October is finally here!

Our house is currently in lock down so they can finish the hardwood floors - we are not allowed in it again until Wednesday. I can't wait to see how it looks when we're finally allowed back in. So much has happened at the house recently - we are finally able to see some of the finishes being put in - floors, tile, cabinets, countertops, trim, etc. It's been a lot of fun to see it actually come together.

Front (obviously...) the columns and the railing will be white when we're finished. This week they are pouring the concrete steps and sidewalk. And at some point very soon they'll do the driveway too. They need to get it in before it gets too cold or it won't set up correctly - I think it's a bit of a guessing game for them.

East side of the house. I think this picture was taken on Friday - since then they've finished this side, the sunroom and most of the rest of the house as well. It's been raining so much here that they are a bit behind on this aspect but they work whenever it's dry. They were at the house most of the day on Sunday working on the siding.

Foyer - instead of a closet we chose a bench w/ hooks above it. Nice and casual but still functional. Plus we have a closet in the mud room so there'll be plenty of room. And this isn't our real front door - at some point they will replace this white one with a lovely wood-like one. I can't remember the name of it but once they stain it it really looks fantastic.

Family room - the orange wall in the stairwell really looks red in these pictures and all of the taupe walls look kind of brown. I don't know how to explain it but it looks different and much better in person.

Entering the house - they installed the tile around the fireplace on Sunday morning. I was so surprised to see it when we stopped by after picking H&E up from their sleepover.

Kitchen - we were at the house this morning to work on picking stain colors for the hardwood floors and the cabinets. We ended up going w/ the natural oak floors instead of staining them. We're still working on the cabinets but I think we're pretty close - we'd better be b/c they are staining them on Wednesday.

Kitchen - here's a pretty good look at the countertop. I love how it turned out!

A little closer look at the tile on the fireplace. It looks really blue in this picture but not so much in person.

Sunroom - this room is getting hardwood floors too but for some reason they didn't install them at the same time as the rest of the house. Seems like there were a few miscommunications with the hardwoods - like they didn't put them in the sunroom and they actually installed the wrong kind of wood (red oak was installed but we ordered white oak). Not a big deal since the red oak floors are just as gorgeous as the white - definitely not something we'd want them to correct b/c it wouldn't make that much of a difference and it would put us behind schedule. It's just one of those things.

Eli's "brown" room. The boys got to pick their own colors. Eli originally wanted red and only red would do - that was until I found some totally awesome pirate bedding then he changed the color to brown b/c pirate ships can only be brown. Obviously his room is more tan than brown but he's happy with it so that's all that matters.

And Henry chose yellow - after he chose orange and then pink and then blue. This isn't exactly the yellow be picked but again, he's happy with it so we're all set. He's getting a basketball quilt and rug so he's excited about that.

Backyard - we were able to get the sprinkler system and grass seed in this fall for the backyard and the sides of the house. The seed is covered with curlex, which looks like a burlap sack kind of blanket over the whole yard. The grass will grown through it and then it was dissolve at some point. The front yard will have to wait until next spring b/c unfortunately it's gotten too cold too quickly here. That's fine though.

23 days and counting...