Roman Shades

Tonight while I was doing my weekly perusing of my fellow RH Bloggers' updates, I was inspired by Steve + Erica's post about their blinds.  There has been a long debate at my house as to whether or not window coverings were really necessary (after all we will only ever have one neighbor and the lot next to us is vacant for the foreseeable future).  Once I priced out the expense, the hubby was definitely against hiring someone to install the roman shades I so desired. 

Sooooo that left me with one option.....install them myself!  I would rate myself as above average in the "handiness" department.  I'm no Sgt. Rich, Steve + Erica or Thomas, but I can operate a drill and screwdriver well enough to install some shades....right?????

Turns out that the roman shades I purchased from Home Depot were very easy to install (about 10-15 minutes per window).  I chose the DesignView brand because they come in an array of colors and had lots of sizes in stock.  The only tools required to install were: (1) drill with 1/16th bit; (2) screwdriver; and (3) pencil (to mark holes for drilling).  All the other necessary hardware is included.

Take a look at my handy work...

Two rooms down :)

Dining Room

We've tackled another room...the dining room!  Here are some of the highlights (I apologize in advance for the poor picture quality.  My cord to transfer pics from my REAL camera is missing):

China cabinet from Ikea...

Lighting from Lowes...

Window coverings are still a work in process for most of the house.  I am experimenting with woven roman shades in the family room first...

Rug from Homegoods (love this store!)...

The dining room still needs a little decoration, art/wall hangings and maybe some large vases on the floor.  But for now, I'm calling this room mostly DONE!

One Room at a Time

Here is a LONG overdue picture of the finished dinette area.  The painters have finished the job and we are slowly but surely getting things unpacked.  My goal is to have the majority of the first floor finished by the end of the weekend.

HGTV Here I Come...

Not exactly...but the decorating phase of our journey to homeownership is officially in full swing.  The painters started today and I am anxiously waiting to see if my color choices look as good on our walls as they did on the swatches.  We are using the Sherwin Williams HGTV HOME Neutral Nuance collection.  I choose this line of paint for two reasons: (1) the paint is low VOC with little to no fumes (no need to flee our home while it is being painted); and (2) all of the colors in each collection go together, so it makes the selection process fool-proof (the jury is still out on this assertion).  Here is a sampling of the colors I selected:

Base Color for most of first floor, kitchen/dinette/family room, and all hallways: 
SW6150 Universal Khaki

Dining Room: 
Paint Color SW7048 Urbane Bronze - Sherwin-Williams below chair rail, SW7046 Anonymous above chair rail

Powder Room: 
SW6185 Escape Gray

Master Bedroom: 
SW7639 Ethereal Mood

Master Bath: 
SW6207 Retreat

Upstairs Bath: 
SW6136 Harmonic Tan

Kiddo's Room: 
SW6123 Baguette

I agonized over these color selections.  Who knew that picking colors could be sooooo difficult?  Pics of the finished rooms to follow...

A Few of My Favorite Things

When we packed up our little apartment in Philadelphia and headed to North Carolina, I had no idea what to expect when we entered our new home for the first time.  We had not seen the house in person since our predrywall meeting and I was naturally a little cautious about what the finished product would look like.  Well let me tell you, the HOUSE IS GORGEOUS!  All of the finishes look really nice together and the craftsmanship is AMAZING.  Shout out to our PM Abe for doing such a great job!!!

In the last week we have been busy unpacking, installing and generally trying to get things organized.  The painters are coming this week so I hope to get at least a few of the rooms completely done so that I can post some boxless pics.  In the meantime here are a few of my favorite things about our new home:

(1) Neighborhood:  One of the things that sold us on building with Ryan was this neighborhood.  The second you turn into the development it has a great feeling of southern hospitality.  Also, there are several builders in this community and all of the houses are very unique and custom looking.

(2) Space:  Ironically the James Joyce is one of the smaller floor plans we looked at.  We were actually interested in the Dorsey Hall and Canterbury, but would have had to pay an additional $23,000 lot premium to build a basement with those plans.  Needless to say we "settled" on the James and looking around today I now think I am CRAZY for ever asking "is this enough space?"  Our apartment in Philadelphia would fit into our basement!

(3) Details:  During the building process I really fixated on some things more than others.  I am pleasantly surprised by all of the little details that were not on paper but appear in the house.  For instance...

Crown mouldings and chair rail...

Arches...

Garage and Outdoor Lights...

(4) The Deck:  IT IS SPECTACULAR.  Even our neighbors have noticed and refer to our home as "the blue house with the great deck".  Again, shout out to our PM Abe as this was his brainchild.

(5) Kid Approved:  There is nothing like seeing the smile on my child's face as he runs around the house.  You can tell that he loves it, which is all that really matters :)

If you cannot tell by all of the capitalized words in this post; we are really pleased with everything.  After a thorough walk through, I have only found 3 minor cosmetic issues.  Hopefully within the next week we will be all unpacked and I can post additional pics of the decor coming together.

Happy Building!

Mirror, Mirror....

Now that we have survived the build and skated through closing, it's on to my favorite part about being the owner of a new home.....DECORATING!!!!  I have been busy purchasing furniture, lighting, fans and other goodies for the house and will reveal them as we put things together. 

I have been looking high and low for a solution to the "builder basic" bathroom mirrors that RH provides.  Browsing the Internet, I haven't found replacement mirrors that I love (for a reasonable price) and I hate the thought of getting rid of a perfectly good mirror.  I have stumbled across the perfect solution: MirrorMate!  This company sends you a custom cut mirror frame that sticks right on to the glass of your existing mirror.  The website boasts that it only takes 20 minutes and the prices are extremely reasonable.  I plan to order one for the master bathroom and 2nd bath upstairs.

Here are photos of my favorite options from the site.  I'll be sure to post a follow up once the kit arrives.  Happy decorating everyone!

5....4...3...2...1..........

Today is the day....CLOSING DAY!!!!!!!  It should be pretty uneventful since we are doing a "mail away closing".  All of the documents will be sent to us via FedEx and we just sign everything and mail it back to the closing agent in Charlotte.  We had a couple of good surprises...our closing costs ended up being much lower than estimated AND because we locked our interest rate at 3.75% our payments are more than manageable.  We did not finance through NVR, and coordinating the closing has been easier than I anticipated.  Our PM repaired all of the items we requested from the inspection and even had someone cut our grass since it is getting long! Hopefully all will go well and we will be in our home next week :)