Dinner for friends

Tonight we took dinner to some dear friends of ours. They are an amazing family that is going through a tough time right now. This father of five girls, and husband of an amazing woman was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer on our 2nd anniversary (December 10th). Please keep them in your prayers, and check out their blog to read their complete story at www.caringbridge.org/visit/stevecaswell. You will find that he is such an inspiration!!

House Update

Hello everyone!! I'm FINALLY back!! Once again, I was having computer issues so I wasn't able to blog. Very frustrating!! I thought I should give you a house update before I start blogging all of the fun stuff that has been happening. They have been working hard on the house, and we hope to move in sometime in January. They still have to lay the hardwood floors, put in kitchen countertops, install kitchen appliances, hang all of the lights, tile the master shower, put the hardware on all of the cabinets, install the closets, mirrors, plumbing fixtures, put in the landscaping and install the picket fence in the backyard. After all of that, we will have to go through a punchlist with the builder. That should be fun!! The cabinet maker wasn't happy that I wanted a bigger lazy susan, so I'm sure he will be really disgusted when I tell him a couple of other things that I don't like and want him to change!! The joys of building a custom home:) Make sure you are really in love with your spouse before you tackle this kind of project:)

The shutters look so good with the front door and the brick!!

I am so happy with the color of the stain on the front door.

These are the steps off the back deck, but they still have to put the finishing touches on them.
They have been working on getting the doors on the cabinets.
I am so in love with the old school kitchen farmhouse sink!!
Here's our double oven- we love you Pickens!!
The tile looks really good against the blue paint. It brings out the blue in the slate looking tile.

My bathroom counter
Our jacuzzi tub- they still have to do the tile tub surround.
I adore the subway tile in our guest bath.
This is the tile that we used in the guest bath and the laundry room.

House Update

I'm so sorry that I have been MIA for a few days. My computer has been down AGAIN!! Life has been hectic with trying to wrap up all decisions with the house. They have been painting, the drywallers have been fixing the nicks in the walls, they put the stone fireplace in and the cabinet guy has been trying to put all the final touches on the cabinet doors, trim, etc. The painters will be back in again next week to put the final coats of paint on and the tile man will be laying the tile in the master bath, guest bath and laundry room. We are getting so close I can almost taste it!! On another happy note, my parents are coming for a visit:) They are bringing me boxes of my stuff from their attic. Yuck!! More boxes, just what I need. I can't wait to see what I might find in there, though. Old cheerleading uniforms, Judy Blume books and love letters from my husband from elementary school days (we met at church camp and he used to write me letters) are some of the things that I suspect I will find. It should be fun going through all of the old memories!!

Our fireplace- I LOVE IT!!

The tile for our master bath floor, tub surround and shower
The lighting must have been bad in the kitchen because the walls are actually a softer terra cotta color than what this looks like.
The pantry/laundry room
My upstairs office- funny lighting again
The shutters
Our bedroom-lots of drywall touch ups

House Update

The painters are painting the inside of the house this week. The sidewalks and driveway have been poured. I am trying to make all of my final selections this week. As much as I love decorating, I want to be done with the decisions!!! I'm ready to move in!!!

The front sidewalks

A side view of the sidewalks
The driveway
I had to add my personal touch to our new sidewalk:)
A view from the front door
Another view of the dining room
I like the tan. I can't wait to see the stone on the fireplace.
This is hard to see, but it is one of the guest bedrooms. It is tan with a red border at the top.
We like to call this the green room...
The beadboard in the master bathroom. I can't wait to see the blue with it.

Friendship Friday- Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!! I dedicate my Friendship Friday to our group of friends who we always celebrate Thanksgiving with. We have been enjoying this tradition for five years now. We changed it up a bit this year because Mike had to work on Thanksgiving. We got together at Chad and Sara's house (since our house is full of boxes) on Wednesday night, and had some delicious food and company. This is a really special group of people, and we look forward to this gathering all year. We might not see each other all of the time, but when we get together it seems like no time has passed. That's when you know they're great friends!!

Mike and I

(I wasn't feeling well, and unfortunately I can see it on my face)

Chad and Sara carving the fried turkey
Luke and Clark
Susu and Daniel
Brandon, Melanie, Michelle and Adam
The girls
We have a tradition of gathering around before the prayer to take turns talking about what we are thankful for.
It was a really tough year for me and Mike, so this Thanksgiving was bittersweet. It was during this reflection time last year that we announced that we were pregnant and everyone was so surprised and excited for us. My brother had died the night before Thanksgiving, so I knew that we had some hard days ahead of us. When we got home from his funeral, we went to the doctor for our first appointment. We found out that the pregnancy wasn't viable, so I ended up in the hospital. Even though it was an extremely tough time in our lives, we knew that we had so much support from our friends and family. All of our hard times have made us stronger, and we appreciate what we do have in our lives that much more!! We look forward to what is in our future- a new home, a new job for me and hopefully expanding our family in the near future. Thank you to everyone for being there for us!! We LOVE our friends and family!!!
Luke has also been through a rough time. I know this was a hard time for him since his father just passed away, but we want you to know that we are always here for you!! We're so glad that you were able to be with him, and time will help heal you.
Finally sitting down for dinner!! It was very late, but it was worth the wait!!

House Update

The house is progressing right along. We are working on all our final selections, and hopefully will be done with decisions next week. Finally!! Building a custom house is a lot of work, and like a full time job. I have enjoyed it, though. They are pouring the concrete sidewalks and driveway today and finishing all of the trim work on the inside of the house. The painters will start painting inside on Monday. I'm just ready to be in there!!! Hopefully, we will move before Christmas.

They built the front steps this week.

They put the bronze roof on the bay window.
This is the trim work in the dining room. It will all be painted white.
Here's a view of the kitchen from the great room.
They even put crown moulding in our closet!! We weren't expecting that, and our builder wasn't too happy about that (they get paid by the piece of crown moulding so he felt like they were trying to run up the bill).
This is the bead board in our master bathroom.
Here are the reds that I have tried for the dining room. The winner is the one on the top left. It is a special color formulated by my Sherwin Williams store called Chicken Garnet. Apparently, a Carolina baseball player helped them come up with the perfect Gamecock color. I love it!!!
The great room and hallways are going to be tan. I have tried several, and still have not decided on one. I think I like one that is not in this picture. I will update my decision later.

Our kitchen is going to be the terra cotta on the left. It is a Pottery Barn color from Benjamin Moore called Audobon Russet.
Our master bedroom and bath is going to be a variation of the blue on the right. I have had them add some gray to this color to soften it a bit. It is called Blue Heron by Sherwin Williams. It is in their special Historic Charleston color set.
This green will be in one of the guest bedrooms. It is called Palm Leaf by Ralph Lauren. I'm going to pair this with black and white toile bedding. I saw something similar at The Parade of Homes, and it looks so good!!!
After so much searching for granite for the kitchen countertops, I finally found one that I liked. It is hard to see all the colors in this pic, but it has whites, tans, terra cottas, chocolate and black. I think it will look great with the white cabinets and terra cotta walls.