We Have a Lawn..and some Trees too!

So, Brian and I were told to meet the landscaping folks between 8:30-9 AM if we wanted to have input on where our trees were placed. My main concern was that I didn't want trees planted directly in front of our front door, like many of the other homes. Upon arriving at the house at 9 AM, we noticed that several of our trees were already in place, and not exactly where we wanted them. According to Brian, I jumped out of our car before it was fully parked and dashed across the mud to start speaking with the landscapers.

I spent the next half hour or so showing the landscapers where I wanted 2 of the trees they had already planted moved to, and dragged a 4 foot long wooden post through the mud to outline the shape of the landscaping plan that we wanted.

I placed each of the shrubs and trees where we wanted them, and then the sodding began.

Here's a photo of our front lawn and landscaping after it was mulched and the sod laid.

Here's another photo of the front landscaping. We have some holly bushes, azaleas, some spider plants, some crawling junipers, some flowering plants, and a flowering tree.

Here's another close-up.

Brian wanted me to capture the view from the walking path. I'll need to put another azalea to the left of the walk way.

You can see the planting around our lamp post here.

Here's a more detailed photo of the flowering tree on our front lawn.

We have a backyard now too! It seems much larger now that the sod has been put in. We have 6 trees along the perimeter of our backyard. Look how tiny Brian looks in our big backyard!

Here's another view of some of the trees in our backyard. Looks like Brian will have to get the lawn mower out soon!

You can see the back of our home with the sod and the deck in this photo.

Last, is a photo of the left side of our house. We have 2 trees on each side of our house.

Two Weeks Until Settlement!

Well, we're less than 2 weeks from settlement, and the house is nearly ready. As you can see, our floodlights have been installed, and our Georgetown green door is in place.
In our foyer, we now have a chandelier.

Our study (a.k.a. the home office) is complete with Saddle hardwood floors and French doors. Brian is very excited that I will have a place to hibernate and do work instead of waking him up typing on my laptop!

In our living room, the hardwood floors are nearly finished and our columns have been installed.

Our dining room is almost finished too. We're just waiting for some of the shadow boxing to be completed since a few of the outlets were moved.

Above is a photo of our nearly finished kitchen. Brian can't wait to make use of all of the cabinet space and prep space. He tells me that he's already making a list of cookbooks he wants for Christmas! We have Maple Spice cabinets with tan brown granite tops. We're not crazy about the handles on the cabinetry, so we will probably swap those out for something a bit more modern.


Upstairs in our master bedroom, the painting is complete and we have plush carpeting.


Brian's bathroom is also looking pretty snazzy. You can see the slate gray tiles and marble listello tile trim. We really like this much better than the Nascar-style checkerboard trim that comes with the gray tile. Our separate vanities have also been installed. No more tripping over each other in the bathroom to use the medicine cabinet or the mirror!

Less than 1 Month Until We Move!!!

We've been remiss in updating the blog over the past 3 weeks, but we're now about 3.5 weeks from move-in! As you can see, we now have a paved driveway, steps and a walkway, a mailbox, and exterior lights.

This is a detailed shot of our exterior lights in the front of the house. Our address has also been affixed to the front of the house.

We also have exterior lights on the back of the house.

Inside, there's been significant progress. Our drywall is complete, and some painting has been done. Here's our family room, with our remote controlled gas fireplace, mantle, and recessed lights.


This is a close-up of our fireplace and mantle. We have black granite surrounding our fireplace.

Our kitchen is also coming along too. Our Maple Spice Tahoe cabinets have been installed. along with our island.

You can see our custom wine rack below, where we'll be stocking our favorite varietals:-)

In our dining room, progress has also been made. Our drywall is complete, along with our tray ceiling and shadow boxing. It looks like a few of the outlets were moved after the shadow boxing was installed and needs to be repaired. Other than that, the light fixture has also been installed. We also have a bay window on the right side of the room.

See below for a detailed photo of our dining room lighting fixture.


You can see where our dining room is compared with our living room at the front of our house. This photo was snapped standing in our living room.

Our living room is spacious and filled with afternoon light. We also have 2 Roman columns, a bay window, and 2 windows in the front of the house.


Here's another view of the living room, especially the bay window.

Our banister has also been installed. We have white and wood railings on our waterfall staircase.

Our deck is also complete! Time for grilling and chilling on our new Trex deck. We love the location, which leaves plenty of light for our basement.

We also have a mailbox! I guess the bills will start rolling in now...

Last is a parting photo of our neighbor's house to the left of ours. They are building a Wynterhall model home. It doesn't look like their construction is too far behind ours.

Less than 60 Days Until Settlement...

Another beautiful Saturday in Virginia, and we're now less than 60 days until our settlement. It was blazing hot today, but we took a few snapshots of the house (you can see the front with the garage door down for the first time) below:

Our circuit breaker is in the works just inside of our garage door and some of the insulation has been put in.

You can see some of the insulation in our garage here:

In addition to the garage, we saw that our family room has begun to be insulated, and the frames for the recessed lights that we added are in.

This is what the frames for the recessed lights look like:

In our soon-to-be kitchen where Chef Brian will cook some tasty cuisine, we noticed that the vent has been moved over top of where our stove will be.

Upstairs, more insulation has been put in. Here's a photo of the master bedroom. You can also see the framing for the tray ceiling we'll have.

Next week the drywall will begin. We'll keep you posted once we have some walls. Until then, go team USA soccer:-)

Shutter Time

A few days later, and we now have shutters! Our black shutters have been put up ahead of schedule, and it looks like things are moving along.

In addition to the shutters, the copper roofing has been put on our side bay windows

The builders have also started on our siding too. We have a light beige colored siding, which you can see in progress here:

Here's another angle of the progress until this Saturday when we'll head out to Aldie to watch the World Cup US vs. UK game!