Managing our Expectations

Friends, I am so honored that so many of you have been reading. I am thrilled, and surprised that y'all are interested in our adventure. You are all motivating me to keep documenting.  Thank you! 

So much has been happening at the house this week! Since we live on property, I drive by several times a day and can see who's there working. Sometimes, driving by so much has been discouraging, like a few weeks ago when day after day there was no one there. Not this week. This week was major progress, and so encouraging. We might actually be in by Christmas! Could it be?! For several days there were four different crews there. Go guys go! 

In the evenings, we would pile in Brian's truck, and go check out what's happening. We have had so much fun seeing each day's progress. Here's some of the progress: 

Dining Room (from the kitchen)

                    Dining Room (from the kitchen)

right side of the dining room (from the kitchen)

Master bedroom (standing in the doorway, looking into master bath)

Master bedroom (looking out into the living room) We think they painted the wrong color, but more on that later.

Living room (from kitchen)

Living Room and back doors The paint was finished, except for the crown molding, which as I left yesterday, they were working on. The crown molding will be white, to match the trim and beadboard. The beadboard is throughout the entire house. It's even in the closets! I am happy with the paint and trim color, except for next to the cabinets, where I wasn't sure it "went together". I'm not even sure what I mean by that, but here's a picture:  This is the pantry, without the doors, which they removed to stain. I have a picture of that too :) Laundry room Can I just stop for a minute and tell you about my laundry room? It has a window, and a door. With daylight. Y'all, why have all my other laundry rooms been dungeons? Sunshine makes me happy. We should all be doing laundry with sunshine, and a smile. Those are the pantry doors, which have actually been rehung as of yesterday. They look soooo good. As I mentioned, we were surprised to see how dark the master bedroom paint is, so went back to check our selection, which was:

Right? Looks like a different color to us, but I guess that's the thing about paint, and the scary thing about making these choices from a small sample. "Here's a square that fits in your hand, think you like that? Cool. It probably won't really look like this." No one really told me that, but that's the cold, hard truth. I think I like the color as is, but we will probably bring it up anyway.

This situation really epitomizes why we didn't really want to build a house. If I was house hunting, and these paint colors were on the walls, I think I would like it. Maybe I would consider changing it, but it's fine. I probably never would have and would have been happy about it. But, since it was such a deliberate decision and one I really considered, it is almost a let down when you walk in and you don't have an overwhelming feeling of love. It's all about expectations right? You expect after all the hours spent working on your choices, that everything will be exactly as you want it, and you will LOVE it. It feels like so much pressssuuurrrreeee.

Speaking of pressure, here's a close up of the beautiful pine floors in their natural shade. They have yet to be stained, and after some more thought, seeking advice, and pinterest searching I have decided I want the floors to be lighter than I originally chose (original choice pictured above). First of all, you can see how great they look now. But also, the whole ranch is covered in white dust, from the roads, which I'm sure will be covering my floors. The darker the floors, the more noticeable the dust. (I've actually named my van, "Pigpen". You know, like the character from Charlie Brown? I drive around in a cloud of dust.)

 Now, that being said, there are many many many options for "lighter" stains. So we still have that decision ahead.

Last thing, and it's huge. Like actually huge. As in, 40,000 gallons of water huge. This is our rainwater collection tank. We will be solely relying on rainwater from this tank for all our water. I know what you are thinking...pretty much everyone I tell this to looks at me with genuine concern and says something like, "but what if it doesn't rain?" It's possible, this is central Texas. Here are our reasons for choosing rain water: the well water in our area is in danger of being contaminated by sewage (you can read more about that here if you're interested http://driftwoodhcs.com/index.php/issues/onion-creek), and we have an existing well at the ranch house, and it needs work. Lots of purification materials and water softening needed.

If we do run out of water, you can call the water truck to come and fill 'er up.

The gutters are on, the tank is installed, and we are just waiting for the final step: down spout to tank connection.

We also have a filled, and buried propane tank, and completed septic system. It's happening, people! Next week, we are expecting the tile work to begin, in the showers and upstairs bathrooms. Hopefully, our granite counter tops will show up this week as well. I am really looking forward to seeing that giant slab on my island. I'll make sure to share how it looks!

-Steph