Inspiration Board - Laundry Room

I don't have an inspiration picture for my laundry room like I did for the kitchen. I know that I want it to be mostly white. I love the idea of an all white laundry room, I just think it is going to be so clean, bright, and fresh.

Here is the layout of my laundry room:

I love the two big windows in the laundry room. I think the laundry room actually has some of the best views in the house. Not that you need good views in your laundry room, but it is what is. I also love the clothes hanging station (basically an open closet). I hang dry most of my clothes and I am so excited to have a good place to do so.  In our old house we had a closet in the laundry room but it was full of other crap and it just didn't function properly.

I am really liking how our laundry room is coming together so far. Maybe this will motivate me to do more laundry? Probably not. Let's be honest here. Anyways, here is what we have picked out for the laundry room:

1. Even though I want a mostly white laundry room I love this light aqua frosted glass tile for the backsplash. I think it still looks clean and bright while adding a little pop of color without it being too much.

2. I am loving Electrolux appliances for the laundry room too. I can't decide if I should do silver or white though, I am leaning towards white right now.

3. The tap we chose is Torq by Kohler. I seriously love this tap too much. So far it is my favourite thing that we have picked out for the house. I don't know what it is about this tab, because, well, it's just a tap. But it is perfect for my laundry room.

4. we are doing tile floors in the laundry room. We have chosen Daltile Fabrique Creme Linen. We are actually using various colors of the Daltile Linen line throughout the house so be prepared to see more of it!

5. For the countertops we are using Silestone Blanco Maple. It's white with grey specks in it. We are using the same alabaster cabinets that are going in the kitchen, in the laundry room.

Do you have a dream laundry room?

What color do you think I should pick for the washer and dryer? White or silver?

 (This question is intense isn't it? ha.)

Thanks for reading! 

Insulation Part I and Some Plumbing Stuff

Okay so the first part of the drywall is completed and so is the first part of the insulation. We had a delay with the insulation because of the weather though. Shocking isn't it? We are doing spray foam insulation, which can only be installed above -10* C. Of course the one week we want to insulate is the one week of the month that it was below -10. So we lost a week due to the weather, again. We must have hired the right insulator though, because he showed up on a Sunday to make up for lost time. How often does that happen?

Just a little bit about spray foam insulation for anyone who isn't familiar. I honestly don't know a whole lot but I'll share what I do know. It is sprayed on where you would put a more traditional fibreglass insulation (the pink stuff). The pros to spray foam insulation is that it doesn't deteriorate like fibreglass insulation so you never lose your R value (the amount or measurement that your house is insulated). It doesn't require a vapour barrier ( a plastic that is installed on the inside of walls to help with moisture control), so it is a quicker and more seamless system and install. In theory, there should be less places where moisture can get in so there should be less of a risk of mould.  The cons of spray foam insulation is that it is more expensive than a fibreglass insulation (but you don't have to pay for vapour barrier). Another con is that you need to hire a reputable, licensed installer for spray foam. This could also be adding additional costs to your budget because you could install fibreglass insulation and vapour barrier yourself.

The husband and I decided to go with spray foam because you never lose your R-value so your house should run as efficient in 20 years as it did on day 1. Obviously this also depends on maintaining your HVAC system and doing regular house maintenance but you should never have to take down your drywall and replace your insulation.  When you Live in Northern Alberta keeping warm is important!

According to our schedule we were supposed to have our plumbing rough-in done, but it's not. This is another delay because of the weather. The plumber was supposed to come sometime between Wednesday and Friday last week but his schedule was delayed due to the cold weather so he is now supposed to come sometime between Wednesday and Friday of this week. So there is another week we lost because of the weather. Grrr. Hopefully I have a Plumbing RI update in a week or less!

Drywall - Part I

Because we live in the sub arctic and are building our house over the winter we have had to change things up a bit. Normally, when building a house, you would finish your framing, complete all of your rough ins (electrical, mechanical, plumbing), insulate and then drywall. Now in order to get our plumbing RI (rough-in) completed we need to run lines under the ground.

Sounds simple right?

Well the ground is frozen right now, which is why we are drywalling and insulating in two separate phases. If we drywall and insulate the ceiling first we can then heat the house (we could heat the house without insulating the ceiling first it just wouldn't be very cost effective) which will thaw the ground so that we can get our plumbing RI done. We will finish insulating and drywalling the rest of the house once all the RIs are done.

That sounds like a lot of work just to do some plumbing.

To be honest it kind of is. It has set our schedule back by probably a couple of weeks and if we would have planned this out a little bit better we probably could have avoided the delay. You live and learn right? I would say that we will know better for next time, but we won't be doing this again. If we ever build another house it will be because we won the lotto and we can hire someone else to build it for us.

Also, we have stairs! Looky looky:

Inspiration Board - Kitchen

I found this picture in an old issue of Signature Kitchens and Baths magazine:

It was love at first sight. I wanted this kitchen. I needed this kitchen. So we incorporated this layout into our house plans. The layout turned out a bit different on our plans but I think our interpretation of it is even better than the original. For comparison purposes, here is our kitchen floor plan: 

You can see some similarities but I think we simplified things a bit. We also rotated the island so that there wasn't so much wasted floor space. 

I don't really like the finishes (other than the mix of light and dark cabinets, that I love) in my magazine dream kitchen though, so we picked these instead:

1. We are getting cabinets through Kitchen Craft. We chose the Newhaven door style, with Alabaster and Weathered Slate finishes.

2. We wanted a solid surface countertop but we don't like the look of granite or the maintenance so we are going with Silestone Quartz countertops in Alpina White.

3. We were originally going to go with a skinny multicolor glass tile, but decided that it would date our kitchen before it's time so we are going to go with a matte white subway tile with a grey grout. The picture shown here is a glossy tile and the grout is a bit dark but that's basically the look we are thinking of going with.

4. We wanted a more modern kitchen faucet and went with Purist by Kohler.

5. I love Electrolux appliances but they are at the top end of our budget. By the time we get to the point where we are purchasing appliances I might have to select something else but for now I love love love these ones.

6. Our kitchen has a pretty neutral color palette. We didn't want anything permanent to have a lot of color in case we get sick of it so we are going to add in a splash of color with accent walls. I know some people don't like accent walls but I do. They are a quick and easy way to give your house a little bit of personality. These are the paint colors that will be visible from the kitchen.

7. We don't like the idea of carpet. I hate that dirt gets trapped in the fibres of your carpet but you can't see and it you can never get it out. You don't know what's living in your carpet! That's gross. So we are going with a laminate flooring. We chose Armstrong White Wash Campfire. It is a dark finish floor with a white wash on it. We think it is a good way to tie in neutral browns and neutral greys. It will also tie together our light and dark kitchen cabinets.

So that's our plan for the kitchen. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

Paint by Numbers

There is a slim chance that we might be starting drywalling later this week. What does that mean? That we can start picking out paint colors! Although, let's be honest here, I have been thinking about paint colors since before we even started construction. They haven't really changed too much since we first started thinking about paint. We have a good idea about all of the main areas, like the main floor and the family room. The rest of the rooms might vary by accent color but we would like to keep a general trend throughout the house. We are thinking about a palette similar to this one:

Paint Samples

Where We Are Now

It's official. I am a horrible blogger. I really need to update more often.

Shortly before Christmas we finished framing our house. We have a few odds and ends to finish up before we can go for the framing inspection. Then it will be officially locked up and we can move on to rough-ins.
I am thinking that around the beginning of February we will be at drywall. I am so flippin' excited to be done drywalling (yes, i know we haven't even started yet) then we can start working on the interior finishes and we will start to see some crazy progress.

Not a whole lot has gotten done since Christmas. We took a couple of weeks and stayed with my parents to get out of the camper and to take a break from all things house. It was a nice break but we haven't made a lot of progress since we got back. We have been trying to catch up with our regular work, getting things picked out, ordered and finalized for the next stages in building, and just generally catching up with the day to day things that we just didn't have time to do while we were rushing to get our house closed up.

This week we were all ready to finish up our to do and set up the inspection. Mother Nature had other ideas though. We are having a cold streak this week. We have been having lows of -35 all week (actual temp. not counting the wind chill). We haven't felt like braving the cold (we aren't that crazy) so we are taking this week off. Temperatures are expected to increase on Sunday so we'll be back at it soon.

View from the driveway

What You Don't Want to Know About Building a House

I have stopped posting construction updates. I have the best intentions to go out everyday and take some new photos but yet I don't. I would love to post the updates so that you can see that our living room is done, the garage is done, we are done with ALL of the floor trusses. We are so close to putting the roof on. But yet I have no desire to take those pictures.

We started this project 4 months ago. In those 4 long months we have gotten so much accomplished but it just never seems to be enough. There is always more to do tomorrow or you don't get done what you thought you were going to get done that day because it decided to blizzard or the truss supplier made your floor trusses a foot too long.  There is always something. You can try to prepare yourself for this adventure and tell yourself that there are going to be delays, that there are going to be frustrating days, that it is going to take longer than you think it will, but it is just not possible. It is not possible to truly understand what this is like. Even if you are carpenter by trade, until you throw your heart and soul into building a house that will become your home you will never truly know what lies ahead.

We are about two weeks away from having the framing complete. The house will be closed up. This will be a celebratory day for us. The bulk of our work is over. However, a new chapter in the construction process is just beginning. In a way I feel like we are going to be starting all over again. We are done with the outside, the shell, of our home but we are just beginning on the inside. The outside brought challenges that we never thought we'd face just as I am sure the inside will. The work will no longer be up to us. We will need to depend on trades and their schedules. That in and of itself will be a new challenge for us. In some ways it will be a relief because our daily lives will return and will have some resemblance to what they were before we started this. In others it will be frustrating to lose what little control we have right now. Even though we seem to be so far away from the end I try to remind myself that everyday we are one step closer to the end of this journey.

When you put your own blood, sweat, and tears into something you gain this amazing appreciation for it. A certain respect for it. This is how we want to feel about our home. That is why we are putting ourselves through this process. In the end I have no doubt that it will be all worth it. It will be an amazing life adventure that we will be glad that we went through. Until then, I am so unbelievably overwhelmed.

Maybe tomorrow I will take those photos.