Before you dive into this house update, you’ll want to make sure you haven’t missed any of the others!

Drees Homes Update: Late August

Drees Homes Update: Early August

Drees Homes Update: July

Drees Homes Update: May & June

Drees Homes Update: Drees Design Center

Our big, exciting news!

Third Week of August — Granite Selection and Tiling

One of the things that I love about working with Drees Homes is that they’re all about the details. So when we made our design choices in March, and I wasn’t feeling 100% about the granite that we selected, I was assured that we would have the opportunity to choose our specific granite slab before it went into the house… and I did!

On the morning of August 21st, I drove over to the warehouse before work and had a chance to check out large slabs of all of the different granites that they had to choose from.

The woman at the warehouse was even nice enough to grab a cabinet sample, so I could see how the granite would work with the color of our cabinets.

When we first chose the granite, I was nervous about the weird purple splotches that seemed to dominate, but as you can see in this picture, they appear to be little dark areas in our slab, and I can live with that! A few days after choosing the kitchen slab, I headed over to the house after work and was amazed to find brick as far as the eye could see!

As you can see, the sides and the back of the house will have a brick wrap around the entire main level…

…but the front is completely bricked on both levels! (Or will be. They hadn’t quite finished yet.)

When I stopped admiring the brick and finally walked into the house, I immediately noticed two things: 1) We had stair railings! They’ve been stained to match the color of the hardwoods that will be installed on the first level.

And 2) They appeared to be finished with tiling since our fireplace had its tile surround. I’m still not sure how I feel about this tile; it appeared much more colorful when we were in the design center, but I suppose you can’t go wrong with neutral, so I really shouldn’t complain.

I apologize for the terrible quality photo, but it really is difficult to get good pictures of bathrooms with no windows. Neither of us are too excited about the tile that they used in the hall bathroom, but once again, it’s neutral, and we’ll just have to cover dress it up with a nice shower curtain.

We are, however, in love with the tile that we upgraded to in the bathroom. I’m sure I’ve shared it about a million times already, but this marble look completely covers the shower walls, floor, and tub façade in our master bathroom, and it was worth every penny. Plus the grout brings it all together, and they even laid it all so the veins run at the same angle, which really makes all the difference (and would’ve driven me up the wall otherwise).

Fourth Week of August — Countertops and Lighting

Alright, before I show you how the house looked during the last week of August, I must warn you that woohoo, the lighting was up throughout the house, but ugh, we kept the standard, no upgrade necessary, very boring and at times just bad light fixtures that came with the house. In fact, the only ones that I probably won’t be changing ASAP are…

…the exterior lights. Thank God! For instance, I’m actually a huge fan of these carriage lights flanking our garage door. There’s a light on the back of the house that may need to be replaced, but the lights over our front porch are also A-Okay. We’re going to go inside now, but you have been warned.

Like this monstrosity in the dining room! What is that? Why wouldn’t you just not put up anything at all? How much money can I get for this light fixture? Basically it will have to go because 1) I think you get the point, and 2) I have great ideas for adding a little character to this room, and one of them has to do with the ceiling.

Does anyone else have a husband who hates the word “character?” I feel like my new obsession with Fixer Upper, in which they use it a million times per episode, probably doesn’t help matters. His inability to recognize, quantify, and evaluate an abstract quality like character might also have something to do with it. Engineers, am I right?

Look at our beautiful little kitchen! Once again, you know that the pendant lights will have to go. I do love that they’re right over the island though. (And sorry for the can lights, Mom. I know you’ll hate them!)

One other exciting addition were our new countertops! They were already installed, which absolutely blew my mind, and looked pretty awesome. Plus I’m dying to get to use this sink because it actually looks like it could hold a week’s worth of dishes. Not that I ever let that many dishes pile up in our sink…

Oh hey! Now that the lights had been installed downstairs, you can actually get an idea of the layout of our basement. I’m standing right in the doorway of the unfinished storage space, but just imagine a pool table a little over from where the giant dark-colored square is, and you know everything you really need to about what the finished space will look like.

More ugly lights in the bathroom. Oh well, that’s life. (Look how awesome the tile looks around the tub, right?! Okay, I’ll stop now.)

And finally, they had also put in our super fancy thermostat. It’s technically more than just a thermostat, and after our Homeowner’s Orientation session yesterday morning, I feel like I semi-understand how it all works. I’m actually thrilled at the idea of being more energy conscious since Drees builds their homes with energy efficiency (and lower utility bills!) in mind.

We close on our house next week! Isn’t that crazy? In just a little under four months, it has gone from hole in the ground to beautiful home. My plan is to post an “Early September” update on the house in the next few weeks, and then give you all a tour once we’re moved in. It will be huge house + no furniture, but that’s what happens when you buy a house at 23!

Leave any questions about Drees Homes, our building process, this stressful financial process, etc. in the comments!

I’ve had this post on my editorial calendar for a while now. Little did I know it would be particularly fitting since we are all finished with framing and have our pre-drywall meeting with the builder today!

But before I jump the gun, make sure you take a peek at my Drees Homes update from May and June. In case you don’t remember, our “house” looked a little something like this:

First Week of July — Framing

So you can imagine our surprise when we brought my friend Jacqueline by the house when she was in town for the Fourth of July weekend and turned onto the street to this:

She was nice enough to take a picture for us. Our first photo with the house! (And no, I don’t know what Spencer is doing to my hair in this picture.)

Once we were finished ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the exterior, we decided to venture inside, and since the front porch still isn’t functional, we went through the garage.

It’s a little crazy finally standing in a house that you’ve put so much thought, effort, and love (plus a bit of money) into. It also made me incredibly nervous to be in a house that was being held up by wooden boards attached to the floor because 1) I’ve seen how easy demos go on HGTV, and 2) I’m way too clumsy for my own good.

Luckily I didn’t knock over any of the boards holding up our living room. In the picture above, you can even see the beginnings of the framing for our fireplace, which is going to go in that corner.

Here you can see the framing for our bay window, which was an addition that I’m so glad we made. The center section will actually be a glass sliding door that will go out to our deck, and it will have windows on either side. This area will be the “eat in” portion of our kitchen; the whole living room/kitchen area is open, and all the windows will make it bright and gorgeous.

I know I didn’t do a very good job of making these photos flow from one area of the house to the other. I was obviously enraptured by the framing for all of the windows like this huge one on the front of the house, which is at the far end of our formal dining room.

Then we made it upstairs and had a very serious conversation about keeping the house roofless and open. Guess who lost that debate…

Our stairs come up from the living room and open up to the “game room,” so everything is nice and (let me say it again) open. Plus we have prime creeping views of our neighbors!

Here’s the actual “game room” itself. I love the windows and how tall the ceiling is. Also, I thought we were using the term “game room” jokingly, but now we’re having pre-wiring for speakers done and determining where the Xbox will go, so I suppose the joke’s on me. 🙂

This is what I like to call Spencer’s “why can’t I touch both walls of our closet?” face. He’s unsure about the massive bedroom-sized closet. I don’t have quite the same hesitations.

And this is our bedroom. In that little nook with the windows is where I will read many a book in a very comfy chair. I’ve yet to find the right one, but it’ll happen soon enough.

Second Week of July — Framing

When we went back the next week to check out the progress, we had the makings of a roof!

Actually they were still shingling (on a Sunday afternoon!), so we didn’t get a chance to see any of the inside. But as you can see, our windows had been installed around the entire house and the concrete was poured in the garage. We also had that really attractive Tyvek wrap completed around the outside.

Third Week of July — Framing and Rough Mechanics

We were out of town over the weekend, so I made the trek out to the house on Monday night to grab some photos before our pre-drywall meeting today. I want to go ahead and apologize now for the lighting because twilight is probably the worst time to take pictures inside a house with no lighting.

With the huge dumpster out of the front yard, I kind of did a double take. Our lot seems absolutely huge! Otherwise, there wasn’t too much of a difference to the exterior, except that our front door had been installed. It’s all white right now, but once the house is completed, the door will match our shutters and the windows framing it will be painted the same color as all of the trim.

Here is the “little” storage area attached to our garage. We could have made it into a study or extra bedroom, so I suppose I should have realized how massive it would end up being. It’ll be a great space for trash cans, a lawn mower, and maybe even a workbench-away-from-home for my dad when he comes to build all of my furniture and custom built-ins/window seats. 🙂

Walking in through the garage, you pass the pantry, the main floor half bath, and a coat closet. At this point, there’s nothing too interesting about them, but I’ll get some pictures once the drywall starts to go in. Then you’re in the kitchen where they have finally put in our windows and sliding door.

I probably should’ve included a few photos of the kitchen because they’d starting putting in the electrical outlets and the rough ins for the sink and oven. Instead, I thought the fireplace would be a much cooler thing to see. I’m still not totally sold on the whole gas fireplace thing, but I can’t deny that it will be easier to deal with in the winter. Plus Zoey loves getting all sooty in our current wood-burning fireplace, and sooty Zoey plus brand new carpets doesn’t seem like something I want to deal with.

The lighting wasn’t fantastic, but I wanted to get a picture taken from our front door. The study (aka my library) will be on the left with the formal dining room on the right. As you walk into the living area, the stairs going down to the basement are there on the left, and the kitchen begins across from it on the right.

Venturing up the stairs, the game room is located to the left with two of the bedrooms on the right side of the hallway. Spencer and I had the option of enlarging the living room and game room above by bringing it out a few feet, but we saw a model home with the extended space and thought it was just too much. Well even without the extension, this room is huge. I’m still working out home we’re going to configure it, but we have so much more space to work with than I realized.

When you walk past the game room, there’s a linen closet and full bath to the left as well as the third bedroom. The bedrooms are all about the same size, and they each come with a smaller-than-ours-but-definitely-still-walk-in closet. Across from the third bedroom is our laundry room (woohoo for second floor laundry!), and then at the end of the hallway is the door into our master bedroom/closet/bathroom.

This space wasn’t too different from the week beforehand, but as you can see, they had installed our bathtub and the rough in for plumbing. The bed will be centered between this window and the one in our “nook” (aka my reading sanctuary), so this will be Spencer’s window.

It isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but here is the showed pan in the master bathroom. There will be a linen closet to the left of it and a WC to the right.

And that’s about all I have to share with you today. It was impossible to get any good photos of the basement, but that’ll be my goal for the next home update post.

I’ll leave you with the exterior on the back of the house. The sliding door in our bay window will go to a deck, which we’re having Drees Homes install for us. It wasn’t until this visit out to our house that I realized just how funny it’s going to look to have a deck out there. Oh well, at least I won’t worry about anyone falling off the shortest deck ever built and killing themselves.

Once we have our pre-drywall meeting, there will be lots of insulation, drywall, and bricking in our future, so be sure to check back here for more updates!