Front Porch and Siding Delivery

Because of a few minor issues, progress has been slow over the past week. I feel like things will start picking back up this week. Today, the concrete was poured into the front porch. Also, the Hardi Siding was delivered. I assume this will start going up in the next day or so. I was barely able to see the siding color through the wrapper, and I think it is going to look great with our brick selection!


Front Porch


Hardi Plank


Hardi Shake

Completed Exterior Brick

It is so exciting to see the exterior of the house coming together with our selected details. Today, the bricking was completed. The rock and siding will be going up in the next week or so. It was odd to see the temporary bricks placed above the garage doors and the garage window. Apparently, they make temporary key stones with brick (to allow for the appropriate amount of space). Once the rock is delivered, they will slide the bricks out, and replace them with rock. According to schedule, the next step is going to be sheet rock.

Interior Selections

It has been so much fun deciding on our interior selections! It is awesome being able to design a room from scratch, and put our personal touch on every square inch. Our decorating style is classified as "Transitional". This is also referred to as "updated classic", "classic with a contemporary twist", or "old meets new". Pottery Barn (which is my favorite store) serves as great inspiration for our decorating choices.

I am super excited about our selections for the kitchen and keeping room. We selected recessed panel (medium/dark brown) cabinetry with black pen glaze. The hardware is a long, sleek satin nickel handle for the doors and drawers. Although I love our cabinet and hardware selection, I am really excited to see our countertop and back splash installed.

We upgraded to a Tier II granite, Giallo Ornamental. It is a combination of white, tan, brown, and very small accents of black. The design is composed of mostly veins, which provides incredible movement.


The kitchen backsplash is composed of solid glass 1"x 1" tiles. The tile is named "Foliage", and it is a combination of tan, brown, and green. The tiles placed next to our granite looks absolutely amazing!


We really wanted our master bathroom to stand out and be special. With the huge picture window above the tub, we have great light coming into the area. So, it seemed like an obvious choice to add glass tiles into this area. 6 inches of glass subway tiles (1" x 2") will be extended up the walls around the bathtub, and a 4 inch accent band will run around the walls of the tiled shower. The name of the glass tile is "Beach", which is a neutral tan color.


With the exception of the master bedroom, master bathroom and laundry room, the entire downstairs will be completely hardwood flooring. Because it is such a large area, it was a tough decision choosing what size and color to select. After a trip to Atlanta and Dalton (to view the flooring), we chose to go with a 3.75" plank. This give a bold look (being wider than the standard 3" plank), without it looking too wide. The color we selected is called "Saddle". It is a mocha color with dark wood grain.

I am very excited to see our choices all together in one house! Our close date is still on track for August 21st.

Windows Part II, Drywall, & Brick

As planned, the windows were all installed today. I am so pleased with how they turned out.

Front View

Back View

The materials were delivered to install the pocket door in our master bathroom. Pocket doors are so practical! They serve the purpose of a door, but do not take up any living space.

All of the drywall was delivered, and should be going up tomorrow. It will really change the feel of the space once this is completed.

Stacks of drywall in the great room and dining room

We were really surprised to see that the masons started on the brick foundation. I have been a little nervous about how the brick and mortar would look together. Pratt has not built a house with our combination, so it was hard to visualize how it would turn out. I love the outcome! The brick has such a great texture, and the light mortar really accents that feature.

Windows Part I

Our windows were finally delivered to the lot today! I believe they were supposed to arrive a week ago, so we were really happy to finally see them. I love every detail of the windows we selected. The exterior color is "desert sand", which is beige. This will be nice on the outside of the house because it will blend well, and not stand out as a main focal point. The interior is white, which will be easy to pair with different wall colors. The prarie grill is on the top of the window, and bottom is clear glass. We specifically chose this design because it does offer a Craftsman look, and it will not obstruct our views of the canyon.

Window Design

Front right side (Master bedroom/bathroom/closet). We selected a wide prarie grill picture window for over the whirlpool tub in the master bathroom. This will allow for great natural light into the bathroom.

Windows in the breakfast nook

Great room windows.

All of the windows were installed downstairs, and unfortunately, there was one casualty. The top portion of one window in the breakfast nook was completely busted out.

Loads and loads of bricks were delivered. I am excited to see the changes that are about to happen on the exterior of the house.

Electrical Complete

We completed our electrical walk through tonight. I am so glad to be done with all of those decisions. Our windows are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, and hopefully, they will begin installing them tomorrow as well.


With so many details happening on the inside, nothing exciting has happened on the outside. Our brick was delivered to the lot this morning. There should be some interesting things happening to the outside of the house over the next 1-2 weeks.

Electrical and Sewage Lines

It has been a very long week of electrical work...and still going! I had no idea that deciding where to put outlets, choosing what switch operates which lights, and where each light should hang would be so much work. The process is made even more difficult because all of the decisions must be "up to code". We are scheduled to do a final electrical walk through tomorrow afternoon. My goal is to be done thinking about electrical details by tomorrow night!


This is the first step: deciding where to place the electrical switches.


The can lights were installed on the upstairs catwalk.


The final step: running the electrical wires to each outlet/switch.


The sewer pipes were also installed this past week. The front yard was one HUGE pile of dirt and rock. It will be nice to see this step finished because the big trench makes it tricky getting inside the house!

Interior Details

We met with our designer this past week, and decided on several of the major interior details. This picture is a huge compilation of just a FEW of the decisions we have made. I believe we will be using a lot of different textures pared with warm earth tones. I can't wait to see how it will all look together!


Finally, the "Pratt Wrap" has been completed on the front, sides, and back of the house.

The whirlpool tub was delivered and installed. Isn't that a great view to see from the bathtub! Maybe it will be a while before we have neighbors building next to us.

The carpenters completed their work this past week. They finished framing the upstairs bedrooms, closets, and bonus room. We were also excited to see the arches made into the doorways going from the kitchen to the great room. I think it is a nice decorative touch.

The back door was installed.

The front (temporary) door was installed, along with the sidelights.

The gas fireplace was also delivered.

Duct Work and Plumbing

Although it was a rainy day, the crew was hard at work. The duct work and plumbing were started, and almost completed. We are so glad the roof has been completed, so that the workers can still get things done despite ugly weather!


This is a picture of the duct work above the master bedroom. It was taken from inside the walk out storage area.

This is another angle of the duct work above the master bedroom. The picture is taken from the great room.

The plumbing was completed in the kitchen and keeping room.

This is the plumbing in the keeping room and laundry room

We were surprised to see our bath tubs sitting inside the garage. The upstairs bath/shower was delivered, along with out master bathroom whirlpool.

Our temporary front door was delivered, along with our back door. It looks like the windows will be going in soon!