5/11/11 Better late than never...

OK already, so this update is really overdue!  Things have been happening fast and furiously at the Dublin house.  I took a ten day "leave of absence" in late March to visit Denver and Phoenix, checking up on my brother, sister-in-law and sister, respectively.  Enjoyed a little R 'n R along the way with a family cookout at my niece's newly-remodeled house.  It was a good mental break from the Dublin house that refreshed me for the push to the finish.  Once I got back, things just started happening every day...make this decision, choose this, choose that, get colors lined up for paint, pick the floor. Oh, the floor - what a whooping decision that was!  I probably took more than two dozen samples to the house and agonized over each one.  Once a few other choices were made, the floor became easier.  But if someone had told me 6 months ago that the living area of the house would be beige and gray - well, I would have laughed at them!  It kind of started with the great room paint color - called Yosemite Sand. ( I could write an entire blog about paint color names, but that's another story.)  Anyway, I prefer to call it "khaki."   There's a lighter version of it on the ceiling and a darker version in the study.  We did the room's longest wall (which supports the fireplace) in 8-inch tongue and groove planks. Now, what to do with the fireplace?  The kitchen cabinets are hickory with a chocolate glaze (which tones down the high contrast of the shades within the hickory) and we decided on mostly black granite countertops.  Officially the granite is called Uba-Tuba - now what's with that name for a color?  We went with gray stacked stone on the fireplace, so it just seemed right to go with gray slate-looking flooring in the kitchen, breakfast room, sunroom and mud room.  I got my wish for the high-end cushioned vinyl which is, by the way,  easy to clean and pet perfect.  What's not to like about that!?  We opted for carpeting everywhere else in the house (well, except for the bathrooms!) and choose a beige/gray (would that be "greige"?) frieze that will do well in hiding the Georgia clay dirt.  While all this is going on and the decisions are being made, I am second-guessing how well everything will go together. It's harder than you think to pick out bits and pieces of the "big picture" - especially when the big picture isn't incredibly clear.  I worried everyday...

The front porch came together when the columns were put in.  OMG - what a huge differences to the appearance. Much more substantive...the four columns are one-third brick (on the bottom) and two-thirds square tapered white fiberglass.  Love it!  Meanwhile, the garage doors have gone up and the place is  beginning to really look like a house.  The shop is finally finished, bathroom completed, painted, floored, and equipped with a fridge.  We brought in the pinball machine and the room is a huge success.  Jacely loves the pinball (but she calls it gumball!) and stretches her arms across the glass to reach the "flippers."  She managed to put it out of commission the first day!  But it was soon up and running again and the shop's room is officially  the new hang out.  Tommy's got the TV hooked up and dialed in to the Western channel. Thinking about calling it the "roadhouse" - what do ya think?

Rather than make this a marathon post, I'm going to stop here and add a few pictures.  I'll resume the narrative tomorrow.  That is, if the computer holds together...it's been acting funny lately.