Full House....o'cabinets and beams that is

So far this week they have begun delivering and installing cabinets. The ones installed look great! I was very nervous to see them because the cabinet guy seemed to have a "versioning" issue. We had design 1. It had several issues and we addressed them in design 2. When the guy came out to take field measurements, he brought design 1. I told him I was very worried about that because they were not the updated drawings. He assured me he understood. But, when the design came back with updated sizing, it was on design 1. I was peeved because he had gone to the trouble of updating design 1 with all of the appropriate sizing, which I know is a lot of work, but wasted work! I explained that he either needed to update design 1 which now had the correct sizes with the correct design, or alternatively, update design 2 with the correct sizes, but they needed to be reconciled. In the end, he updated design 1, which caused me to go through every single page trying to find the differences. A toe-kick here, a center stile there, very tedious work! My e-mail to him was something like a 10 page word document explaining the changes. This was so frustrating because they were actually NOT changes at all! Just getting it back to "correct."

However, while I was frustrated, he did correct the design, as far as I could tell, who knows what we missed, and while I was anxious about seeing the cabinets, so far they are beautiful!

Here is a shot of the master bath (partial picture taken with my cellphone)...

The cabinet to the left will be Nick's sink. It will get cabinets put on top of the countertop (templating next week). Then, below the window is a little window seat, then the tub. It is still missing the paneling. The opposite side of the bathroom is a mirror image. I am really happy with the travertine and the little glass "cabochons," I think they are so pretty. The size worked out perfectly -- lined up with the center of the tub / big window, and then they lined up in front of our vanities as well, that was sheer luck! I am still trying to figure out what to do on the windows for some privacy, but I hate to cover the beautiful windows, the tree outside is one of my favorite views.

Here is a picture of one wall of the "study" for the boys. They will each get a little desk area with a pencil drawer and 2 file drawers. The printer will go in the middle cabinet. I am hoping this will keep the homework off the kitchen counters like we currently have. We'll see how effective this is in reality! But the blue color is very fun! Everything is so dusty right now that it is hard to tell the real color.

I need to get better pictures of this, because the cellphone picture is not cutting it, but the beams in the kitchen / keeping room are getting installed. How cool are they? Geronimo, the trim guy was pretty convinced the diagonal chord of the truss needed to either die into the vertical post, or the horizontal post. I asked him to just "try" splitting the difference, meaning to have the diagonal chord like an arrow, ending at the meeting point of the vertical and horizontal. He shook his head and gave me the, "Ok, I'll humor you" look. They tried it, and they agreed, it looks GOOD! We went at the end of the day and they had 2 trusses done, but of course I had no camera. Tomorrow I'm going to get some good pics.

Also, I did not expect this, but Geronimo brought friends! Bronco was already hard at work on built-ins. Talk about feeling panicky.... I have a 3" thick binder filled with pictures of these built-ins. I walked upstairs to Alex's room, where I had 2 built-ins planned, a built-in and a desk. I held my breath, mustering up the courage to tell him, "I don't want your two built-ins, I want the shelf and a desk I had planned." Well, Geronimo hangs around singing all the time, but apparently his sidekick Bronco is a mind reader....
Built-in on the left, shelves (the low one for the chess trophy collection), the high ones for the giant library this kid has!

The one on the right, a little desk area.

Bronco was busy working on the hallway built-ins. I am so very happy because he straightened out an alignment issue created by my architect. Bronco is good. Pictures to follow if I could remember to bring my camera!

Actually, bringing my camera is not the problem. The primary problem is that a realtor is coming in the morning to look at our house (not the one we are building). I have been SO busy getting ready for her, trying to de-clutter, clean, etc. But, alas, today I gave up. I took my basket of kids stuff, my basket of magazines (my pictures for Bronco) and several of the sinks I have for the new house and put them in my car. I also have 20 sample boards of walnut finishes I've been trying, a piece of galvanized sheet metal, my chalkboard paint and well.... you get the idea). The Realtor will surely not look in there, right? The problem is, my camera is buried below this stuff.

Once I dig it out, I'll definitely get some better pictures.... maybe tomorrow....