Our house....

The walnut island was installed today. 11 coats of waterlox on the top, and 7 on the undersides. That must have been a stinky project! I love love love it. The planks of wood are gorgeous and have I mentioned I love the grain of walnut? There are giant steel rods on the underside to support it. Dad would definitely have liked this piece! The farm sink looks great with the wood too, and the little Shaw's emblem is blue, (that's why I picked this sink, just for Nick :-). It is still missing the walnut drip rail, but I am going to enjoy the completion of the island for the moment and then focus on the drip rail. OK, moment over, we need to get the drip rail added. It will really finish the look of the sink. I'm anxious to see it because the drip ledge is a departure from how the farm sinks are usually installed. Normally, they scribe the cabinet to make the sink fit. In my case, it will essentially sit on top of a walnut ledge that is flat, and the cabinet will not curve to follow the sink. Since the front bottom of the sink is curved, this will be interesting to see how the "gap" looks. If it is done well, it will be no problem. If not, the drip ledge will be not so fab!

The rest of the countertops were installed as well. Here is a peek at the master tub surround. I love this Crema Marfil, think it will look great with the travertine on the floors. Of course they cover every last thing, so I can't really tell how it all looks together yet!

Another shot of the rear porch, still unstained. Can't wait for the light fixtures to get installed. The inside is so dark, especially with the goo covering the windows. The ceiling paint looks SO dark right now.

Several exterior shots too. As you can see, the driveway and walks have been poured.

At the last minute I asked them to add a flagstone border around the front sidewalk pad. I thought it would ease the transition between the house which has a ton of stone and the sidewalk which is a ton of concrete. Here it is pre-mortaring, looks good. All they had to do was make a second channel in the concrete forms and then pour the channel several inches lower than the sidewalk. Then they installed the flagstone on top of the lower channel and mortared. Easy breezy!

Also, while they were pouring the driveway, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to ask them to install the basketball hoop base. This required a 36" deep hole filled with concrete and rebar. We spent part of Saturday taking turns digging and Nick went out and finished the job Sunday. On Monday morning while the concrete trucks were there, I asked them to put it in for us. Glad that is done because I think it would have been a painful project. Now it just has to cure 72 hours and the rest of the hoop can go up (I'm going to try to rope the guys into helping lift it). Not sure if we will be allowed to put it up right now, there might still be too much big equipment and it could be high risk. You can see the little threads in this picture of the court....The driveway is 37' wide. The hoosier in me is now lamenting that we didn't have them make the little cracks at logical places.... such as the free throw line distance, or the 3 point line. In researching real court dimensions, I now know that 50' would have been the proper width dimension, but call me crazy, that might have been a wee bit too much concrete!

The grading on this side still needs a bit of work, but it is getting there.... I am very ready for railings on the porch, then we can really start enjoying it!

Lanie is perfectly comfortable way up on the porch overseeing her territory! She is loving the fact that there are actually steps to the porch.

Next up.... grout, more paint. They seem to be so slow --- they have literally caulked and sanded all week. It is pretty unexciting, but I suppose once all of that prep work is done, the actual painting will go quickly. After the paint, I think the plumbers and electricians and all the other trades will come back (maybe not this week since I think the paint will still be going on for another week). I have no idea about the timeline for that stuff, but I think we are getting down to the last details. I now can't wait to see the plumbing fixtures go in, and also the light fixtures. I know Visual Comfort light fixtures are incredibly slow, so I am hoping they are all actually in and just waiting to be installed in the house.