Today is Monday and by next Wednesday, we will have closed on our house. Unbelievable, right? It seems like we just started this journey. But before I can show you what it looks like today, I have to show you what happened in March.
March was the month we were waiting for (well, apart from this month..since it’s the month we MOVE IN!). All the finishes went in, the porch went up – it really started looking like a house.
More than that, it just does something mentally for you when you start to feel like you’re stuck in house limbo. We’ve only been in our apartment since December, but just knowing we had this house waiting for us has prevented me from really settling down. It’s been kind of stressful, in a weird way – like being on pause almost – and I am so ready to move again and say goodbye to apartment life for good.
But enough typing, let’s get to the photos –
When we left off in February, the house was totally drywalled and, actually, had a partial amount of the brick on it. I’m not sure why I didn’t include a photo of it in my February update, but as of February 25th the exterior looked like this
Now, let’s see what changed in early march!
First Week of March
Exterior
You can see that by March 1st, all the brick was finished (and covered… which I know looks funny but it was because rain was in the forecast). There was still a giant, gaping hole where the porch would eventually be. Also, no trim along the roof edge yet, and no shutters.
Interior
The tile guy made it out and installed all the tile finishes on both levels. On the main level, that meant the tile surround for our fireplace (the hardwood meets the base of the fireplace, so we have no hearth). And upstairs it meant tile in both bathrooms.
All the doors and baseboard trim arrived, too, and you might have also noticed the drywall is painted.
The vinyl floor in the upstairs bathrooms and laundry room went down. I don’t have a photo of the laundry room because every speck of it was covered with cardboard to protect it, but I was able to spy a little bit of the flooring peaking out in the master bath. Both the hall and master bath have the same flooring. Check out the moodboard I shared about this so you can see how different the stock photo of the floor looks compared to reality –
Way less brown, right?
By the end of the week, we were so excited to see our cabinetry had been installed. The cabinetry, granite and hardwood flooring were the three things we were most excited to see in person, so when we walked through the door and saw our kitchen taking shape it was such a cool moment.
The cabinetry showed up in all three bathrooms, as well, plus the cultured marble countertops. We did white on white cultured marble for all the bathrooms, and it’s so striking against the dark cabinetry. This is also another view of the vinyl flooring. I do wish we would have chosen a flooring with larger tile squares on it, but that’s neither here nor there at this point.
The other exciting update that was at the house the second week of March was our stair railings. We were excitedly anticipating the installation of them because they are stained to match the hardwood, so it was like a preview of what the floor will look like.
See what I mean about them being simple? I just love the look of it!
All the doors were hung by the end of the week, too, including the garage doors. No electricity was run to the garage doors at that point, though. Not pictured are the stairs leading from the garage up into the house. We were so glad to have some stairs, finally!
Lastly, by the end of the week the fireplace had a mantel. This was another area we had the option to change at the Design Center. You could have an arched mantel instead of something more squared off. Since we were doing straight railings, we decided to stay with the mantel you see above. We like the look of it paired with all the other lines and angles in the house.
Second Week of March
This week was pretty amazing! We visited a couple times and could not believe the progress.
Exterior
The porch and driveway concrete were poured this week. If you remember the struggle we had with the driveway at our old house, you can only imagine how pumped we were to see this long, flat driveway. I think you can fit 6 cars on our driveway. It’s like driveway heaven.
The carriage lights on either side of the garage were installed, too and we knew that meant that inside we probably had light fixtures.
Interior
We were right!
Electric was also run to the garage and the garage door opener units were installed (but weren’t yet functional). We also had light in the garage. Woo hoo!
The biggest surprise this week was that the granite was installed. We were not expecting to have such a fast turnaround with our granite; it had only been a week since we’d chosen our slab. With Drees, you make an initial granite selection and when it’s time for the granite to be installed, you visit their granite supplier’s show room to pick your slab. You have the option to change your granite selection entirely – even to a non-granite surface, like marble or quartz. We stayed within the same level (Level 1) but changed our selection from Giallo Ornamental to Ashen White, but I still wasn’t 100% sure we had made the right choice. Well, all my fears were laid to rest when I saw it in person.
And since the granite was installed, our sink was too. It’s a double basin stainless steel sink. I honestly am not a big fan of stainless steel sinks because I feel like they show wear really quickly, but I also didn’t want a farmhouse style sink or a ceramic one. So… we just went with stainless steel. Ultimately, I think it was the best choice since we have stainless and brushed nickel touches here and there throughout the main floor plus a stainless steel fridge.
The baseboards were installed this week – kind of to our surprise. We thought we wouldn’t see those until after flooring was laid down. All of the doors were also painted. All of the interior trim of the house is “Designer White,” which is just a bright white.
The upper left is a view standing in the downstairs powder room looking into the coat closet. The upper right is a view at the top of the stairs looking down to the landing on the main floor. The boom left is a view from the front door looking into the family room. And the bottom right is the fireplace with a bunch of painted trim on the floor, of which the name is currently escaping me but it’s what goes below the baseboard, to fill in the gap between that and the floor.
Upstairs the plumbing was finished off in the bathrooms and the laundry room – faucets and fixtures were installed. I was really, super excited about the utility sink in the laundry room. The laundry room in our old house was in the basement in the unfinished part and the utility sink must have been original to the house and had definitely seen better days. It’s a huge upgrade for us to have an actual laundry room that’s finished, but it’s an even bigger upgrade to have a brand new, non-rusting, awesome looking utility sink (which, by the way, did not come standard to the house. We paid to have that added in).
The upper left and right show the faucet and fixtures in the master bathroom. I still can’t believe that a rainfall shower head is the standard fixture, but that’s what we got (in both bathrooms upstairs). I cannot wait to take a shower in there! At that point, the only thing missing for the plumbing in the master bathroom was the glass shower enclosure.
The toilet in the master bathroom is in a separate little enclosed area to the left of the shower. To the right of the shower is a linen closet. And, obviously, directly across from the shower are the his and her vanities, separated by the garden tub (which also had a faucet installed that week).
The bottom left shows the hall bathroom’s plumbing fixture installations which were the faucet and shower head for the tub/shower, and the toilet, plus the faucets for the double vanities.
The bottom right is the laundry room – and I think this is the first photo I’ve shared of it. You can see the washer hookups on the wall, the dryer vent and the utility sink (!!). Ezra is standing on the spot where a washer pan goes (which hadn’t been installed at that point).
And that just about wraps up the updates for early March. See what I mean about how fast things shaped up in March? And that was just the first two weeks. Wait until you see what happened at the end of the month!
Update – Click here to see the late March update, House Progress: Late March
[…] Click here to see the early March update – House Progress: Early March […]