I just got back from my daily site visit and I am now sitting at my desk staring at my calendar and my facial expression is very similar to this familiar emoji.  

I don’t think Neil and I have ever completed a Parade Home early.   Every year we seem to be walking out doing last minute details the night before judging and this year looks to be the same.  The good news is during my site visit today everything seemed to be going right.  That makes for a good day.  However, since my last post, there have been some days I was about ready to pull my hair out.

The home has been completely transformed this past month and is really looking good.  So many details are coming together and the past few weeks have been extremely important in staying on schedule.  Building a custom home on such a tight schedule creates certain challenges.   I’ve had to make some adjustments and compromises along the way that I wouldn’t have to do under normal circumstances.

One example of a major adjustment and compromise is the Rec Room.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, Neil and I ended up extending the Rec Room from the original plan and it became a nice large space to work with.  So we designated the left side of the room to include a Wet Bar and eating area, leaving the rest of the space as an entertainment area. One way I wanted to separate the spaces was by adding a flooring that would work well in an “eating” area.  I also wanted the space as a whole to have some added character so my plan was to extend the flooring straight up the bar wall in order to create an accent wall.   In order to showcase the accent wall, I decided to delete the upper cabinets in that area and instead install floating shelves.  I was very excited about my idea.  After exploring several options I ended up choosing a “wood looking” laminate.  Here is a picture.

Unfortunately, when the flooring installer called me up and said they would not be able to install the laminate on the wall the way I requested because the cabinet, trim and sloped wall were going to make it too difficult.  (I hate when I get those type of phone calls.)   So I had to go back to the drawing board, literally.  I worked up a new sketch. Instead of running the laminate boards horizontally on the entire wall, I decided to treat it more like a backsplash and turn in vertical and simply stop it at the end of the countertop like we would any backsplash.  At the time, Bryant had not made my floating shelves yet, so I had him change the top shelf to straight across the top so we could kill the laminate into the bottom of that shelf.  Then, adding two additional, smaller floating shelves with accent lights.  This was my new drawing:

Here’s how it’s actually shaping up:

I love it!  And I really appreciate Special Effects, Bryant Herring, and Parnell Electric for all working with me and my “out of the box” thinking.  It took a team effort but I think the results worked out great.  Can’t wait to see it completely finished.

Although I have other stories such as this I could share, I promised you last week we would take a look at one of my favorite spaces within the home. . .  The Master Bathroom.  I really enjoyed working on this room in the planning stages. However, implementing the plan was much more challenging.   Thankfully, we are almost done, and it’s already looking as beautiful as I imagined it.  Let’s take a closer look.

Let’s start with layout of the space itself.  

As you are walking from the Master Bedroom into the Master Bath, you open up double doors looking straight at this grand free standing tub flanked by two beautiful arched windows.  As I think about the design of the space, it starts with the double doors.  So I special ordered gorgeous crystal knobs on the double doors because I want you to feel how special this room is before you even walk through the doors.  (P.S. If you come by to see the home, be sure to tell Neil how beautiful the door knobs are because he still hasn’t seen how much they cost yet  )  As you walk in,  we ran the large 12×24 tile in a herringbone pattern drawing your eye toward the tub.  I wanted the two vanities to look like furniture pieces and added the wainscoting behind the tub.  The accent is a beautiful blend of metallic glass that runs from one side of the room to the other, tying the whole room together.  The plumbing fixtures and light fixtures are like the jewelry that complements the outfit.

Here was my concept on paper:

In this situation, it was much easier coming up with the plan than it was implementing the plan.  It took a lot of different subcontractors coming in and out one at a time for it all to piece together.  It was not easy and I greatly appreciate everyone’s patience.

One last piece to the puzzle was the mirrors.  I had originally wanted to purchase decorative mirror for the vanities but quickly realized it was going to be next to impossible to find two mirrors that look the same but different sizes since the two vanities are different sizes.  So instead, we framed out the mirrors like we do the windows and had custom mirrors cut.  The mirror framing killed into the top trim piece that finished off the 4″ accent.  It turned out great, but again, to actually implement that plan took extra effort and skill that I thankfully relied greatly on Jeff and Ayscue’s Trimwork.

Here’s how it’s shaping up:

Looking at these pics you can easily tell there is still ALOT to do!  And as I am typing this, the hours are ticking by and my face is starting to look more like this:

As of today, I’ve pretty much done all I can do at this point.  Now, I patiently (well I try to be patient) wait and hope everyone shows up and the weather cooperates with final preparations.  I’ll let you know next week if we actually made it in time for judging. Meanwhile, be sure to mark your calendars to come see this home in person April 22-23, 29-30, & May 6-7 from 12pm-5pm.  Hope to see you there.