd allotted for the living room. Plus, if we built it this way, then the plumber was going to have to move the pipes for the sink. No, we had to come up with a solution. After talking to our cabinet guy, we decided to go with a rectangular island. All of us thought that would fit the style of our house better anyway. He and his crew left for the day, but promised to be back first thing in the morning to build our newly designed island.

Friday, August 5

I drove up to my house and saw this...

I have to give them points for ingenuity. They say that necessity is the mother of invention...this proves that! I'm just thankful they were extra careful :)

Besides, I don't care how they went about completing the project, the fact that remains is that they finished. Our siding is complete! 

Our cabinet guy didn't disappoint either. He built my rectangular island just like he promised!

 View of the entire kitchen from the living room

 Refrigerator space
Microwave will go in the cabinets on the right.

 Lots of cabinet space :)

My stove area. I love the big cabinets above the stove :)

I'll have pull-out spice racks on the sides, too!

The tall shelf is my pantry. LOTS of room to put away our food!

My absolute favorite part of going to a rectangular island...

I get a bookshelf on the end for my cookbooks :)

View of the kitchen from the breakfast area

The last project our cabinet guy finished was installing the top over where my washer and dryer are going to go. My parents did this at their house and I loved it. We didn't really have anywhere else we could do a flat counter space, so I suggested this and it worked out perfectly! I'll have a spot where I can fold clothes now :)

We meet with our painter tomorrow and hopefully painting will begin in about another week. EEK! I'm so excited!! Our cabinet guy and his crew will be back on Monday to add the finishing touches and to begin installing the cabinet doors. 

We are beyond thankful to God and do not take any of this for granted. We know that we are incredibly blessed to be doing this at this point in our lives. It is our hope that this house be used to bring glory to God in every way. He's the reason we're able to do this and we're so grateful to him for this gift!