The Wilson's Build Their Dream House Update

Just to show you that our life has been pretty crazy lately, I originally started this post September 29 to update all the changes to our house (the pictures at the beginning were taken mid-September). Now it's October 18th and I'm FINALLY sitting down to finish this post. I debated whether to do two updates for the house because a lot has happened since my original September 29th update, but I ultimately decided to do one GIGANTIC post. Get ready for picture overload :) 

Back around September 29th...

The guys doing all our tile work finished our kitchen backsplash, and I have to say I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. It's even better than I imagined!

Our new appliances were installed. My stove is awesome! It has gas burners for the cooktop and the oven is electric.

We ended up going with the side by side refrigerator (cue the sighs from the audience). The french door model in the same line was about $1000 more and let's just face it...I would rather spend $1000 more somewhere else in my house than on a refrigerator. Plus, we have a deep freezer already AND we have another small refrigerator (the one we've been using at the rent house) that we'll put in the garage. Needless to say, we're going to have plenty of refrigerator/freezer space!

The plumber came and installed the plumbing fixtures for my bathtub. I was a little scared at first when I saw that huge hand shower, but the more I see it, the more I like it. 

Jeff and Foley started laying the hardwood flooring in the master bedroom.

Eli and I stopped by frequently to check the progress on his room. No hardwood floors yet, buddy, but they're coming soon!

Here is a look at the completed portion of the flooring in the living room and kitchen. I love my floors!

I discovered that our electrician started the process of installing our under mount cabinet lights. I can't wait to use these at night. I think it'll create great ambiance :)

Josh and I started the process of painting the three rooms upstairs. Whew! I quickly remembered why I hate painting so much. It takes FOR-E-VER! I think I stayed in the rooms for 8 hours one day doing all the edge work. It was exhausting, but it's free labor :)

Jeff and Foley started working on tiling Josh's shower in the master bathroom.

They also laid the granite tiles on the laundry room and mudroom counters.

They also installed the travertine floors in the bathrooms.

The next day Josh's shower looked like this. Now all we have to do is order a glass door for the shower and it'll be complete!

Josh and I finally got tired of all the mess and started doing some clean up around the house. The house looks much better now!

Jeff and Foley finished installing the hardwood floors throughout the entire house (minus the rooms upstairs).

Around the beginning of October our cabinet guy, David, came back in and installed all my footings at the base of my cabinets. I love those little decorative pieces even if they did cost a pretty penny. They made the cabinets look fabulous!

Once the tile had set for a couple of days, it was time to start grouting.

Heath, our builder, and his crew came out and hung our shutters, thus completing the outside for now. 

They also took down the forms for our sidewalk and pronounced it ready to walk on. I can't wait to do some landscaping so I can make my house's curb appeal a little better.

Our plumber came back and installed the rest of the plumbing fixtures. I remember being so scared that everything wouldn't mesh and fit together but it all worked out perfectly!

I drove by after work one day and saw this truck in my driveway. Good news for us! Our furniture had arrived!!!

Eli decided to test out the new couch.

The painters were originally supposed to come the week before the furniture was delivered but they couldn't make it. Therefore, they got the privilege of painting around all our furniture the week after it was delivered. Luckily, most of it was placed in the dining room and it needed minimal touch-up from them.

The gas was turned on and I got to experience what winters will be like in my house. I can't wait until we can actually use this, especially at Christmas time!

Here is our future entertainment center. It is gigantic and has four pieces to it. I was so ready to place it where it was going to go, but I had to wait on the painters to finish. 

Josh, Eli, and I all made another trip to Lowe's (I'm telling you we should be in a commercial or something because all our products came from this store!). We had to take back all the tile we didn't use so we could exchange it and get flooring for the upstairs. Eli was such a cutie that day I couldn't resist snapping this picture of him :) 

You moms out there know you'll do anything to distract your child when they are approaching meltdown from boredom, so I handed Eli my camera and he took some pictures of random Lowe's customers. Say, "Cheese!"

We decided to go with carpet in every room upstairs except my craft room. We think it'll be a great muffler so you won't hear people banging around upstairs when you're downstairs. I picked out a nice looking laminate floor for my craft room since I'll be painting. I wanted something that would be easy to clean up if there was a spill.

Watching the machine roll up our HUGE roll of carpet.

My craft room

The Thursday before we were set to move in, I walked in to see my beautiful antique white kitchen cabinets and what I saw made my stomach drop. Oh, not because they were beautiful, it's because they were NOT what I wanted at all. Instead of waiting for the stain to dry after they applied it with a brush and wiped it off with a rag, they went ahead with Step 3-applying the clear varnish. The result was it took the stain and spread it ALL OVER the entire cabinet making it look brown. The painter and I had a quick "Mama ain't happy so you better find a way to fix this mistake" talk and after I showed him (again) what I wanted and how I wanted it to be done, they did it my way :) Friday afternoon when I walked in my kitchen looked like this...

I was SUPER relieved! I knew that these cabinets were going to be a major focal point in the house and they had to look great. THIS is exactly how I pictured them looking!

I stayed late Saturday night so I could clean up the kitchen and take some pictures of it looking all nice and clean. Oooh, I was so ready to be in the house!

Columbus Day weekend we started moving into the house. Thankfully, Josh's cousin, Brian, was able to help us move again. I had lots to do but my ultimate priority was making sure that we all had a place to sleep that night. Back during the summer, I ordered Eli's bedding when Pottery Barn put it on sale. I'd been counting down the days until I could use it and now it was finally here! I washed it and made up his bed. When he got home from Zue-Zue's house that night, his room was all ready. He was so excited about his new big boy bed! Josh and I especially love his new bed because we can lay down with him at night when it's time to read and say our prayers. We also get great snuggles from our little boy now!

Zue-Zue bought Eli a remote-controlled moon for his "Welcome to Your Big Boy Room" present and he was literally "over the moon" in love with it. He kept saying, "Watch Mommy, I show you!" It really is a great gift because it lights up and shows each phase of the moon with just a click of a button. It's probably Eli's favorite thing in his room right now.

So that's it for now. We are in and we have boxes up to our ears, but we're slowly getting settled. Every day something else is accomplished and scratched off on our "To Do" list. It's going to be a long time to get everything in its place, but hopefully before Eli's birthday party our house will be ready. I feel so thankful and grateful every day when I pull into the driveway. I keep telling myself, "Wow, this is ours!"  I feel so very blessed...